Portrait Movies

Alanis Obomsawin, a North American Indian who earns her living by singing and making films, is the mother of an adopted child. She talks about her...

This feature documentary is a profile of Canadian press tycoon Roy Thomson, whose single-minded attention to business brought him riches, power, and...

What if nobody wants to believe you? Hanni, a farmer's wife and mother of three, is worried about her daughter Magdalena. The girl is smaller than...

A short documentary about Suzan Pitt and her animated films, Asparagus (1979), Joy Street (1995) and El Doctor (2006).

“You bet on someone in the beginning of the process and then you wait and see what life does with them.” This is how Czech director...

Alix left his native island, Martinique, and its musical culture, to study opera singing in Paris. Portrait of a young man who now embraces all his...

A young painter named Billie lives secluded in an apartment on her own. She tries to find inspiration despite external disturbances.

An intimate portrait filmed across 10 years of Mary, a charismatic and complex woman, born and raised in rural Kansas, USA. She runs a curiosity shop...

A frustrated art student reaches into his dreams for inspiration, only to be taken on a journey by a mysterious doppelganger.

When the world was on fire, they called Hans Blix. This is how the Swedish diplomat is introduced in ‘Blix Not Bombs’. And if there is...

A bloodstain on a sheet triggers a great transformation in Tina, an eleven-year-old girl. As she spreads out the laundry with her mother, she will...

While navigating daily discrimination, a filmmaker who inhabits and loves her unusual body searches the world for another person like her, and...

A grandson shows his grandmother how to navigate an iPad 2 full of clues for solving a puzzle. Over a phone call, she recites an email she wrote...

Behind his polite exterior lies a formidable leader with a ruthless character, ready to do anything to make China the world's leading power by the...

"What could be more unsettling than a man close to death whose profound arrogance drives him relentlessly to hang onto both his power and his...

Animation pioneer Evelyn Lambart recalls arriving at the NFB in the 1940s, her celebrated collaborations with Norman McLaren and her approach to her...