Junction North International Documentary Film Festival

Junction North

INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL

Sudbury Downtown Indie Cinema Co-op is delighted to announce the 9th edition of Junction North International Documentary Film Festival running Thursday April 3 to Sunday April 6, in downtown Sudbury. This annual celebration of non-fiction cinema is possible due to the stellar support of keen Northern Ontario doc-lovers, filmmakers from around the world, patrons, sponsors and government partners.

Junction North brings Northeastern Ontario non-stop screenings over 4 days of outstanding stories from around the world. We select from multiple award-winners from top-tier festivals like Hot Docs, Sundance, TIFF, Berlinale to Junction North discoveries enjoying their festival premiere in Northern Ontario. From local to international, from hard-hitting issues to fascinating biographies, Junction North has it all.

Festival screenings will be hosted at

Sudbury Indie Cinema 162 Mackenzie Street, Sudbury - laneway entrance. Free parking.

Festival Rates at The Clarion Hotel  $109, and the Radisson Hotel  $119

Festival Passes on sale for $75 till March 18th. Individual tickets now available for all screenings.  GRAB HERE

The Festival Screening Schedule has been announced. Available to download  HERE

Film submissions to Junction North 2025 edition have closed. They will reopen April 7, 2025 for our 10th edition in 2026.

Opening Feature

Arthur Erickson: Beauty Between The Lines

by Ryan Mah + Danny Berish

Thursday April 3  6:30 pm 

2024 / Canada  / 80 minutes

Arthur Erickson: Beauty Between the Lines offers an in-depth exploration of the extraordinary life of one of the 20th century's most iconic and influential modernist architects. The documentary weaves personal anecdotes and professional milestones to uncover the untold stories of Erickson’s journey, from his celebrated public achievements to his private struggles. Known for his visionary designs and groundbreaking architectural philosophy, Erickson’s work profoundly shaped the modern landscape, but behind the accolades lay a complex individual grappling with triumphs and tragedies.

Through intimate interviews, archival footage, and a look at his most famous creations, the film reveals the delicate balance Erickson maintained between his creative genius and the challenges of his personal life, offering a deeper understanding of the man and the legacy he left behind. This documentary is not just a celebration of his architectural contributions but a reflection on the human experience of creativity, ambition, and the price of greatness.

Intercepted

by Oksana Karpovych

Friday April 4  4:00 pm 

2024 / Canada, France, Ukraine / 95 minutes
Berlin winner-Ecumenical Jury Special Mention, and RIDM Grand Prize, plus 14 more wins/nominations

Ukrainian intelligence services have intercepted thousands of phone calls Russian soldiers made from the battlefield in Ukraine to their families and friends in Russia, painting a stark picture of the cruelty of war in a dizzying emotional tension. Juxtaposed with images of the destruction caused by the invasion and the day-to-day life of the Ukrainian people who resist and rebuild, the voices of the Russian soldiers—ranging from being filled with heroic illusions to complete disappointment and loss of reason, from looting to committing more horrible war crimes, from propaganda to doubt and disillusionment—expose the whole scope of the dehumanizing power of war and imperialist nature of the Russian aggression.

The Last Republican

by Steve Pink

Friday April 4  7:00 pm 

2024 / USA  / 90 minutes

Displaying an unwavering commitment to putting country over self, Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger sacrificed his career and personal relationships by publicly demanding accountability for Donald Trump's role in the January 6 insurrection. Filmed during Kinzinger's final year in Congress, The Last Republican reveals behind-the-scenes insights into the explosive January 6 committee hearings while delving into what drove him to take a stand as well as the lasting impact of his decision.

Northern Ontario Premiere

Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat

by Johan Grimonprez

Friday April 4  9:00 pm

2024 / Belgium, France, Netherlands / 150 minutes
44 wins/nominations including 2025 Oscar Nominee, Sundance Special Jury Award

Director Johan Grimonprez's sprawling documentary moves to a furious beat, laying out its thesis with an energy that's as enthralling as it is thought-provoking. United Nations, 1960: the Global South ignites a political earthquake, jazz musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach crash the Security Council, Nikita Khrushchev bangs his shoe, and the U.S. State Department swings into action, sending jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong to Congo to deflect attention from the CIA-backed coup. Director Johan Grimonprez captures the moment when African politics and American jazz collided in this magnificent essay film, a riveting historical rollercoaster that illuminates the political machinations behind the 1961 assassination of Congo's leader Patrice Lumumba. Richly illustrated by eyewitness accounts, official government memos, testimonies from mercenaries and CIA operatives, speeches from Lumumba himself, and a veritable canon of jazz icons, Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat interrogates colonial history to tell an urgent and timely story of precedent that resonates more than ever in today's geopolitical climate.

Northern Ontario Premiere

Union

by Stephen Maing, Brett Story

Saturday April 5  3:30 pm

2024 / USA / 100 minutes
16 wins/nominations including Oscar Shortlist Best Documentary Feature,
Sundance Winner US Documentary Special Jury Award, and many more

Up against a corporate superpower and with legal protections at a drastic low for workers, all odds are against the ALU. Yet this rag-tag ensemble remains unswayed in their beliefs in collective action and the dignity and power of the working-class. On April 1, 2022 a group of ordinary workers made history when they did what everyone thought was impossible: they successfully won their election to become the very first unionized Amazon workplace in America. This feat would be extraordinary for any union, let alone the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), who did it with no prior organizing experience, no institutional backing, and a total budget of $120,000 raised on GoFundMe. Heralded as the most important win for labor since the 1930s, this highly cinematic documentary captures the ALU’s historic grassroots campaign to unionize thousands of their co-workers from day one of organizing.

Northern Ontario Premiere

No Other Land

by Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor

Saturday April 5  7:15 pm

2024 / Palestine, Norway / 95 minutes
90 wins/nominations including 2025 Oscar Nominee, IDFA Audience Choice Award, 2 Berlin wins, European Film Awards win, etc

Basel Adra, a young Palestinian activist from Masafer Yatta, has been fighting his community's mass expulsion by the Israeli occupation since childhood. Basel documents the gradual erasure of Masafer Yatta, as soldiers destroy the homes of families - the largest single act of forced transfer ever carried out in the occupied West Bank. He crosses paths with Yuval, an Israeli journalist who joins his struggle, and for over half a decade they fight against the expulsion while growing closer. Their complex bond is haunted by the extreme inequality between them: Basel, living under a brutal military occupation, and Yuval, unrestricted and free. This film, by a Palestinian-Israeli collective of four young activists, was co-created during the darkest, most terrifying times in the region, as an act of creative resistance to Apartheid and a search for a path towards equality and justice.

Grand Theft Hamlet

by Pinnys Grylls, Sam Crane

Saturday April 5  9:15 pm

2024 / UK / 91 minutes

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, two out-of-work actors, Sam and Mark, face a bleak future. Desperate for purpose, they stumble upon an idea: stage Shakespeare's Hamlet within the ultra-violent world of Grand Theft Auto Online. Shot entirely in-game, Grand Theft Hamlet explores their attempt to merge classical theatre with a chaotic digital landscape. With stunning visuals and unexpected moments of reflection, this engaging documentary examines how ancient cultural narratives can still resonate in new, virtual spaces, raising questions about art, isolation, and the digital world’s potential for storytelling.

Standing Above The Clouds

by Jalena Keane-Lee

Sunday April 6  12:00 pm

2024 / USA / 85 minutes
Hot Docs winner Best Social Impact Documentary + Hot Docs nominee for Best International Documentary

When a 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 further 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. Standing Above the Clouds highlights the movement to protect Mauna Kea through the intergenerational stories of women in three Native Hawaiian families as they stand for the sacred mountain. The film follows teacher and community organizer Pua Case and her two daughters — artist-activists Hāwane Rios and Kapulei Flores — who have been called to stop the telescope since 2010. Their lives quickly become consumed with frontline actions and court proceedings and immersed in ceremonies and cultural practices. As they face opposition and arrests, they are joined by a community who have dedicated their lives to protecting Mauna Kea.

Sugarcane

by Emily Kassie, Julian Brave NoiseCat

Sunday April 6  2:30 pm

2024 / Canada, USA / 107 minutes
81 wins/nominations including 2025 Oscar Nominee, Sundance Directing Award, and many more

A stunning tribute to the resilience of Indigeous peoples, Sugarcane, the debut feature documentary from Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, is an epic cinematic portrait of a community during a moment of international reckoning. In 2021, evidence of unmarked graves was discovered on the grounds of an Indian residential school run by the Catholic Church in Canada. After years of silence, the forced separation, assimilation and abuse many children experienced at these segregated boarding schools was brought to light, sparking a national outcry against a system designed to destroy Indigenous communities. Set amidst a groundbreaking investigation, Sugarcane illuminates the beauty of a community breaking cycles of intergenerational trauma and finding the strength to persevere.

Closing Feature

Every Little Thing

by Sally Aitken

Sunday April 6  4:45 pm

2024 / USA / 93 minutes
Sundance nominated-Grand Jury Prize Best Documentary Feature + 5 other nominations

Author and wildlife rehabber Terry Masear has an ambitious goal: to save every injured hummingbird in Los Angeles. But the path to survival is fraught with danger. This heart-expanding Sundance hit introduces audiences to Terry's diminutive patients through breathtaking slow-motion photography and emotional storytelling. Over the course of director Sally Aitken’s moving documentary, we become deeply invested in baby hummingbirds like Cactus and Wasabi, celebrating their tiny victories and lamenting their tragedies. Through Terry's eyes, each bird becomes memorable, mighty and heroic. Her compassion and empathy serves as a reminder that grace can be found in the smallest of acts and the tiniest of creatures.

Play It Loud: How Toronto Got Soul

by Sally Aitken

Friday April 4  9:00 am  High School Screening

2024 / Canada / 84 minutes

Play it Loud! is a feature documentary that tells the little known story of how Jamaican music became a critical and unlikely part of Canadian culture. Early 1960’s Toronto was a mostly white, Anglo-centric city. Beneath this veneer of Conservative respectability, an exciting underground music scene emerged, created by a Jamaican diaspora including newcomers like Jackie Mittoo, Wayne McGhie and a teenage Jay Douglas. Battling racism and indifference, they made an indelible, but little appreciated mark on Canadian music and culture. Six decades later, Jay Douglas is still carrying the torch for Jamaican music, and enjoying the recognition and respect he has long craved.

White School Black Memories

by Martin Stuart Spriggs

Thursday April 3  12:00 pm 

2024 / Canada / 93 minutes

The Royal Canadian Regiment battle group is engaged in the fight for their lives during Operation Medusa in Afghanistan. Soldiers of Charles Company combat team tell their stories of courage under fire, tragedy and loss when they faced the determined and entrenched Taliban during the second battle of Panjwai in 2006. Told be those who fought the battle, this doc is based upon Company Sergeant Major John Barnes' best-selling book of the same name.

Surviving

Thursday April 3  2:00 pm 

For the majority of the world’s population the circumstances of their lives are imposed rather than chosen. This programme shares the stories of communities who have sustained their ways despite conditions far beyond their control.


Living with the Taliban
by Siarhei Marchyk, Witold Repetowicz

2024 / Poland / 53 minutes

Women of the Amazon
by Boromir Bogumil

2023 / Brazil / 40 minutes

A powerful glimpse into life in Afghanistan after the Taliban's return to power in 2021. Through personal stories, the film portrays both the supporters of the new regime and those whose lives have been tragically altered, capturing the country's ongoing struggle between hope and despair.

A documentary about indigenous women in the Brazilian Amazon who had to leave their home and their land in order to provide education for their children. While scientists are measuring a loss in biodiversity and traditional knowledge around Amazonian cities, the indigenous communities of the Rio Negro have created the « Traditional Agricultural System of the Rio Negro », that officially became part of the Brazilian cultural heritage, to preserve their way of living and their special relationship to their environment.

Artist Talk & Screening: Blaise Harrison

Thursday April 3  4:00 pm 

Blaise Harrison (France) joins us for a screening of his doc Harmonie followed by a discussion of his current Sudbury-based doc project, Inland.

If An Owl Calls Your Name

by Zaya Benazzo, Maurizio Benazzo

Thursday April 3  8:30 pm 

2024 / Canada / 93 minutes

Patricia June Vickers, her brother Roy Henry Vickers, along with other indigenous elders, healers and activists from Esk'etemc, Gitxsan and Wet'suwet'en territories reflect upon their lives as forcefully assimilated Canadians. The effects of intergenerational trauma echo through the voices of residential school survivors and their children as they heal from substance abuse, violence, and a profound disconnect from their culture. Through connection to land, ancestral wisdom and ceremonial healing they transform darkness into forgiveness and inner reconciliation. A prayer beyond religion: these stories call one into a universal yearning for belonging and the sacredness of life.

Legacy

Friday April 4  11:45 am

Legacy is much more than a plaque or name on a building, it is an active project requiring the passage of knowledge and skills, maintenance and connection. This programme travels from the southern tip of Mexico, to Quebec, China, and Toronto examining the ways in which communities and families preserve themselves through time.


30 years after
by Liane Simard, Sarah Lajoie-Asselin

2024 / Canada / 58 minutes

Salut Chasseur /
Goodbye, Hunter
by Émile Dontigny

2024 / Canada / 19 minutes

30 years after the Zapatista struggle, these indigenous communities of Chiapas are still resisting oppression. How do the children of those who led this struggle still manage to be autonomous and thus take charge of their health, their religion, their education, their diet and to govern for themselves?

For several autumns, Louis-Henri has been tracking moose with his grandson, Sasha. As he turns 81, old age reminds him that his career as a hunter is behind him. For the first time this year, Sasha will leave without his grandfather.

Terry's Little Village
by Jack Kukolic

2024 / Canada / 7 minutes

The Concubine's Destiny
by Ipek Ertan

2024 / China / 9 minutes

Terry Wilson is a 70-year-old lifelong resident of Meadowvale Village, Ontario's first heritage district. As development looms and begins to destroy Terry’s favourite place in the world, he recreates pieces of history in his backyard, crafting an oasis where it feels like nothing has changed.

Following Fang Quanfu as he tries to pass down Hui Opera to his daughter, Fang Xin, and Hui Opera apprentices, the film presents a unique outlook on the development of Hui Opera.

Answering the Call

Friday April 4  1:45 pm 

In a world with near endless Just Causes to dedicate yourself to - How to choose? Is the question that leaves one paralyzed and burnt out. In moments both current and historical these documentaries tell the stories of those who found their movement, their role, and answered the call to action.


Ahmad Alive
by Yusuf Omar, Aurelia Driver

2024 / South Africa / 21 minutes

Twig
by Claire Sanford

2024 / Canada / 39 minutes

Ahmad Alive started as a series of viral videos profiling content creator, Ahmad Ghunaim, as he turns his camera on the harrowing realities of Israel's war on Gaza. Using these videos as the building blocks of a raw and powerful film, “Ahmad Alive” is the story of a young man who risks everything to show the world what is happening in Gaza, using just his phone.

Yellow streams of sand flow across the dunes in the Kubuqi Desert of Inner Mongolia, where 81-year-old Ambassador Kwon, the former South Korean ambassador to China, plants trees with hundreds of students in matching green jackets chanting, “Save the Earth!” Kwon’s life mission? To plant one billion trees, stopping the desert in its tracks. But as the winds whip up the desert’s surface into sandstorms and Kwon’s freshly planted trees begin to disappear in the yellow winds, we are left to wonder: are these unlikely forests up to the task?

We Lend a Hand: The Forgotten
Story of Ontario Farmerettes
by Colin T Field

2024 / Canada / 49 minutes

The true and untold story of the Farmerettes, a contingent of 40,000 teenage girls who volunteered on Canadian farms and helped win the most destructive war of all: WWII.

I Am Gitxsan
by Hossein Martin Fazeli

Saturday April 5  10:00 am 

2024 / Canada / 70 minutes

Echoes of the Ice
by Matt LeMay

Saturday April 5  10:00 am 

2024 / Canada / 19 minutes

I Am Gitxsan follows Phoenix Apperloo, a recent high school graduate reconnecting with his Indigenous heritage in Hazelton, British Columbia, Canada. Inspired by encounters with residential school survivors, he writes a heartfelt letter to Prime Minister Trudeau about the injustices faced by his people.The documentary highlights the impact of colonialism on the Gitxsan community, as well as their resilience through protests and legal actions.

Inuk filmmaker & Indigenous Geographic Co-founder Crystal Martin embarks on a journey to Iqaluit during late spring to delve into contemporary Inuit life and the profound impacts of climate change. From sharing a traditional meal with family to traveling with Inuit hunters to the iconic floe edge—a hub for traditional hunting and community connection—Crystal experiences firsthand the challenges and resilience of Arctic life.

Midsummer in Prangli

by Nicola Piovesan

Saturday April 5  12:15 pm 

2024 / Estonia / 84 minutes

An observational documentary that portraits the Estonian island of Prangli and its small community, which becomes crowded during Midsummer. A week with endless daylight and charming folklore.

Spiritus: No Business like Dough Business

By Michael S. Koehler

Saturday April 5  2:15 pm 

2025 / USA / 70 minutes

This film delves into the rich history of the oldest family-run business in Provincetown, Massachusetts, SPIRITUS Pizza and Ice Cream. It highlights the challenges and resistance faced by the business, the queer community, and the AIDS crisis, all against the backdrop of the conservative Puritanical attitudes in the town during the 1970s and 1980s.

FESTIVAL SCHEDULE AT A GLANCE

Thursday April 3

12:00 pm

White School Black Memories

2:00 pm

SURVIVAL PROGRAMME
Living with the Taliban
Women of the Amazon

4:00 pm

Artist Talk & Screening: Blaise Harrison

6:30 pm

Arthur Erickson: Beauty Between The Lines

8:30 pm

If An Owl Calls Your Name

Friday April 4

9:00 am

Play It Loud
High School Screening

11:45 am

LEGACY PROGRAMME
30 years after
Terry’s Little Village
Goodbye, Hunter
The Concubine’s Destiny

1:45 pm

ANSWERING THE CALL PROGRAMME
Twig
We Lend a Hand: The Forgotten Story of Ontario Farmerettes
Ahmad Alive

4:00 pm

Intercepted

7:00 pm

The Last Republican

9:00 pm

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat

Saturday April 5

10:00 am   

Echoes of Ice + I Am Gitxan

12:150 pm   

Midsummer In Prangli

2:15 pm

Spiritus: No Business Like Dough Business 

3:30 pm

Union + Panel

7:15 pm

No Other Land 

9:15 pm

Grand Theft Hamlet

Sunday April 6

12:00 pm   

Standing Above The Clouds  + Q&A

2:30 pm   

Sugarcane

4:30 pm   

Jury Awards

4:45 pm

Every Little Thing

Major Presenting Partners

Government Partners

Film Sponsors and Hosts

Hospitality Sponsors

Many thx!

Amberhill Gallery and Gift Shop
Huckleberries Chocolatiers