Laszlo Barna

We Were Children

For over 130 years till 1996, more than 100,000 of Canada's First Nations children were legally required to attend government-funded schools run by various Christian faiths. There were 80 of these 'residential schools' across the country. Most children were sent to faraway schools that separated them from their families and traditional land. These children endured brutality, physical hardship, mental degradation, and the complete erasure of their culture. The schools were part of a wider program of assimilation designed to integrate the native population into 'Canadian society.' These schools were established with the express purpose 'To kill the Indian in the child.' Told through their own voices, 'We Were Children' is the shocking true story of two such children: Glen Anaquod and Lyna Hart.

The Bang Bang Club

In the early to mid '90s, when the South African system of apartheid was in its death throes, four photographers - Greg Marinovich, Kevin Carter, Ken Oosterbroek and João Silva - bonded by their friendship and a sense of purpose, worked together to chronicle the violence and upheaval leading up to the 1994 election of Nelson Mandela as president. Their work is risky and dangerous, potentially fatally so, as they thrust themselves into the middle of chaotic clashes between forces backed by the government (including Inkatha Zulu warriors) and those in support of Mandela's African National Congress.

Shake Hands with the Devil

In 1993, Canadian Lieutenant General Roméo Dallaire was sent by the United Nations to Rwanda as commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR). Its mission, to ensure the ceasefire, is underfunded, excessively bureaucratized and made up of military units which come from dozens of countries and which each have a very different program... These are Lt Gen Dallaire's efforts to stop the madness of the Rwandan Genocide, despite the complete indifference of his superiors.

Open Heart

Things appear to be looking up for a cash-strapped, regional hospital when it hires a reputedly brilliant cardiac surgeon to head up its pediatric cardiac surgery unit. But when increasing numbers of children begin dying on the operating table, the unit's top O.R. nurse begins to suspect that the new surgeon is not as experienced as everyone has been lead to believe. She finds herself alone, faced with jeopardizing the career she loves by taking on the powers that be and blowing the whistle on the influential surgeon and the harrowing goings-on at the hospital.

Mother Trucker: The Diana Kilmury Story

Real-life account of a Canadian hero, a determined female truck driver who took on the mob-controlled leadership of the International Teamsters Union.

Mother Trucker: The Diana Kilmury Story

Real-life account of a Canadian hero, a determined female truck driver who took on the mob-controlled leadership of the International Teamsters Union.

The Negotiator

This candid documentary opens the door on the riskiest labour negotiations in the history of the Canadian Auto Workers (now UNIFOR), Canada's largest private sector union. For veteran negotiator Buzz Hargrove, president of the union, the de Havilland/Bombardier talks turn out to be the toughest of his career. Hargrove finds himself doing battle not only with the company, but with his own union locals. Everything goes wrong. Hargrove has to choose between solidarity with his workers or saving thousands of jobs. His decision, the battle that led up to it, and the outcome make for high drama in this no-holds-barred portrait of organized labour in the 1990s. Played on the shifting ground of a globalized economy, "The Negotiator" is a revealing look at democracy, leadership and its price in a high stakes fight for jobs and power.