Bigger isn’t always better! Need proof of that claim? Look no further than the short documentaries at this year’s Hot Docs.  Short docs can make you laugh, cry, and curse the world just as well as feature-length films can! Here’s a list of three shorts we’re still thinking about a long while after we watched them. Enjoy!

1.The Everlasting Pea (Dir. Su Rynard)

In this documentary short, the audience is asked to meditate on how plants pre-existed us on the planet, and how they might outlast us. As the narrator explains, plants are mysterious. Even after what seems like an eternity co-existing with plants, using them for food, and learning to cultivate them, “We don’t seem to know them at all”. Full of interesting facts, you’ll come away telling everyone what you learned about peas (Spoiler Alert: they are basically eternal beings who can survive anything, including the fall of The Roman Empire).

2. A Body Like Mine (Dir. Maja Classen)

A Body Like Mine is a sumptuous short about a young artist and activist who goes by the stage name Puck. Queer and racialized, Puck uses their body to create art that explores desire. A self-identified sub, Puck is a self-aware philosopher of the erotic. A self-identified submissive, they long for “a space for subs who have non-white skin” but simultaneously acknowledge “there’s a lot of weight to that image of seeing black bodies abused on screen.” Ultimately, A Body Like Mine is a fascinating study of erotic representation, and what it means to live one’s artistic truth.

3. The Canadian Dream  (Dir. Ilse Moreno)

The Canadian Dream should be mandatory viewing in every high school Civics class in the country. Directed by Ilse Moreno, it is the story of her father’s life as a migrant farmer who left his family in Mexico to work in Canada. Infuriating but also heartfelt and uplifting, The Canadian Dream examines the mistreatment and poor working conditions endured by the migrant farmers who arrive in this country each year to perform the work that keeps us fed.