Headlights illuminate a winding road through a forest at dusk.

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Unama'ki / Cape Breton Film Festival Society

LXCL:Unama'ki / Cape Breton Film Festival Society celebrates local storytelling through film, fostering cultural exchange and community engagement while showcasing diverse voices and perspectives from Unama'ki / Cape Breton.

Join filmmaker Neal Livingston for a practical session on how to plan and shoot a documentary as a one-person crew. Since 1976, Neal has produced, written, and directed award-winning documentaries exploring environmental issues, social justice, history, humour, and experimental storytelling. Many of his films reflect his commitment to community activism and Nova Scotia&rsquo;s social and environmental issues.

Independent Documentary Film Making with Neal Livingston:  The How-to of a One-Person Crew

Suggested Donation $10. Free for pass holders.Featuring Songs of Nova Scotia (1958), The Chairmaker and the Boys (1959), and Song of Seasons (1977).Artist Caitrian MacNeil and Christie MacNeil of Eltuek Arts Centre present the work of photographer, cinematographer, and filmmaker Grant Crabtree, who made East Margaree his home in the 1970s. The screening explores his films, the people and places they capture, and a changing Cape Breton.

The Films of Grant Crabtree, with Caitrian and Christie MacNeil

Justine Williamson and Greg Vardy are the Cape Breton comedy duo behind Tracy and Martina, two best friends whose sketches, podcast, and books have made them one of the most recognized acts on the East Coast. Their first feature film, Tracy and Martina Goin Out West, is a mockumentary that follows the pair on a real trip to Alberta, where they were booked to open for the band Slowcoaster and nearly did not make it home. Tracy and Martina Goin Out West won the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the 2026 Calgary Underground Film Festival.

Tracy & Martina: Goin' Out West

Join Cape Breton Film Industry Liaison Bill Culp for a look at the island&rsquo;s film history and its growing future. Featuring an island-wide panel, the presentation celebrates classic films including Bay Boy, New Waterford Girl, Margaret&rsquo;s Museum, and My Bloody Valentine, while offering a glimpse into what&rsquo;s next for Cape Breton&rsquo;s film community.

Yesterday and Today: The History of Cape Breton Film, Presentation by Bill Culp

Suggested Donation $10. Free for pass holders.Featuring It&rsquo;s Just Better, Folk Art Found Me, and Scoggie.Join acclaimed graphic novelist and author Kate Beaton and award-winning writer and professor Alexander MacLeod for a screening and conversation exploring class, storytelling, and na&iuml;vet&eacute; in film.

Three NFB Takes on Class, with Kate Beaton and Alexander MacLeod

Based on true events and laced with wry humour, STILL MINE is a heartfelt love story about an 89-year-old New Brunswicker (James Cromwell) who comes up against the system when he sets out to build a more suitable house for his wife (Genevi&egrave;ve Bujold), suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer&#39;s.&nbsp;

Still Mine, with Director Michael McGowan

Celebrate the first year of the film festival with fine music by The Hot Club of Dartmouth.Featuring: Donald MacLennan - violin, Michael Dalton - guitar, &nbsp;Jordan Stephens - double bass, Matt Myer -trumpet, and Tom Richards - trombone.

Live Music: The Hot Club of Dartmouth

An experimental feature about memory, perception, and reality. When novelist Noelle Fraga&rsquo;s world begins to blur between fact and fiction, her loved ones must navigate the changing reality of dementia with empathy, humour, and grief. Directed by Angela Lemos and filmed in Cape Breton.

Asleep by Windows

Family FilmThe&nbsp;Secret of Roan Inish is a 1994 independent fantasy-adventure film written and directed by John Sayles. It is based on the 1957 novel Secret of the Ron Mor Skerry, by Rosalie K. Fry.It is centred on the Irish and Orcadian folklores of selkies&mdash;seals that can shed their skins to become human. The story, set on the west coast of Ulster in the north-west of Ireland, is about Fiona, a young Irish girl with an unusual family history, including a long-missing baby brother. When she goes to live with her grandparents on the west coast of Ireland, Fiona hears stories about her ancestors, tales that involve mythical creatures called selkies who can shift from seal to human form. After Fiona ends up on the small island of Roan Inish, her family&#39;s ancestral home, she believes she may have found her little brother living by the sea.

The Secret of Roan Inish

Siblings Mise&rsquo;l and Antle, close confidants as children, have drifted apart as adults. When a malevolent spirit begins tormenting them, the siblings are forced to reunite and journey into Sk+te&rsquo;kmujue&rsquo;katik (the Place of Ghosts), a primordial forest that exists outside of time, to confront their violent upbringing.Sk+te&rsquo;kmujue&rsquo;katik (At The Place of Ghosts) is a visceral supernatural thriller, 11 years in the writing, elevated by the deeply personal work of Two-Spirit, L&rsquo;nu filmmaker Bretten Hannam from Kespukwitk, L&rsquo;nuekati (Nova Scotia). Their films deal with themes of community, culture, and language with a focus on Two-Spirit and LGBTQ+ identity.

At the Place of Ghosts

Tickets must still be reserved per event. Discount code provided by email.$65 Pass for access to all screenings and events.(Does not include Saturday night Film Festival Concert.)

Unama'ki / Cape Breton Film Festival All Access Pass

Blaise and Nessa are outcast methadone users in a small town that doesn&rsquo;t offer an easy way out. Each day starts in a long lineup at the tiny pharmacy, then it&rsquo;s door-to-door begging to cut grass for people who just want them to fuck off and die. At dusk they push their rusty lawnmower up a steep hill and crash in a filthy camper at the edge of town. In this bleakness, Nessa plots an escape, while Blaise lingers closer to relapse, arrest, hospitalization, or worse. Tethered to one another, their getaway dreams are kept on a suffocatingly short leash.

Unama'ki / Cape Breton Film Festival Society

Unama'ki / Cape Breton Film Festival Society

Events

Events

Independent Documentary Film Making with Neal Livingston: The How-to of a One-Person Crew

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The Films of Grant Crabtree, with Caitrian and Christie MacNeil

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Tracy & Martina: Goin' Out West

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Yesterday and Today: The History of Cape Breton Film, Presentation by Bill Culp

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Three NFB Takes on Class, with Kate Beaton and Alexander MacLeod

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Still Mine, with Director Michael McGowan

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Live Music: The Hot Club of Dartmouth

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Asleep by Windows

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The Secret of Roan Inish

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At the Place of Ghosts

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Unama'ki / Cape Breton Film Festival All Access Pass

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Werewolf, with Director Ashley McKenzie

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