Hanging On
2006 · 14m · Canada
Directed by Chedly Belkhodja
Genres: documentary
Tones: contemplative, melancholic
Young newcomers in a small, largely homogeneous community describe frustration as their training and experience go unrecognized by employers and neighbours.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
A straightforward immigrant-integration doc about credential rejection—exactly the kind of worthy-but-predictable subject that makes most docs feel like homework, and Belkhodja doesn't seem interested in subverting the formula or finding the absurd underbelly lurking in the premise.
Belkhodja situates this within a well-established documentary tradition of witness testimony and community portraiture, with the restraint and observational patience that recalls the best of NFB's humanistic lineage, though the film doesn't quite achieve the formal innovation that would elevate it into that canon.
The power lives in how Belkhodja lets silences and domestic moments—the small gestures of recognition withheld—do the emotional work rather than wringing it from interview confession, a choice that transforms what could've been earnest advocacy into something more architecturally precise.