There's No Place Like This Place, Anyplace

Regard Noir

2021 · ★ 4.5

Across the world, from Paris to Los Angeles via the steps of the Cannes festival, actress and director Aïssa Maïga questions the way black women are represented on-screen and how diversity is promoted.

Dream Boat

2017 · ★ 5.4

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.

Cumberland Terrace

2025

The final (?) days of the Cumberland Terrace mall in Toronto's central Yorkville neighbourhood, originally built in 1974 and announced in 2025 as being scheduled for closure/demolition.

The Street

2019 · ★ 7.8

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.

Black Ice

2023 · ★ 7.3

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.

Zero Tolerance

1993

A documentary about the Parkdale neighbourhood of Toronto in the early 1990s focusing on prostitution, street drugs, and gentrification.

Empire City

1985 · ★ 9

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.

Flag Wars

2003 · ★ 4.5

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.

REMOVED: Black Erasure in Boston

Systemic and structural racism implemented by the city of Boston over the years has led to a dramatic stripping of generational wealth for Black residents, so much so that the average net worth of Black Americans in Boston is now only eight dollars. The racist grading process of ‘redlining’ primarily black neighborhoods, combined with the displacing effect of various ‘urban renewal’ projects, set the template for the wider scale gentrification seen today that is pricing black residents of Boston out of their communities. On top of that, the mass incarceration of Black Bostonians has also led to a further disruption of Black communities. The combined effect of these state sanctioned actions has led to the erasure of Black Americans in Boston.

I Am Gentrification. Confessions of a Scoundrel

2018

Is the city of Zurich suffering from ‘density stress’? What is it like to live in mega cities such as São Paulo, Mexico City and Tiflis? Filmmaker Thomas Haemmerli broaches the topics of city development, architecture, density, housing market, xenophobia and gentrification from an autobiographical perspective. The path of his life has led him from a childhood in the villa district of Zürichberg, through his teenage years as squatter to flat shares, yuppie apartments and finally second homes in various cities. Only recently having become a dad, he plans to further enhance Zurich’s price appreciation by purchasing a huge, extended city apartment… This multifaceted essay not only humorously questions the filmmaker’s decisions, but also those of the right-wing conservatives, who are afraid of losing their space to immigrants, and the political left, who fail to embrace modern-age architecture.

Play It Loud! How Toronto Got Soul

2024

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.

NDDJ (Notre-Dame-du-Jambon)

2022

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.