York University has a rich collection of films in a variety of formats in the Sound and Moving Image Collection. Below are some links to films from our streaming video collections. You will need to login with your Passport York account. All the plot descriptions below are taken from the film databases in which they are found. (And PS, if you are a theatre buff, you might be interested in our new subscription to a collection of National Theatre productions.)
A cinematic meditation on humanity's massive reengineering of the planet, ANTHROPOCENE is an acclaimed documentary film, four years in the making from the award winning team of Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier, and Edward Burtynsky. Narrated by Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander.
Care: Care Workers, Their Clients, and a Coming Crisis
This intimate documentary pulls back the curtain on the poignant and largely hidden world of in-home eldercare. Beautifully shot and deeply moving, the film reveals the bonds that form between paid care workers and elders - and exposes the cracks in a system that is currently failing both. Dir. Deirdre Fishel.
This film tells an astounding story of activism and innovation about AIDS survival, not death which has been overlooked until this timely documentary. Culled from a massive trove of archival footage, the film is both epic and intimate, tracking a small group of people, most of them HIV-positive, in their nine-year-long battle to save their own lives. They end up saving 6,000,000. Dir. David France.
An Introduction to Infectious Disease
Infectious diseases affect everyone. They account for 26% of all deaths worldwide, and unlike chronic diseases, they have the potential for explosive global impacts. In An Introduction to Infectious Diseases, get an accessible overview of diseases in 24 episodes--from the mundane to the fatal--from a renowned physician who specializes in this topic.
This feature documentary is an inspired, genre-twisting film directed by Oscar-nominee Sarah Polley. Polley's playful investigation into the elusive truth buried within the contradictions of a family of storytellers paints a touching and intriguing portrait of a complex network of relatives, friends, and strangers. Dir. Sarah Polley.
An uplifting feature documentary highlighting the transformative power of art and the beauty of the human spirit. Top-selling contemporary artist Vik Muniz takes us on an emotional journey from Jardim Gramacho, the world's largest landfill on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, to the heights of international art stardom. Vik collaborates with the brilliant catadores, pickers of recyclable materials, true Shakespearean characters who live and work in the garbage quoting Machiavelli and showing us how to recycle ourselves. Dir. Lucy Walker, Karen Harley.
"Contagion" follows the rapid progress of a lethal airborne virus that kills within days. As the fast-moving epidemic grows, the worldwide medical community races to find a cure and control the panic that spreads faster than the virus itself. At the same time, ordinary people struggle to survive in a society coming apart. Dir. Stephen Soderburgh
In this acclaimed French short, a haunted survivor of World War III journeys into the past in search of a fleeting memory, only to discover the terrifying moment of death. Dir. Chris Marker
In a dystopian near future, single people, according to the laws of The City, are taken to The Hotel, where they are obliged to find a romantic partner in forty-five days or are transformed into beasts and sent off into The Woods. Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos.
Haunted by his turbulent past, Mad Max believes the best way to survive is to wander alone. Nevertheless, he becomes swept up with a group fleeing across the Wasteland in a War Rig driven by an elite Imperator, Furiosa. They are escaping a Citadel tyrannized by the Immortan Joe, from whom something irreplaceable has been taken. Enraged, the Warlord marshals all his gangs and pursues the rebels ruthlessly in the high-octane Road War that follows. Dir. George Miller.
Crusading military research medico Hoffman identifies a deadly virus that's somehow made its way from Africa to the U.S. Now he has to race against the clock to stop it from spreading — little dreaming that his Army superiors have an agenda of their own. Dir. Wolfgang Peterson.
A black comedy set in 1967 and centered on on Larry Gopnik (Stuhlbarg), a Midwestern professor who watches his life unravel when his wife prepares to leave him because his inept brother (Kind) won't move out of the house. Dirs. Ethan and Joel Coen.
In an alternate present-day version of Oakland, telemarketer Cassius Green discovers a magical key to professional success, propelling him into a macabre universe. Dir. Boots Riley.
A metaphysical journey through an enigmatic postapocalyptic landscape, and a rarefied cinematic experience like no other. A hired guide--the Stalker--leads a writer and a professor into the heart of the Zone, the restricted site of a long-ago disaster, where the three men eventually zero in on the Room, a place rumored to fulfill one's most deeply held desires. Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky.
Amélie is looking for love, and perhaps for the meaning of life in general. We see her grow up in an original if slightly dysfunctional family. Now a waitress in central Paris, she interacts curiously with her neighbors and customers, as well as a mysterious Photomaton-image collector and one of his even more mysterious photo subjects. Little by little, Amélie realizes that the way to happiness (and yet more subtle humor) requires her to take her own initiative and reach out to others. Dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet.
One of the screen's Best-loved romances, this dazzling romantic comedy stars Aurdrey Hepburn as a free-spirited golddigger and George Peppard as a frustrated young writer. Dir. Blake Edwards.
A bureaucratic snafu sends Marco Tullio Sperelli, a portly, middle-aged northern Italian, to teach third grade in a poor town outside Naples. His first challenge is to increase attendance, collaring his students one by one from home, jobs, or delinquent idleness. Then he must convince his students that classroom learning has real-world payoffs. Meanwhile, Sperelli's students draw their gentle, self-deprecating teacher into their gritty lives outside the classroom. North-South contrasts abound, including a hilarious soliloquy on the nature of Switzerland. Dir. Lina Wertmuller.
Tracey Flick is running unopposed for this year's high school student council president election. But school civics teacher Jim McAllister has a different plan. Partly to establish a more democratic election, and partly to satisfy some deep personal anger towards Tracey, Jim talks popular varsity football player Paul Metzler to run for president as well. Dir. Alexander Payne.
This film excavates both the humor and pathos in the turbulent bond between a mother and her teenage daughter. Christine (Lady Bird) McPherson (Saoirse Ronan) fights against but is exactly like her wildly loving, deeply opinionated and strong-willed mom (Laurie Metcalf), a nurse working tirelessly to keep her family afloat after Lady Bird's father (Tracy Letts) loses his job. Set in Sacramento, California in 2002, amidst a rapidly shifting American economic landscape, Lady Bird is an affecting look at the relationships that shape us, the beliefs that define us, and the unmatched beauty of a place called home. Dir. Greta Gerwig.
Smoke Signals tells the story of the relationship between a father and his son. The story unfolds as Victor Joseph and another young Indigenous man from the reservation, Thomas Builds-the-Fire, set off to collect Arnold Joseph's pick-up truck and ashes from Arizona after Arnold has died. The two men remember Victor's father along the way, but their recollections are very different from each other. Victor learns many things about his father during his journey and, in the end, begins to understand, forgive, and grieve his loss. Dir. Chris Eyre.