Welcome to the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema – one of the only documentary cinemas in the world. The renovated century-old cinema is an historic landmark in Toronto, providing Hot Docs with a permanent home for its annual festival and a unique opportunity to present year-round documentary programming. The cinema features special documentary events and screenings, hosts many of Toronto’s film festivals, and offers fiction film programming, as well as some beloved Bloor classics.

Distributed by Joel Heath

WINNER—Audience Choice Best Environmental Film & Top Ten Canadian Films, Vancouver International Film Festival 2011
WINNER—Best British Columbia Film, Vancouver Film Critics Circle 2011


People of a Feather is a breathtaking journey into the remote world of the Belcher Islands Inuit people. Uniting this community’s past and present is their cultural connection with the eider duck, a species now suffering massive die-offs. Eider down, the warmest feather in the world, is essential for surviving harsh Arctic winters. But both the Inuit and the eiders are struggling to adapt to changing sea dynamics as seasons and ocean currents are reversed by run-off from hydroelectric dams that power North America’s entire eastern seaboard. Filmed over seven winters, Arctic ecologist and cinematographer Joel Heath’s debut feature employs stunning time-lapse photography and under water footage to create an authentic and insightful portrayal of a community challenged by a changing environment. This stunning piece of visual poetry weaves past with present to powerfully acknowledge humankind’s relationship with nature and the fragility of our existence. Michelle Latimer, Hot Docs

In English and Inuktitut with English subtitles.

Director Joel Heath and members of the Sanikiluaq community featured in the film will be in attendance on Friday, April 20, and Saturday, April 21, for post-screening audience discussions.

Co-presented with imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival.

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