The Last Chinese Laundry
1987 · 28m · Documentary
A documentary from 1987 featuring the life of early Chinese immigrants to the island of Newfoundland.
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Cohen's War
2005 · ★ 9
An hour-long portrait of Canadian immigration lawyer, M. Lee Cohen, renowned for his work with refugees. The film follows his representation of Sonya Pecelj and Vladimir Zalipyatskikh. The first case follows a young woman, Sonya Pecelj from Kosovo, who seeks sanctuary for more than a year in a church; the second case follows a Russian sailor who dives off a ship in Halifax Harbour to escape virtual imprisonment by the Russian fish mafia.
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90 Miles
2001 · ★ 7
Having grown up within the Cuban Revolution, in 1980, Juan Carlos Zaldívar was a 13-year-old "pioneer" jeering in the streets at the thousands of "Marielitos" leaving the island by boat for the United States. Within weeks, he was a Marielito himself, headed with the rest of his family for a new life in Miami. Now a U.S.-based filmmaker, Zaldívar recounts the strange twist of fate that took him across one of the world's most treacherous stretches of water in 90 Miles, a new documentary having its broadcast premiere on PBS's acclaimed P.O.V. series in the summer of 2003. As related by Zaldívar in the intensely personal and evocative 90 Miles, arrival in South Florida is only the beginning of the family's struggles to comprehend the full meaning of their passage into exile. What follows is an intimate and uneasy accounting of the historical forces that have split the Cuban national family in two, and which shape the passage of values from one generation to the next.
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Mama Rosa
2019
Rosa is from Croatia and lives in Switzerland, with her husband who depends on her care. She takes care of everything. Her children have grown up and want to leave home. Rosa stays behind alone.
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Enemy Alien
2022 · ★ 10
A poetic retelling of the experiences of Joseph Murakami, a fourteen-year-old boy from Darwin, who is summarily rounded up and interned by his government on the basis of his ethnicity, leaving wounds unhealed to this day.
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A Woman's Place
1967
Two women discuss the roles and problems of women, education, and shopping on Fogo Island.
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The Cossack and the Gypsy
2013
The Cossack and the Gypsy takes us to the heart of intimate worlds of Lev Chayka and Régine Gabrysz, illustrating their memories, interior views composed of the stories about their childhood and devotion to their country of origin (Ukraine and Soviet Union). The wars and dictatorship of the past in the Eastern Europe is set in contrast with the Far North of Quebec in a forgotten boom town. Vera and Jack, the last miner, Régine and Lev are among the last first immigrants. Their Slavic voices and accents still lull the Abitibi sonorous landscapes, but for how long...
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2025
A documentary film that follows the lives of first-generation retired immigrants living in Finland.
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The Pharmacy: Shanghai
1976 · ★ 8
Filmed inside Pharmacy No. 3 in Shanghai, Joris Ivens and Marceline Loridan-Ivens document the daily work of a state pharmacy that functions as both a dispensary and a neighborhood medical center. The film focuses on routine interactions between staff and patients, revealing an integrated model of urban healthcare in 1970s China.
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Newfoundland: Atlantic Province
1949
With simple ceremony on Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Newfoundlanders are welcomed as fellow-Canadians. Prime Minister St. Laurent starting off the carving of Newfoundland's coat of arms in the tenth and formerly blank shield over the entrance to the Parliament Buildings, writing in stone another chapter of Confederation. So begins this survey of Canada's tenth province, Newfoundland, its resources and how its people live. The film takes us to St. John's, Corner Brook, Bell Island, and includes a visit to Labrador where we see the giant airport at Gander.
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