Stephen Eric McIntyre, Trevor Merasty, Tyler Rogers, Darcy Fehr, Alec Goodall
Canada
2022
English
Graphic Violence, Drug & Alcohol Abuse
Featured in:
VIFF Short Forum: Program 4
Bouncing through nostalgic aesthetics and genre storytelling, a contemporary point of view comes into focus.
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The Secret Agent
Having run afoul of an influential bureaucrat in Brazil’s military dictatorship circa 1977, Marcelo decamps to Recife to live under an assumed name — but he’ll soon come to understand precisely how rampant the country’s corruption has become.
Seeds
Shot over nine years, Brittany Shyne’s Sundance-winning documentary is a tender portrait of Black farming families in the American South. A moving meditation on land, legacy, and the strength it takes to hold on.
Mr. Nobody Against Putin
Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary, and Special Jury Prize Winner, Sundance, 2025, this exposé shot by a Russian primary teacher shows how the Putin propaganda machine works to militarize children.
Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story
Harlem-based photographer, freedom fighter and activist Kwame Brathwaite took 500,000 photos across his 70-year career, always devoted to celebrating the joy and beauty of African American life. Brathwaite pioneered the idea that Black is Beautiful.
Cutting Through Rocks
Winner of Sundance's World Cinema Documentary Grand Jury Prize, Cutting Through Rocks follows Sara Shahverdi — motorcyclist, midwife, and first-ever councilwoman elected in her Iranian village. A vérité triumph by Sara Khaki & Mohammadreza Eyni.
A Poet
When embittered poet Oscar Restrepo takes a job at a local high school, he meets Yurlady, a talented student from a poor background. Seeking to help her cultivate her art, he draws her into the poetry world — to disastrous and comedic results.
Credits
Executive Producer
Juliette Hagopian
Producer
Brian Barnhart
Screenwriter
Brian Barnhart
Cinematography
Greg Nicod
Production Design
Madison Dueck
Original Music
Ben Brimacombe, Nick Walker
Director
Brian Barnhart
Originally from Manitoba, Brian Vincent Barnhart got his start in film by working as a production assistant in his early 20s. He went on to study film production at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema in Montreal. His last film, The Manitoba Connection (2020), was a 35-minute documentary about Winnipeg’s hardcore punk underground scene circa the mid-2000s.


