(This is a separately ticketed event.)
In addition to the screening of opening night film Boil Alert, this event will feature live performance and special guest speakers. This evening sets the tone and celebrates what’s to come. Don’t miss this inaugural gathering and jam packed event featuring an incredibly impactful film that examines water issues of vital importance to our community.
ReFrame 2025 FILM GUIDE
Explore FILM Themes
Explore Events
Evening Features
These films highlight one or more core issues and ideas that resonate across the program, and embody the festival’s thematic heartbeat.
- Arun Bhattarai, Dorottya Zurbó
- Bhutan
- 2024
- 94 mins
- Sun Jan 26
- 5:00 PM
- Showplace
- In-Person Only
Amber, a happiness agent, travels the Bhutanese Himalayas surveying people's happiness. On his remote mountain journey, he searches for fulfillment.
- In-Person Only
- Sama Pana
- Belgium
- 2024
- 73 mins
- Fri Jan 24
- 7:30 PM
- Showplace
- In-Person Only
- English
- In-Person Only
- Katja Esson
- United States
- 2023
- 86 mins
- Sat Jan 25
- 7:30 PM
- Showplace
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
Miami is ground-zero for sea-level-rise. When residents of the historic Liberty Square public housing project learn about a $300 million revitalization plan for their neighborhood, which has long suffered from disinvestment, they know that this sudden interest comes from the fact that their neighborhood is located on the highest-and-driest ground in the city. Now they must prepare to fight a new form of racial injustice - Climate Gentrification.
- English
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
- Neil Diamond, Catherine Bainbridge
- Canada
- 2024
- 104 mins
- Thu Jan 23
- 7:00 PM
- Showplace
- In-Person Only
Red Fever follows Cree co-director Neil Diamond on his journey to find out why the world is so fascinated with the stereotypical imagery of Native people that is all over pop culture.
- Cree, English
- In-Person Only
- Dan Habib, Samuel Habib
- United States
- 2023
- 96 mins
- Fri Jan 24
- 7:30 PM
- Market Hall
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
Samuel Habib is a typical 21-year-old, itching to move out, start a career, and find love. But no one tells you how to be an adult, let alone an adult with a disability. Can a community of disability activists help him follow his dreams?
- English
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
- John English, Tom Garner
- Spain
- 2024
- 90 mins
- Sat Jan 25
- 7:30 PM
- Market Hall
- In-Person Only
For these dancers, there's no such thing as "can't."
- English
- In-Person Only
- Lisa Jackson
- Canada
- 2024
- 96 mins
- Sat Feb 1
- 6:30 PM
- Gzowski College Trent (ENW 114)
- In-Person Only
- In-Person Only
Close to Home
Local filmmakers, voices, subjects, issues, and actions — exploring a wide range of topics that have impact in our own backyards and even reach into our back pockets.
This program is sponsored by
- Michael Mabbott, Lucah Rosenberg-Lee
- Canada
- 2024
- 98 mins
- Fri Jan 24
- 2:15 PM
- Showplace
- In-Person Only
- In-Person Only
- Laura Sky, Mustafa Al-Taiar
- Canada
- 2024
- 18 mins
- Sat Jan 25
- 2:15 PM
- Showplace
- In-Person Only
Each Sunday, a diverse group of determined demonstrators in Belleville stand in support the Palestinian People who are suffering and dying under occupation of the state of Israel.
- English
- In-Person Only
- Conor DeVries
- Canada
- 2023
- 29 mins
- Fri Jan 24
- 5:00 PM
- Market Hall
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
- English
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
- Nick van der Graaf
- Canada
- 2024
- 15 mins
- Fri Jan 24
- 5:00 PM
- Market Hall
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
The tale of an Ontario folk song, and the truth it still tells.
- English
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
- Peter Porta
- Spain
- 2024
- 90 mins
- Sun Jan 26
- 3:00 PM
- Market Hall
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
The Click Trap exposes the dark side of online advertising: a lucrative
business with a human cost.
- English, French
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
- Anne-Marie Jackson
- Canada
- 2023
- 35 mins
- Fri Jan 24
- 5:00 PM
- Market Hall
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
The Wild Path Home is a Nogojiwanong / Peterborough-based initiative to raise caring, connected kids through outdoor learning and community.
- English
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
- Josiane Blanc
- Canada
- 2024
- 52 mins
- Fri Jan 24
- 10:00 AM
- Showplace
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
After avoiding speaking at all costs for over two decades, Joze Piranian, who has a severe stutter, decides to confront his fears, by travelling back to his home country, Lebanon, and holding the conversations he never dared to have before with his family. He hopes to finally make peace with his stutter and become the man he’s always wanted himself to be.
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
- Jasmine Liaw
- Canada
- 2023
- 8 mins
- Sat Jan 25
- 10:00 AM
- Market Hall
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
- English
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
Film Forward
Dive into the heart of film, where storytelling, history, and the creative process converge in captivating ways. Through archival engagement, behind-the-scenes perspectives, or innovative approaches, these films foreground the act of film and document making.
This program is sponsored by
- Janet Harbord
- United Kingdom
- 2023
- 18 mins
- Sat Jan 25
- 10:00 AM
- Market Hall
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
A film shot in 1957 in at the Maudsley Hospital, London, captures the movements and behaviour of children under observation for atypical behaviour. In the present day, three autistic respondents watch the footage, bringing new and insightful interpretations of the children’s behaviour as they explore the sparse environment of the clinic. Through speculation and identification, with wit and audacity, the responses forge a new soundtrack from an autistic point of view. As the film evolves, it takes on the rhythms and repetitions of the children’s activities, becoming a playful homage to the body language of autism.
- English
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
- Mariam Ghani
- United States
- 2024
- 120 mins
- Sun Jan 26
- 12:00 PM
- Market Hall
- In-Person Only
An archival documentary about the real consequences of how we imagine disease.
- English
- In-Person Only
- Kurtis Watson
- Canada
- 2024
- 82 mins
- Sat Jan 25
- 12:00 PM
- Market Hall
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
A trove of home video tapes spurs a filmmaker to investigate repressed parts of his past and come to terms with his own identity. A search for the cause of his father’s sudden suicide turns into a cathartic journey of reconnection and healing.
- English
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
- Patricia Franquesa
- Spain
- 2024
- 64 mins
- Sat Jan 25
- 10:00 AM
- Showplace
- Virtual / Hybrid (Ontario only)
Trapped in a digital blackmail labyrinth after her computer is
stolen, director Pati documents the real-time persecution as a
way of survival.
- Spanish
- Virtual / Hybrid (Ontario only)
- Hanna Hovitie
- Finland
- 2023
- 17 mins
- Sat Jan 25
- 12:00 PM
- Showplace
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
A little round film about how to be a circle in a world of squares.
- Finnish
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
- Ilse Moreno
- Canada
- 2024
- 9 mins
- Sat Jan 25
- 10:00 AM
- Market Hall
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
The Canadian Dream: A poignant glimpse into the harsh realities of migrant farm workers in Canada through one worker's journey and his daughter's perspective
- Spanish
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
- Michael Gitlin
- United States
- 2023
- 72 mins
- Sat Jan 25
- 12:00 PM
- Showplace
- In-Person Only
In large and small fragments, through a critical lens that is by turns social and personal, The Night Visitors closely examines moths as aesthetic beings and as carriers of meaning.
- English
- In-Person Only
- Samira Elagoz, Z Walsh
- Netherlands
- 2024
- 13 mins
- Sat Jan 25
- 10:00 AM
- Showplace
- In-Person Only
An intimate slideshow chronicling how two trans masculine artists fall madly in love.
- English
- In-Person Only
Reel Embodiment
Through the intersecting lenses of gender, sexuality, health, ability and race, these films illuminate how we navigate, experience, and challenge the spaces we inhabit.
This program is sponsored by
- Wei Zishuo
- China
- 2024
- 15 mins
- Sat Jan 25
- 10:00 AM
- Market Hall
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
The film conveys the theme of "love" through the life story of a blind-deaf couple. Facing all kinds of dilemmas, the couple maintain each other between light and darkness.
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
- Sarah Grant
- United Kingdom
- 2023
- 14 mins
- Sat Jan 25
- 7:30 PM
- Market Hall
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
Exploring the joy of dance in pop culture, reimagined through fatness.
- English
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
- Kristine Nrecaj, Birthe Templin
- Germany
- 2024
- 87 mins
- Sat Jan 25
- 2:15 PM
- Market Hall
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
House with a Voice is about six women in a patriarchal society, about six different life stories and one mutual decision: giving up femininity and living as men to gain a voice, to experience personal freedom and to fight for equality. To be a real Burrnesha.
- Albanian, English
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
- Sabrine Keane, Kate Dumke
- United States
- 2024
- 81 mins
- Sun Jan 26
- 10:00 AM
- Showplace
- In-Person Only
Preconceived explores the pervasive presence of crisis pregnancy centers throughout the US, and their role in furthering the anti-abortion movement.
- English
- In-Person Only
- Panu Suuronen
- Finland
- 2024
- 83 mins
- Sat Jan 25
- 5:00 PM
- Market Hall
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
- English, Finnish
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
- Kimberly Reed
- United States
- 2024
- 15 mins
- Fri Jan 24
- 12:00 PM
- Showplace
- In-Person Only
- English
- In-Person Only
- Jen Markowitz
- Canada
- 2023
- 80 mins
- Fri Jan 24
- 12:00 PM
- Showplace
- In-Person Only
Summer Qamp is a documentary following a group of LGBTQ+ youth at an idyllic lakeside camp in Alberta. The campers enjoy the traditional summer camp experience in a safe, affirming environment.
- English
- In-Person Only
- Sheila Nevins, Trish Adlesic, Nazenet Habtezghi
- United States
- 2023
- 27 mins
- Fri Jan 24
- 7:30 PM
- Showplace
- In-Person Only
- English
- In-Person Only
Rooted & Rising
Stories of innovation and resilience that highlight how we can live in partnership with the natural world.
This program is sponsored by
- Richard Mejeh
- United Kingdom
- 2024
- 25 mins
- Sat Jan 25
- 10:00 AM
- Market Hall
- In-Person Only
In London, a city farmer battles to preserve her community’s green sanctuary in the face of soaring costs of living.
- In-Person Only
- Robyn Adams
- Canada
- 2024
- 3 mins
- Fri Jan 24
- 2:15 PM
- Market Hall
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
A short film highlighting Indigenous beadwork, prairie landscapes and relationship to the land.
- English
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
- Tasha Hubbard
- Canada
- 2024
- 98 mins
- Sun Jan 26
- 12:00 PM
- Showplace
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
Richly visualised and deeply uplifting, Singing Back the Buffalo is an epic reimagining of North America through the lens of buffalo consciousness and a potent dream of what is within our grasp.
- English
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
- Jalena Keane-Lee
- United States
- 2023
- 82 mins
- Fri Jan 24
- 2:15 PM
- Market Hall
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
When the massive Thirty Meter Telescope is proposed to be built on Mauna Kea, an uprising of kiaʻi (protectors) in Hawaiʻi and around the world dedicate their lives to protecting the sacred mountain from destruction. Through the lens of mothers and daughters in three Native Hawaiian families, Standing Above the Clouds explores intergenerational healing and the impacts of safeguarding cultural traditions.
- English, Hawaiian
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
- Ben Judkins
- United States
- 2024
- 93 mins
- Fri Jan 24
- 5:00 PM
- Showplace
- In-Person Only
- English
- In-Person Only
- Rodney Fuentes
- Canada
- 2024
- 54 mins
- Fri Jan 24
- 10:00 AM
- Market Hall
- In-Person Only
A cross-continental run to save monarch butterflies.
- In-Person Only
- Uapukun Mestokosho McKenzie
- Canada
- 2023
- 5 mins
- Sun Jan 26
- 12:00 PM
- Showplace
- In-Person Only
- French
- In-Person Only
- Diego Rotmistrovsky
- Argentina
- 2024
- 4 mins
- Fri Jan 24
- 5:00 PM
- Showplace
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
In Edinburgh’s Toy Hospital, a "toy doctor" brings childhood memories back to life, restoring beloved, worn-out toys with care and dedication.
- English
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
Place & Identity
A country, a culture, a home… These films investigate the many complexities of how we shape — and are shaped by — where we’ve been and where we are today.
This program is sponsored by
- Signe Rosenlund-Hauglid
- Norway
- 2023
- 11 mins
- Sat Jan 25
- 7:30 PM
- Showplace
- In-Person Only
A poet uses her voice to excavate the lost home of her childhood.
- Norwegian
- In-Person Only
- Mette Carla Albrechtsen
- Denmark
- 2024
- 80 mins
- Sun Jan 26
- 10:00 AM
- Market Hall
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
In colorful, sunkissed postcards, A Place in The Sun invites you to join the wonderful and melancholic backstage world of a classic Charter holiday.
- Arabic, Danish, English, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Ukrainian
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
- Alisi Telengut
- Canada
- 2023
- 9 mins
- Fri Jan 24
- 2:15 PM
- Market Hall
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
The formation of Lake Baikal is reimagined with the voice of the Indigenous Buryat language.
- Mongolian
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
- Laissa Malih
- Kenya
- 2024
- 16 mins
- Sat Jan 25
- 5:00 PM
- Showplace
- In-Person Only
Laissa Malih — the first female Maasai filmmaker — returns to the community her parents left in this deeply personal look at how the lands of her forefathers are being reshaped by climate change.
- In-Person Only
- Jakob Ossmann
- Germany
- 2024
- 4 mins
- Sat Jan 25
- 2:15 PM
- Showplace
- In-Person Only
What would my dead nazi grandpa say about Gaza today?
- German
- In-Person Only
- Yvonne Sung
- Canada
- 2023
- 15 mins
- Sat Jan 25
- 5:00 PM
- Showplace
- In-Person Only
Hello Anson is about Anson Ng, a chef-turned-contemporary artist in Toronto.
- English
- In-Person Only
- Chadi Bennani
- Canada
- 2023
- 19 mins
- Sat Jan 25
- 5:00 PM
- Showplace
- In-Person Only
- Arabic, French
- In-Person Only
- Marta Smerechynska
- Hungary
- 2024
- 14 mins
- Fri Jan 24
- 12:00 PM
- Market Hall
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
It's Maria from Kyiv. Seeking a female roommate in downtown Budapest! Cozy apartment, shared bathroom, close to amenities. Rent: 400€ + bills. Drop by to check out:)
- English, Ukrainian
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
- Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Bilal
- Norway
- 2024
- 95 mins
- Sat Jan 25
- 2:15 PM
- Showplace
- In-Person Only
For half a decade, Basel Adra, a Palestinian activist, films his community of Masafer Yatta being destroyed by Israel's occupation, as he builds an unlikely alliance with an Israeli journalist who wants to join his fight.
- In-Person Only
- Agnieszka Zwiefka
- Poland
- 2024
- 84 mins
- Fri Jan 24
- 12:00 PM
- Market Hall
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
After her mom's tragic death on the Polish-Belarusian border, 16-year-old Kurdish girl Runa has to become a mother for her 4 younger brothers. A partially animated coming-of-age story in the times of a global refugee crisis.
- Polish
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
- Pamela Hogan
- United States
- 2024
- 71 mins
- Sun Jan 26
- 3:00 PM
- Showplace
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
When 90% of the women of Iceland walked off the job and out of their homes one fall morning in 1975 refusing to work, cook, or take care of the children, they brought their country to a standstill and catapulted Iceland to the “best place in the world to be a woman.”
- Virtual / Hybrid Available
- Suzanne Crocker
- Canada
- 2024
- 26 mins
- Sat Jan 25
- 5:00 PM
- Showplace
- In-Person Only
New immigrants leave big cities and hot climates to live in a tiny, remote community in Northern Canada. This is a story about fitting in, finding connections, and the magic that happens when different worlds come together.
- English
- In-Person Only
Panels, Performances & Workshops
- Thu Jan 25
- 7:00 PM
- Showplace
- Sun Jan 28
- 2:45 PM
- Showplace
Following the screening of The Legacy Song Project: Atlantic Chapter, which captures stories about the universal experiences of loss and how songwriting can be used as a bridge to connect us with our loved ones, join us for a selection of songs performed live by film subject Sarah McInnis.
- Sat Jan 27
- 10:00 AM
- PTBO Library
Presented in collaboration with Public Energy Performing Arts, Filmmakers Philip Szporer and Marlene Millar, creators of Maboungou: Being in the World, host this workshop for anyone interested in the intricacies of the creative process. This full day workshop will Illustrate a variety of approaches, cover interview techniques and research strategies, and invite exploration into alternative ways of revealing documentary ideas. Don’t miss this chance to share your creativity. Bring your camera or your smartphone. Notebooks are always handy. Limited spaces available, no experience required.
- Fri Jan 26
- 3:00 PM
- PTBO Library
As the benefits of a Guaranteed Basic Income are currently debated in the Senate, A Human Picture directors Simon Brothers and Luke Mistruzzi, Ontario’s basic income pilot participant and activist, Jessie Golem, and author and activist Jamie Swift, will join in a conversation about the connection between poverty, inadequate social safety nets, and a guaranteed livable income. Please join us as together we imagine a more secure and just future for us all. Co-presented and moderated by Basic Income Network Peterborough.
- Sat Jan 27
- 12:30 PM
- Market Hall
Immediately following the screening of their work, join us in honouring and hearing more from six proud, diverse Curve Lake First Nation members, Carol Taylor, Marg Knott, Marilyn Knott, Jonathan Taylor, Missy Knott, and Sarah Lewis, who share their Anishinaabe Knowledge to build relations and community both within Wshkiigmong/Curve Lake and between Wshkiigmong/Curve Lake and Nogojiwanong/Peterborough.
Panel moderated by Dr. Nadine Changfoot and Elder Alice Olson Williams. This event also features a performance by dance artist Kelli Marshall.
- Tue Jan 30
- 7:00 PM
- Virtual Theatre
Periods are political! Learn how you can be an advocate for menstrual equity.
At The Period Purse, we believe in educating all ages and all genders in order to reduce the stigma around periods. Join this inclusive, period-positive presentations delivered virtually by trained facilitators for adults, Grade 12 and above.
Installations & Drop In Events
- Sun Jan 28
- 11:00 AM
- Showplace Studio
Leading up to our closing night feature, Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make Believe, join local creators for this hands on drop-in event. Explore activity stations inspired by the work of Ernie Coombs, and filmmakers’ creative engagements across the program. In collaboration with the Artspace Maker Space and featuring local puppeteer and performer, Brad Brackenridge, and local filmmaker, Rob Viscardis.
- Fri Jan 5
- 7:00 PM
- Artspace PTBO
Runs until February 24th at Artspace. This this a free event open to the public.
Laurel Paluck, 2022, salvaged plastic, wire, LED lights, rug, throw cushions, seating, digital audio collage
Underlying is an exploration of the emotions we experience as we contemplate the concept and realities of climate change. In Laurel’s words, “I wonder where our hearts and minds are as individuals, as a community, and as a society as we move towards irreversible ecological changes. Are we in a state of shock? Are we scared, angry or ashamed? Are we grieving? Are we just now awakening to the situation?” By asking these questions and sharing our responses with a variety of individuals and communities, Laurel believes we can learn important things about how we process realities, discover ways to cope, and find balance with each other and with our world.
- Downtown Peterborough
In connection with Nogojiwanong/Peterborough’s current Climate Action Plan update, Kawartha Pine Ridge’s Youth Leadership in Sustainability (YLS) class has created a series of 2 minute video vignettes describing the fabulous city they live in, in 2044. These videos are available via QR code in several downtown locations leading up to and during the festival: Art Gallery of Peterborough, Artspace, GreenUP, Market Hall, Peterborough Public Library and Showplace. Encounter these acts of civic imagination and see how 20 years of ambitious and creative action by the city, initiated by the progressive Plan update work of 2024, have created an attractive and livable city that has embraced climate justice.
These films will also be available online from Jan 29th-February 4th