5th Annual Spotlight on Academics

5th Annual Spotlight on Academics

Spotlight on Academics provides educators and discerning viewers with carefully selected specialty items under one small roof. Our judges are filmmakers and academics, and our audience is composed of people who want to learn through film. We market online to thousands of faculty at universities in several countries and we also open our doors to the public. This provides filmmakers with a targeted audience for potential sales and it provides viewers with access to a specialty boutique for an affordable price.

Spotlight on Academics is a film festival that recognizes the value of using film as a teaching tool and we are dedicated to presenting films that are suitable for use in post-secondary classrooms. Mostly, these are documentary films that are less than 90 minutes in length, but we are open to films in any format and on any subject. Films can also be in any language provided they come with English and/or French subtitles.

The Spotlight on Academics festival is held annually in Thunder Bay, Ontario and it is also streamed online through researchtv.ca to ensure the broadest possible audience.

Thunder Bay is located on Lake Superior between Toronto, Ontario, and Winnipeg, Manitoba, north-east of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and it is serviced by an international airport. Be sure to check out www.thunderbay.ca for more information about the city and region we call home.

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5th Annual Spotlight on Academics
  • The Darkness: Lessons on Solar Energy, Community, and Power

    00:20:00|United States|Directed by Nelson Varas-Díaz

    The Darkness” is an ethnographic documentary that captures the resilience of the ‘Alto de Cuba’ community in Puerto Rico as they confront disaster and darkness. Partnering with the grassroots organization ‘Casa Pueblo,’ they harness solar ener...

  • A Tale of Two Qallunaat

    Logline:

    A Tale of Two Qallunaat is a documentary about two intrepid women artists who travelled to the Arctic in the early 1970s and left a lasting legacy of their art and love of the Inuit and their land.

    Synopsis:

    This one hour documentary, narrated by Martha Flaherty, tells the tale of ...

  • SaffronRobe

    01:25:13|United States|Directed by Jane Centofante

    Saffron Robe is a feature documentary that follows a revered Buddhist abbot in the remote northern region of Laos as he navigates the challenges of a sacred life under a communist regime.

    An ambitious spiritual leader, Abbot Onekeo Sittivong...

  • Like A Mountain: Mindfulness for Young Caregivers

    00:25:31| Canada|Directed by Dr. Mike Lang

    Like a Mountain follows young caregiver Sam, cancer survivor Mike Lang, and mindfulness researcher and teacher Dr. Linda Carlson on a rugged Yukon mountain trek where nature becomes both challenge and teacher. Through candid conversations and mindfulnes...

  • Simulacrum

    00:20:20| Directed by Weronika Plińska, Wojciech Jankowski
    The story concerns life and work of Polish contemporary photographer Krzysztof Kris Marchlak. The documentary focuses specifically on the artist’s recreation of the Quattrocento and Mannerist iconography of Saint Sebastian through the med...

  • Eitai - Community Togetherness

    00:59:00|United Kingdom|Directed by sally bashford-squires

    Eitai, an Iteso word for community togetherness, is a documentary exploring change in rural Uganda. The film delves into the challenges faced by a rural community in Northeastern Uganda. Eitai explores critical global issues including th...

  • Simulating Religious Violence

    00:60:00| Italy|Directed by Jenn Lindsay

    After the Boston Marathon Bombing, a group of world-class experts in religion and computer science create cutting-edge simulations to predict and prevent religious radicalization and violence…but saving lives in the real world is harder than they thought.

  • THE LANGUAGE OF LIGHT: PONCH HAWKES

    00:23:35|Australia|Directed byFiona Cochrane

    A Melburnian, Ponch’s work has explored themes to do with women, sport (including circus), female bodies, relationships and identity. Starting out in the Pram Factory and early Circus Oz period, Ponch photographed circus performers, then extended out ...

  • A Remote Frontier

    00:06:26|Austria|Directed by Gina Mosely

    Far above the Arctic Circle lies one of the last true frontiers on Earth, Greenland’s remote and rugged north. In this visually stunning documentary, A Remote Frontier follows a team of scientists and explorers as they journey into an untouched wilderness...

  • Dabucuri

    00:52:11|Directed by Kurt Shaw, Rita Oenning da Silva

    In the past, the many ethnic groups of the upper Rio Negro gathered for Dabucuri festivals to dance, sing, and eat together. The festival provided an opportunity for the exchange of crafts and food, but also art, music, and perspectives.

    Th...

  • The Muster at at the Marquette

    00:10:00|Directed by Andrew Coons

    A short documentary following The Tolkien Fandom Oral History Collection which aims to gather 6,000 oral histories from fans around the world. The project is led by Dr. William Fliss, the archivist in charge of a special collection of J.R.R. Tolkien manuscripts ...

  • Cosmic Coda

    United States| 01:26:00|Directed by MJ Doherty

    In 1985 MIT grad students search for gravity. 30 years and 1 Nobel prize later they find it. The story – told as it happens – covers each end of the most famous discovery in physics. Through cartoons and a cow avatar, the clueless, but educable, ...

  • In the Midst of Art and Devotion

    00:35:05| Guatemala| Directed by Ayans Lam Miguez|
    This documentary explores the altarpieces, sculptures, paintings, and unique structures like the circular bell tower, showing how each element served as a catechetical tool and an expression of the fusion between the maya´s world and Catholic tra...

  • Seeds of the North

    00:20:00 | Canada | Directed by Jyothis Thomas
    Seeds of the North is a documentary film set in Thunder Bay, northern Ontario, Canada, centered around the Lakehead University Agricultural Research Station, known as LUARS. The film explores how agriculture, research, and community come together in ...

  • Our Threatened and Endangered Species: Allegheny Woodrats

    01:06:00|United States| Directed by Tracy Gracinao

    Our Threatened & Endangered Species: Allegheny Woodrat follows the Pennsylvania Game Commission and partners as they fight to save one of the state’s most elusive mammals. Once common across the Appalachian Mountains, the Allegheny woodrat has d...

  • Yungilla: A Sustainable Community

    00:30:00 | Canada | Directed by Ligia Simba-Bolaños

    This documentary showcases the way of life of the inhabitants of Yunguilla, an Ecuadorian community located in the province of Pichincha, which forms part of the Andean Bear corridor. Through the daily lives of its residents, this film presents...

  • Unconditional

    00:31:39|United Kingdom| Directed by Simon Wharf

    For 18 months every resident in 5 informal settlements called bastis in Bangladesh and India received a universal basic income.

    Unconditional tells the stories of people who participated in and ran these WorkFREE pilots.

    The projects provide...

  • BROWN – An Archaeological Perspective in 4 Layers

    12:00:00| United Kingdom |Directed by Sophie Jackson

    Much in archaeology is brown – the layers of soil and deposits, the sherds, the 300 plus variations shown in the Musel Chart. Every archaeologist knows that brown is not just brown – variation, nuance, difference tell us much. Through case stu...

  • You Dance Our Dance

    00:39:29|Canada|Directed by Brita Miko

    Indians throughout the world dance the dances that once belonged to a people. This is the story of who they were, how they were mistreated by those in power, and how one descendant is reclaiming her art.

  • A Pot Full of Dreams

    01:23:37|Sweden| Directed by Shiva Sanjari

    “A Pot Full of Dreams” is a documentary that explores food as a tool for community, compassion, and hope. The series follows future gastronome Rozbeh Javid on a journey through Iran, where kitchens of different religions prepare meals to bring people to...

  • Gert’s Boys

    00:19:45|United States|Directed by Sara Laura Schwartz

    Gert’s Boys centers on Cindy “Gert” McMullin, an original volunteer and co-founder of The AIDS Memorial Quilt. The Quilt was launched in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood in 1987, the epicenter of the AIDS crisis, as a social action tool t...

  • Interplay

    The malaria mosquito is born ‘clean’. Only after an infected blood meal and taking on various forms does the malaria parasite end up in the mosquito’s saliva, ready to claim a new human victim when the mosquito next bites. ‘It’s such a clever beast,’ says Bousema.

  • Grad Students, Talking

    00:55:50|Directed by Matt Rogers

    A documentary project focusing on six UNB graduate students as they interview one another about their unique research projects and experiences in grad school.

  • Invisible Machines

    00:24:00|Canada| Directed by Yelena Gluzman

    This is an experimental ethnographic film about captioners who use stenotype machines to transcribe speech to text in real time for d/Deaf students in the classroom. The film reflexively recreates the gaps in the work of interpretation and translation ...