• reFrame Films is the home of award-winning filmmakers Garry Beitel and Barry Lazar, who produce enduring social documentaries about compelling contemporary subjects.

Archived News



Official selections, 2012 CSWE Film Festival

Giota’s Journey
47 minutes 2011
Directed by Garry Beitel
More than Half the Sky
21 minutes 2010
Directed by Garry Beitel

Giota’s Journey and More than Half the Sky are official selections of the Council on Social Work Education 2012 Film Festival, Nov. 10-12 Washington, D.C.

Giota’s Journey

47 minutes 2011
Directed by Garry Beitel

An intimate portrait of Giota Boussios, a 48-year-old Montreal woman, born with cerebral palsy.

Warm, good humoured, acutely sensitive and keenly intelligent, Giota is wheelchair-bound and unable to speak. She has learned to communicate through an intriguing system that uses subtle eye movements and slight facial gestures. Supported by a loving Greek family, she spends her days at an educational program for adults with similar disabilities. Giota’s Journey explores her unique relationships with family and caregivers, her dreams of love and travel, the poetry of her eyes and words. Here is a short excerpt.

Now available on DVD.

Bonjour! Shalom!

Les Productions du Boulevard is now the Canadian distributor for Garry Beitel’s award winning documentary. Described by the Gazette’s John Griffin as “…a remarkable look at twin solitudes… insightful, compassionate and beautifully composed…,Bonjour! Shalom! takes us inside the relationship between the Hassidic Jews in Montreal’s Outremont district and their predominantly Francophone neighbours.

Now available on DVD to commemorate the 20th anniversary of its first release in 1991.

More than Half the Sky

(2010) 21 minutes
Directed by Garry Beitel

This documentary for the University of Manitoba highlights the efforts by Canadian social workers to introduce basic social-work practice to cadres working with women in rural China.

The “Socalled” Movie

87 min 2010
Directed by Garry Beitel, produced by Barry Lazar (reFrame) and Ravida Din (NFB)

Feature documentary on Montreal-based musical wizard Josh Dolgin a.k.a. Socalled.

If Woody Allen and Lil Wayne had a lovechild, it would be Josh Dolgin, a.k.a. Socalled, the Montreal-based hip-hop-klezmer-funk musician at the centre of this kaleidoscopic documentary about one man’s incredible creative process.” – Lynne Ferrie, Hot Docs 2010

a marvelously textured and intriguing portrait of the artist as an almost-young man.” **** (4 stars) – The Gazette’s Bill Brownstein

English version broadcast on Super Channel and Ovation. French version (Socalled, le film) was broadcast on ARTV.

The “Socalled” Movie was awarded the Mike Moskovitz Prize for Best Film on a Jewish Theme by the Jewish Public Library of Montreal

The DVD (with extra scenes) is available through Mongrel Films.

Twice Upon a Garden

52 min 2010
Directed by Philippe Baylaucq, produced by Barry Lazar and Garry Beitel

Documentary on the Gaspe’s Metis Gardens – captures the lush beauty through the changing seasons of Quebec’s most visited garden.

The world tour of award winning FIFA films – including Twice Upon a Garden which won the ARTV People’s Choice Award – has now finished. Cities included Washington D.C. (at the National Gallery of Art), Paris (at the Musée de Louvre) and Turcoing in France, London (at the Tate Modern), Boston, New York City, and Ottawa.

Twice Upon a Garden was nominated for a Golden Sheaf at the Yorkton Film Festival in the category: Nature/Environment Documentary.

The DVD is now available and includes English and French versions of the film and over 100 photos – Métis Gardens flower photos by Louise Tanguay and archival photos of Elsie Reford.

If you belong to a library or garden club, contact us to arrange a screening.