Fight

La philosophie de Randy Baleski se résume ainsi : « la boxe sauve les enfants ». Enseignant au secondaire à Winnipeg et ancien boxeur, Randy Baleski possède une méthode unique pour aider les élèves risquant l'échec scolaire : les faire monter sur le ring. Combat nous présente deux de ses recrues : Rene Catcheway et Melvin Delorme, des adolescents autochtones issus de milieux perturbés. La mère de Melvin buvait et ramenait « n'importe quel type » à la maison. L'un d'eux a d'ailleurs tenté d'étrangler Melvin. Rene, quant à lui, vit seul et échoue la plupart de ses cours. Voilà qu'ils entrent dans l'univers de la boxe. Melvin et Rene multiplient les entraînements exténuants (pompes, saut à la corde, etc.) et en viennent à comprendre que la boxe est davantage un mode de vie qu'un sport. On ne boxe pas. On devient un boxeur : une personne à la vie régie par la discipline et le respect. Mais la boxe seule ne permet pas toujours de rompre avec une existence jalonnée de coups durs. Melvin est déterminé à obtenir son diplôme et à terminer des études postsecondaires. Rene éprouve une désillusion croissante quant à l'école. Avec Baleski dans leur camp, sortiront-ils vainqueurs?

Riel Country features young adults from two distinct Winnipeg neighbourhoods, on either side of the Red River as they struggle to overcome geographical and cultural barriers. High school students from the predominantly Indigenous North End, with the support of their peers from the Francophone district of St. Boniface, work to produce a play on the origins of the Métis--a theme which links both groups to Louis Riel's dream of a society in which respect for difference is a founding principle. How do these youths foresee their role and place within their respective communities? How do these minority communities co-exist with the predominant culture? How are prevailing intolerance and racism dealt with from both sides of the river? Victims of discrimination, these two groups share their experiences in view of better understanding themselves and others.

Second Stories follows on the heels of the enormously successful First Stories project, which produced three separate collections of short films from Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. First Stories films have gone on to win many awards, both collectively and individually, in national and international festivals and competitions. Second Stories builds on that success by providing a continuum of training for three of the twelve Indigenous filmmakers who delivered such compelling documentary shorts. Through this unique mentoring and training process, Second Stories filmmakers have a chance to hone their storytelling craft (in a professional production experience), while working with a strong creative team to assist in the realization of their half-hour documentaries. Each of the filmmakers selected were assigned a story consultant/story editor and an NFB producer. As was the case with First Stories, the emphasis is on enabling Indigenous filmmakers to tell the stories that are important to them and their communities. The partners in this special initiative are CBC, APTN, SCN, SaskFilm and MANITOBA FILM & SOUND. The Settlement It Had To Be Done explores the legacy of residential schools through the eyes of two extraordinary women who not only lived it firsthand, but who, as adults, made the surprising choice to return to the school that had affected their lives so profoundly. This intimate and moving film affirms their strength and dignity in standing up and making a difference on their own terms.