Shaped by History

Journalist Sathnam Sanghera examines the 1919 Amritsar massacre, when troops under British command shot and killed peaceful protestors.

Former miners and police officers recall the Battle of Orgreave – a violent flashpoint during Britain's 1984/85 Miners’ Strike.

At 99 years old, cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch recounts her experiences playing in a prisoner orchestra at Auschwitz.

Filmmaker Keira Loughran and Helen Lee set out to examine the legacy of their respective grandmothers - women of indomitable spirit who fought against Canada’s anti-Chinese immigration laws.

Nearly 75 years ago, Kwakwaka’wakw Chief Mungo Martin and Jewish ethnomusicologist Ida Halpern saved over a hundred Kwak'wala songs from being lost forever.

Barely 700 people survived the sinking of the Titanic, including six Chinese men. But their arrival in New York was met with suspicion.

Two doctors share their stories of displacement during the Second World War - a Japanese Canadian man born in Vancouver, and a Canadian born in Japan.

The history of British Columbia is retold from a diverse and inclusive perspective by those who have lived it and those who have studied it.

Renowned Chinese Australian artist Jiawei Shen undertakes a massively ambitious artwork about the history of communism.

This docudrama tells the story of logger-turned-environmentalist Grant Hadwin's destruction of a 300-year-old tree held sacred by the Haida.

In the early days of the AIDS epidemic, a gay French-Canadian flight attendant was vilified after he was wrongly identified as Patient Zero.

Filmmaker Sherman De Jesus explores the legacy of James Van Der Zee, a Black photographer whose lens captured the people and spirit of Harlem.

Some 70 years after the Japanese Army forced them into sexual slavery during the Second World War, three former "comfort women" share their stories.

Chronicles the love, life and legacy of Art Johnston and Pepe Peña, Chicago LGBTQ+ pioneers and owners of the iconic queer bar Sidetrack.

Director Mina Shum reopens the file on a watershed moment in Canadian race relations - the infamous Sir George Williams riot.

Haida filmmaker Christopher Auchter chronicles the 1985 logging blockade on Lyell Island, when the Haida Nation took a stand for the future.

Narrated by William Shatner, this documentary recounts the development, production and testing of nuclear weapons between 1945 and 1963.

Alanis Obomsawin follows the journey of a Cree community’s attempts to enforce their treaty rights.

Filmmaker Cheryl Foggo examines the myths surrounding John Ware, a Black cowboy who settled in Alberta before the turn of the 20th century.

In 1939, Velma was jailed for falling in love with a Chinese man. Decades later, she fought for justice from the Canadian government.

Punjabi-Black singer Judi Singh was a fixture in the Edmonton jazz scene from the 1950s to 1970s, yet her legacy is largely forgotten.

Métis/Dene filmmaker Marie Clements navigates the cultural complexities stemming from the work of American photographer Edward Curtis.

Director Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers tells the story of the Musqueam's vigil to halt a Vancouver condo development that unearthed ancestral remains.

Alanis Obomsawin looks at a dark day during the 1990 Oka Crisis, when a convoy of women, children and Elders was pelted with rocks.

Haida filmmaker Christopher Auchter revisits the 1969 raising of Robert Davidson's totem pole on Haida Gwaii - the first in almost a century.