Five emerging filmmakers explore culture, belonging, identity and what it means to be Canadian in a new NFB and TIFF documentary showcase
Toronto audiences will have the chance to discover five emerging Canadian filmmakers this September as the National Film Board of Canada and the Toronto International Film Festival present REDEFINED, a new short documentary initiative focused on the changing ways Canadians understand identity, belonging and community.
The five films will premiere on Wednesday, September 16, at 6 p.m. ET at TIFF Lightbox Cinema 3, before becoming available worldwide through the NFB.
Developed following a nationwide call for submissions, REDEFINED brings together a new generation of filmmakers whose work looks at Canadian and Indigenous identity through deeply personal stories. The resulting films move across animation, documentary, experimental filmmaking and personal storytelling, offering perspectives shaped by different communities and experiences across the country.
For Toronto audiences, the programme also has a particularly local connection. Two of the five filmmakers are based in the city, with Toronto-based writer, director and artist Prajj presenting Butter Chicken to Go, while Halifax-born, Toronto-based filmmaker Sylvia Mok presents Restaurant Kids.
Together, the five films examine culture, memory, food, family, urban life and the search for belonging, while asking broader questions about how Canada is changing and how its stories are being told.
Five filmmakers, five perspectives
The REDEFINED showcase begins with RE/ROUTE, a nine-minute, 18-second film by Montreal filmmaker Gabrielle Côté.
Using surreal transformations of real-world imagery, Côté explores two different visions of urban life and considers how the cities Canadians build can influence the way people live, interact and imagine the future.
Côté uses image collage as a form of social observation. Her previous animated documentary shorts include Fenêtres sur Montréal and Des gens vivent ici, both of which examine contemporary urban experiences.
The programme then turns to food, family and Indigenous identity with pahkwêsikan sâkihitowin: Bannock is Love, a 10-minute, 39-second film by Tyra Delver.
A Two-Spirited artist, photographer and filmmaker from Saddle Lake Cree Nation in Treaty 6 territory in Alberta, Delver centres the film around bannock and the way a familiar food can connect generations.
Family, friends and members of the community gather around the traditional food as the film reflects on memory, identity and connection. Delver’s filmmaking is rooted in lived experience and personal truth, drawing on generations of Indigenous artistic expression.
The third film, Where Our Flowers Grow, comes from Maxime Kornachuk, a Red River Métis animator.
Running 11 minutes, the animated documentary follows Métis people of different ages as they share experiences of reconnecting with their culture. Their individual stories become part of a larger portrait of cultural resurgence and belonging.
Kornachuk, a graduate of Université de Saint-Boniface’s Multimedia Communications programme, draws on Métis beadwork traditions in his visual approach. His use of stop-motion and rotoscope animation provides a way to explore identity and memory while connecting traditional artistic practices with contemporary filmmaking.
A Toronto story about restaurant families
For Toronto audiences, Restaurant Kids offers a particularly familiar setting.
The 12-minute, 21-second documentary by Sylvia Mok looks at the experiences of Chinese restaurant families in Halifax, focusing on the sacrifices, resilience and sense of community that shaped a generation growing up in family-run restaurants.
Mok brings a personal connection to the subject. She describes herself as a “restaurant kid”, having grown up in her family’s restaurant after her parents immigrated from Hong Kong.
The Halifax-born, Toronto-based writer and director graduated from York University with a BFA in 2026 and is interested in contributing her perspective to Canada’s evolving film and television landscape.
While the film focuses on Halifax, its themes are likely to resonate strongly with Toronto audiences, where family-run restaurants and immigrant-owned businesses have long been an important part of neighbourhood life and the city’s cultural landscape.
South Asian delivery drivers take centre stage in Toronto
The fifth film brings the story directly onto Toronto’s streets.
In Butter Chicken to Go, Toronto-based writer, director and artist Prajj follows South Asian delivery drivers navigating the city during a winter evening dinner rush.
The 11-minute, 48-second documentary uses the drivers’ experiences to explore migration, identity and belonging. As they move through Toronto’s streets, they reflect on the individual journeys that brought them to Canada, revealing experiences that ultimately connect to a much broader search for a place to call home.
Prajj’s work spans film, video art, installation and zines, with a style described as playful and genre-bending. Previous work has screened at TIFF Next Wave, the Reel Asian Film Festival and Toronto Youth Shorts.
The film’s focus on delivery workers and the city at night also gives REDEFINED a distinctly contemporary Toronto perspective, connecting questions of immigration and belonging with the everyday reality of people working their way through one of Canada’s largest and most diverse cities.
A new generation of Canadian filmmakers
REDEFINED was developed by the National Film Board of Canada in collaboration with TIFF, with the filmmakers receiving mentorship and production support from the NFB over the course of a year.
The initiative is intended not only to showcase five completed films, but also to provide a platform for emerging filmmakers to develop their voices and reach wider Canadian audiences.
“At a time when understanding one another has never been more important, the filmmakers of REDEFINED are bringing fresh perspectives to the conversation about who we are as Canadians and who we are becoming,” said Suzanne Guèvremont, Government Film Commissioner and NFB Chairperson. “The many voices and experiences that shape this country are a source of strength.”
TIFF Chief Programming Officer Anita Lee similarly described the five documentaries as examples of the creativity and distinct perspectives emerging from a new generation of Canadian filmmakers.
The partnership also connects REDEFINED with TIFF’s ongoing support for emerging talent, including the TIFF Next Wave programme.
When and where to see REDEFINED in Toronto
The five films will premiere as a showcase at TIFF Lightbox, Cinema 3, on Wednesday, September 16, 2026, at 6 p.m. ET.
Following the Toronto premiere, the REDEFINED films will also be available worldwide through the National Film Board.
For Toronto filmgoers interested in discovering emerging Canadian filmmakers, the showcase offers an opportunity to see five very different approaches to a shared question: what does it mean to be Canadian today?
Rather than attempting to provide one definition, REDEFINED presents a collection of voices shaped by different communities, histories and experiences. From bannock and Métis beadwork to family restaurants and Toronto delivery routes, the films suggest that Canadian identity is less a single story than a collection of stories continually being written.
REDEFINED premieres Wednesday, September 16, 2026, at 6 p.m. at TIFF Lightbox Cinema 3 in Toronto. The films will also be available worldwide through the NFB.
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