Over the course of over six decades, Honest Ed's became a Toronto Landmark. The neighbourhood it left behind when it closed its doors in 2016 reflects on its history and legacy.
Social & External
A vibrant kaleidoscopic tribute to the guitar that meshes dance, mime, visual art, and virtuoso performances to create a spectacular yet intimate celebration of the instrument. For one exciting week the city of Toronto plays host to the International Guitar Festival. The streets echo with the sounds of the instrument as the great masters from every tradition gather to play for each other -- John Williams from England, Leo Brouwer from Cuba (classical), Turibio Santos from Brazil (folk), Vladimir Mikulka from Czechoslovakia (avant-garde), Rik Emmett and Kim Mitchell from Canada, Steve Morse from the USA (rock).
Toronto filmmaker Charles Officer profiles the young people of Villaways Park, a housing project on brink of historic change.
The Fall of the I-Hotel brings to life the battle for housing in San Francisco. The brutal eviction of the International Hotel's tenants culminated a decade of spirited resistance to the razing of Manilatown. The Fall of the I-Hotel works on several levels. It not only documents the struggle to save the I-Hotel, but also gives an overview of Filipino American history.
The baker, the pie-maker and the diminished long-term community of Hoxton Street face gentrification in this compelling portrait of a rapidly changing London.
A young and ambitious team of chefs face the life-changing challenges of competing in the world's most prestigious culinary competition.
On the tiny island of Martha's Vineyard, where presidents and celebrities vacation, trophy homes threaten to destroy the islands unique character. Twelve years in the making, One Big Home follows one carpenters journey to understand the trend toward giant houses. When he feels complicit in wrecking the place he calls home, he takes off his tool belt and picks up a camera.
A short film about the changing face of London Soho and the implications of gentrification on Mimi, an aging transvestite.
This incisive, urgent documentary examines the history of anti-Black racism in hockey, from the segregated leagues of the 19th century to today’s NHL, where Black athletes continue to struggle against bigotry.
A cruise ship and 3,000 men – it is a universe without heteros and women that usually remains a mystery to the outside world. Once a year the Dream Boat sets sail for a cruise exclusively for gay men where most passengers are united by the wish to live life authentically as themselves in a protected place.
From a boy on the streets of the Congo to becoming an NBA champion, Serge Ibaka has risen to a level even he can hardly believe. Watch as he brings the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy back to Africa for the first time, and re-visits all the places he used to go as a young man in this emotional journey.
Stompin' Tom performs live at the Horseshoe Tavern on Queen St. in Toronto.
In early 1960s Toronto, a white, Anglo-centric city, an underground music scene emerged from the Jamaican diaspora, led by newcomers like Jackie Mittoo, Wayne McGhie, and a young Jay Douglas. Battling racism and indifference, they left a lasting but underrecognized mark on Canadian music and culture. Nearly 60 years later, Jay Douglas still champions Jamaican music and is finally receiving long-overdue recognition. Play It Loud is a feature documentary that tells the little-known story of how Jamaican music became a vital, unlikely part of Canadian culture. It traces a cultural migration that made Canada a global hub for Jamaican music - celebrated abroad but overlooked at home. Told through the life and music of beloved singer Jay Douglas, born Clive Pinnock in rural Jamaica, the film follows his journey from teen performer to enduring icon.
Faceless is a documentary film about the workings of an inpatient psychiatry unit, seen through the eyes of both the patients trying to get well and the staff trying to help them.
Filmed over four years, this documentary focuses on the impacts of gentrification as gay white professionals move into a largely black working-class neighborhood in Columbus, Ohio.
Kathy's family left on a Saturday morning in 1965. The rumble of bulldozers echoed through the neighborhood, and her block was empty. Federally-funded urban renewal had arrived in Charlottesville, scattering dozens of families like Kathy's. The once-vibrant African American community, built by formerly enslaved men and women who had secured a long-denied piece of the American dream, disappeared.
Karan and Rohan, two biracial brothers raised in a marginal environment, are finding ways to get stimulated on a normal summer day. They embark on a trip to buy candies to avoid boredom. This film plays with the sense of boundaries between what is real and what is fiction. It is a film about the love of two brothers and their singular reality in the countryside of Quebec.
Here in Toronto, four young Somali refugees are finishing high school. What did they bring with them? What did they find in Canada? Their testimonies, about us and about themselves, interspersed with newsreel footage and sequences of a theatrical creation in which they put all their soul, make them immediately endearing and overturn many prejudices held against refugees. A film that makes you want to get to know them better.
A film essay contrasting the modern metropolis with its "golden age" from 1830-1930, with the participation of some of New York's leading political and cultural figures. Made at a time when the city was experiencing unprecedented real estate development on the one hand and unforeseen displacement of population and deterioration on the other. Empire City is the story of two New Yorks. The film explores the precarious coexistence of the service-based midtown Manhattan corporate headquarters with the peripheral New York of undereducated minorities living in increasing alienation.
A retrospective documentary on 9/11 in connection with the 2001 Toronto International Film Festival.
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