The folks at Kingston Canadian Film Festival definitely got the memo. They know that audiences are burning up for Heated Rivalry this winter. Besides offering a special screening of the hit series with a panel discussion, there’s a special dose of hockey in this year’s KCFF line-up, plus one healthy serving of sex positivity—although not of the same variety as the hit Crave series.
KCFF opens with the hockey drama Youngblood, Oscar-nominated doc director Hubert Davis’s remake of the 1986 film. Youngblood also features the final screenplay from the late Charles Officer as it tells the story of hockey prodigy Dean Youngblood (Ashton James).
On the documentary side, hockey shoots a trip down memory lane in Team of the Century, Annie Stewart’s look back at the London Knights’ record-setting 2004-2005 season. And to heat things up while offering much food for thought, Nicole Bazuin’s Modern Whore playfully explores the complexity of sex work in the contemporary landscape. There’s also a big event to reunite some notable figures from Canada’s early TV hit with Degrassi: Whatever It Takes, although if memory serves correct, Degrassi focuses a lot more on the birds and bees than on slap shots. The 1980s’ budget never really allowed for the students to hit the rink, but where would Heated Rivalry be without Degrassi?
Here are some of the feature documentary highlights at this year’s KCFF, running from February 25 to March 1. Not all documentaries may contain spicy faceoffs, but please don’t hold that against them.
Agatha’s Almanac
Thurs, Feb. 26 & Fri, Feb. 27
Much like its mature star, Agatha’s Almanac keeps on truckin’. One of the most acclaimed Canadian docs of 2025, and the only one to make Canada’s Top Ten, marks a solid year-long run on the festival circuit with its stop in Kngston. Director Amalie Atkins offers a lovingly eclectic portrait of nonagenarian Agatha Bock and her passion for gardening in this true work of art, which POV called one of the top 10 docs of 2025. The film reminds audiences of the simple pleasures afforded by connecting with the Earth and being self-sustaining. “Shot in wondrously luminous 16mm images by cinematographer Rhayne Vermette, Agatha’s Almanac radiates with the pure joy that these rituals afford Bock daily. The loving colour palette accentuates the ripeness of Agatha’s bountiful and juicy fruits, from succulent red strawberries to eye-poppingly pink watermelons,” wrote Pat Mullen in his review at Hot Docs. “The weathered character of Agatha’s lived-in abode provides aesthetically pleasing contrasts, while her vibrant wardrobe, curated in collaboration with Atkins, ensure that the titular aunt’s personality radiates in every frame.”
The Art of Adventure
Sat, Feb. 28
Alison Reid’s tenderly offbeat look at artist Robert Bateman and biologist/filmmaker Bristol Foster captures the awe and wonder inspired by visiting foreign lands and expanding one’s worldview. The Art of Adventure explores Bateman and Foster’s global tour in the 1950s as they visited Africa and Asia in their Land Rover the Grizzly Torque while the former painted the splendid sights of the world and the latter captured them on film. The documentary observes as the friends seek to reclaim the Grizzly Torque decades later with new perspectives about their responsibilities as artists. The archival footage from the friends’ trip will surely inspire some travel plans during the cold months ahead. Read more about the film in Jason Gorber’s interview with Reid, Bateman, and Foster.
Degrassi: Whatever It Takes
Sat, Feb. 28
Get schooled on the history of a series that continues to define Canadian television with a look back at Degrassi. Director Lisa Rideout chronicles the extensive history of the hit show that taught so many kids and teens life lessons when it was too awkward to ask their parents. The film explores the many iterations of Degrassi as classes change and the show adapts to the languages, lifestyles, and norms of new generations. The fashion never quite beats the 1980s’ threads, but Rideout’s film credits Degrassi for being a trendsetter, if an imperfect one, for representing a diversity of young experiences so that all viewers could see themselves on screen. “We came up with the idea of ‘teen beats’ because when I was researching, I tried to put myself back and think about what characterizes being a teen and all those emotions that we have,” said Rideout in an interview with POV. “It really is that everything’s a first for you, so you have this heightened experience of your first kiss, your first party, and I really wanted to include that because it would resonate with people and it would put us back into that mindset of being a teen.”
I Lost Sight of the Landscape
Sat, Feb. 28 & Sun, Mar. 1
If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again. Filmmaker Sophie Bédard Marcotte challenges herself with a strange and Sisyphean task to explore the creative process in I Lost Sight of the Landscape. She endeavours to make her film in a free-flowing way by embracing the curveballs that life throws at her. This conceit means she ends up making her film 16 times, but her offbeat exercise opens the work in ways she never imagined. “By ending far from where she originally intended, Marcotte finds a rather lyrical poetry to documentary as a medium,” Rachel Ho notes in her review of the film. “Too often we watch non-fiction films with a clear agenda and a narrative that the director and editor clearly attempt to drive home. We’re fed a tapestry of images and interviews that express an answer to a thesis already determined before a camera sets up for its first shot. Marcotte, perhaps because of the wayward phase of life she found herself in at the beginning, sees through a documentary in its purest form.”
Modern Whore
Thurs, Feb. 26 & Fri, Feb. 27
Former Kingston landmark the Plaza might no longer be around to host a KCFF afterparty, but audiences can get insightful perspectives about sex work and exotic dancing in this festival circuit hit. Modern Whore injects fresh sensibilities into the labour rights of sex workers as Andrea Werhun shares her thoughts on what it means to bring the oldest profession into the 21st Century. Werhun, who previously appeared in Sook Yin Lee’s dramedy Paying for It and served as a consultant on Sean Baker’s Oscar winner Anora, brings a playful presence to Nicole Bazuin’s hybrid film that’s as artful as it is edgy by casting the star in dramatic episodes that reinterpret events that are obviously too intimate to film by conventional means. “This piece combines the authenticity of documentary with the stylization and narrative possibilities of fiction filmmaking in the hybrid format,” Bazuin said in an interview with POV. “I’m hoping it grounds the audience in the feeling that they’re not only getting Andrea performing her story, playing herself over the course of many years, but also getting her truthful commentary of those events.”
Ni-Naadamaadiz: Red Power Rising
Thurs, Feb. 26 & Fri, Feb. 27
A powerful story of protest and resistance comes in this documentary that revisits the 1974 Ojibway Warriors occupation of Anicinabe Park near Kenora, Ontario in response to violence and systemic racism. The film throws light on an overlooked story in Canadian history as director Shane Belcourt (Beautiful Scars) and writer/producer Tanya Talaga (Spirit to Soar) revisit how 150 people sought to reclaim the green space that served as a gathering place for the community in Treaty 3 territory. It shares how the late Louis Cameron fearlessly led the Ojibway Warriors in a stand that drew attention to government inaction, systemic violence, illegal land sales, and neglect for the community, including concerns regarding water tainted with mercury—issues that remain tragically relevant today. “Rightfully giving Cameron and the other protesters the praise they deserve, Ni-Naadamaadiz: Red Power Rising is a moving celebration of the unbreakable nature of the Indigenous spirit. Belcourt’s film highlights why it is important to keep these stories, and those who lived to tell it, at the forefront of Canada’s history,” wrote Courtney Small in his review of the film. Read more about Ni-Naadamaadiz: Red Power Rising in our interview with Belcourt and Talaga.
Team of the Century
Sat, Feb. 28
Don’t forget the local heroes while travelling the film circuit. Kingston filmmaker Annie Stewart revisits the banner 2004-2005 season for the London Knights in this classically composed sports doc. The film features perspectives from the players and staff who contributed to the record-setting season in which the Knights went undefeated in 31 consecutive games, winning 29 and tying two of them. Team of the Century offers an insiders’ snapshot of the gold old hockey game and what the sport means not just for young athletes, but also the community that rallies behind them. The film is sure to keep the flame going for any fever sparked by the Olympics—although film buffs looking for some hot action between the players might want to attend KCFF’s Heated Rivalry event instead.
True North
Sat, Feb. 28 & Sun, Mar. 1
A snapshot of Canada’s Black Power movement and resistance fuels Michèle Stephenson’s provocatively jazzy documentary that spotlights voices who pushed for change. True North revisits the 1969 protest at Montreal’s Sir George Williams University (now Concordia) where students occupied the ninth floor computer lab to draw attention to systemic racism at the institution. Stephenson mixes archival footage with new interviews with participants who led the occupation, often at great personal expense. The film boldly pushes back against the cozy image of Canada as an all-loving and tolerant nation. “It’s not part of our collective Canadian consciousness, for example, like Selma is for the United States,” Stephenson told POV. “But we know those historical moments, the petite histories that they talk about, whether it’s Rockhead’s Paradise and these clubs. We relied on the accounts of our elders. I truly believe that these interviews that we’ve done, the full length of them, should be part of our Canadian national archive.”
We Walk through the Fire Together
Thurs, Feb. 27
Kingston’s Prison for Women housed inmates from 1834 until it was closed in 2000. The stories of incarcerated women fuel this documentary by Dakota Ward and Michael Benia. While cameras went inside the prison for dramas like Alias Grace and, most notably, for Janis Cole and Holly Dale’s 1981 Genie Award winner P4W Prison for Women, We Talk through the Fire Together takes a retrospective approach to the carceral system and its impact on women as participants share traumatic experiences as well as the ways in which they healed themselves afterwards. The screening includes and an extended conversation that invites festivalgoers to process these stories of resilience.
