The organizers of the 2026 ReFrame Film Festival have unveiled the full lineup of the more than 40 new international documentary films that will be screened when festival is held in downtown Peterborough from January 30 to February 1 and online across Canada from February 3 to February 8.
Each year, the lineup is carefully curated over months of thoughtful review and decision-making by the festival’s creative director Eryn Lidster and the volunteer programming advisory committee. To help audiences plan their experiences, the films are divided into thematic collections that draw attention to the stylistic choices or subject matter.
This year’s collections consist of “Art Beat” (exploring growth and resistance powered by art), “A Thousand Words” (exploring the ways in which text and images connect us, divide us, and shape how we see the world), “Flora & Fauna” (exploring relationships with other beings), “Sharp Angles” (spotlighting how documentary craft invites a new perspective), “Women Everywhere” (examining women speaking out and sharing stories), and “Windows In” (stories that invite us into intimate community and family spaces).
Featuring both feature-length and short films, the in-person screenings will take place in downtown Peterborough at Showplace Performance Centre (290 George St. N.) and Market Hall Performing Arts Centre (140 Charlotte St.), and just over half the films will also be available in the virtual programming.
The in-person programming will kick off on Friday, January 30 at 4:45 p.m. with a screening of Ocean Seen from the Heart and Echoes in the Steel at Showplace and The Nest at Market Hall.
The following films will only be screening in person at Showplace or Market Hall:
- Endless Cookie – 97 min. – Friday, January 30 at 7:30 p.m. at Market Hall
- We’ll Go Down in History – 25 min. – Saturday, January 31 at 10 a.m. at Market Hall
- The Librarians – 92 min. – Saturday, January 31 at 10 a.m. at Market Hall
- Leveret Road – 15 min. – Saturday, January 31 at 12:30 p.m. at Showplace
- Future Council – 87 min. – Saturday, January 31 at 12:30 p.m. at Showplace
- Zanana – 6 min. – Saturday, January 31 at 4:45 p.m. at Showplace
- Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk – 112 min). – Saturday, January 31 at 4:45 p.m. at Showplace
- Each to their Own World – 16 min. – Saturday, January 31 at 7:30 p.m. at Showplace
- Life After – 99 min. – Saturday, January 31 at 7:30 p.m. at Showplace
- The Survival of the Wood Canoe – 20 min. – Sunday, February 1 at 10 a.m. at Showplace
- Agatha’s Almanac – 96 min. – Sunday, February 1 at 10 a.m. at Showplace
- Heightened Scrutiny – 89 min. – Sunday, February 1 at 12:30 p.m. at Market Hall
- Sister Love Mother Child – 12 min. – Sunday, February 1 at 2:45 p.m. at Showplace
- Requiem for a Tribe – 52 min. – Sunday, February 1 at 2:45 at Showplace
- Inga – 28 min. – Sunday, February 1 at 4:45 p.m. at Market Hall
- Zurawski V Texas – 99 min. – Sunday, February 1 at 4:45 at Showplace
- Shropshire Sheep Scandal – 22 min. – Sunday, February 1 at 7:30 p.m. at Market Hall
- Mr. Possibility – 24 min. – Sunday, February 1 at 7:30 p.m. at Showplace
- Silver Screamers – 94 min. – Sunday, February 1 at 7:30 p.m. at Showplace
VIDEO: “Holloway” (2024) trailer
One of the most notable feature films on the lineup comes from local filmmaker Dr. Jenny Ingram, a trailblazer in geriatric medicine and seniors’ care. Based in Peterborough, Ingram founded the Kawartha Centre as a site for international Alzheimer research trials.
Her 2025 film No More Silent Battles explores the experiences of four families navigating the complexities of dementia care, revealing their resilience and resourcefulness, and analyzing the critical role of community support. It explores the impacts of trained home care providers and the urgent need to develop policies and funding that support dementia care at home.
No More Silent Battles is featured in the “Windows In” collection and will be screened virtually and at Market Hall on Saturday, January 31 at 4:45 p.m.
Another highlight on the lineup is Holloway, which is featured in the “Women Everywhere” collection and is directed by Dairy-May Hudson and Sophie Compton. The deeply personal film follows six women as they return to the now-abandoned infamous Holloway Prison in London, Englandm sharing some of their most intimate experiences, unravelling what led them to incarceration, and presenting an eye-opening portrait of failing systems and trauma.
The film is being screened both virtually and in person on Saturday, January 31 at 12:30 p.m. at Market Hall.
In his 2024 film Future Council, director Damon Gameau takes viewers on an inspiring and humourous journey described as “School of Rock meets An Inconvenient Truth.” The film follows eight children who are invited on an adventure across Europe in a school bus powered by biofuel, with the mission of better understanding the planet’s predicament and exploring solutions. The children then form a “Future Council,” and take the conversations about protecting the planet and the future from the streets to the boardroom to advise and influence the world’s largest polluters and most influential companies.
The film is only being screened in person at Showplace on Saturday, January 31 at 12:30 p.m.
VIDEO: “Future Council” (2024) trailer
Another not-to-be-missed feature is At All Kosts by Joseph Hillel, which explores how artists use the performing arts as a mode of resistance in Haiti in the time of cholera and street gangs. The 2024 film follows young people born after the Duvalier dictatorship who have lived through 19 presidents, 36 prime ministers, eight coups d’etat, three foreign military interventions, and two major earthquakes.
Following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021, the country has been abandoned to the criminality of gangs who terrorize the population, yet still these artists gravitate to a unique creative space where theatre comes to life for ten days every year.
The film is featured in the “Art Beat” collection and will be screened virtually and in person on Saturday, January 31 at 2:45 p.m. at Market Hall.
In ReFrame’s lineup of locally made films, audiences will not only be familiar with some of the filmmakers but will recognize some of the subjects and places the films explore.
This includes Echoes in the Steel by award-winning Peterborough filmmaker Rob Viscardis. The 2025 film follows Douro-based metal artist Garrett Gilbart after his long-favoured vintage car scrapyard closed for environmental remediation. Garrett must let go of a defining source of inspiration and material for one body of his work and accept his own continued transformation as an artist.
The short film will be screened at Showplace on Friday, January 30 at 4:45 and online throughout the virtual festival.
VIDEO: “At All Kosts” (2024) trailer
Directed by award-winning filmmaker Maya Bastian, Shropshire Sheep Scandal is a short documentary that follows a farmer named Montana Jones in Hastings in the Municipality of Trent Hills who, starting in 2010, fought to protect her flock of rare Shropshire sheep from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency that alleged the animals were diseased. The night before their scheduled slaughter, however, the sheep vanished, and left in their place was a note from a mysterious organization called the “Farmers Peace Corps.” It was the beginning of a years-long legal and emotional odyssey for Jones, who refused to back down in the fight for her flock.
The film, categorized in the “Flora & Fauna” Collection, will be only available for in-person screening on Sunday, February 1 at 7:30 p.m. at Market Hall.
Another local film was produced by Degrassi creator Linda Schuyler and directed by Will Bowes. Home explores the community-wide reckoning that happens when Cobourg’s unhoused community find an unlikely sanctuary on a vacant heritage estate owned by the provincial government. The film unveils the powerful stories of those living in the encampment, while delving into the history of the land, chronicling the grassroots efforts offering aid, capturing the unease of nearby residents, and exposing the escalating political stakes as the province prepares to sell the property.
The 2025 film is part of the virtual programming and will also be screened at Showplace on Saturday, January 31 at 2:45 p.m.
Other local short films include Mr. Possible by Matt Snell, The Survival of the Wooden Canoe produced by Joan Barrett and co-directed by Snell, Joan Barrett, and Rodney Fuentes, and the short film They Called it the Butcher Shop: The Fleck Strike in Images by Lauren Stoyles.
There are four festival pass options currently on sale, including a $145 hybrid pass that allows access to all in-person and online film screenings, a $120 all-access in-person pass, a $75 watch-with-a-friend virtual pass, and a $60 single virtual pass.
For festival passes and to see the full lineup for the 2026 ReFrame Film Festival, visit reframefilmfestival.ca.
kawarthaNOW is proud to be a media sponsor of the 2026 ReFrame Film Festival.
