ORA OBSCURA: The Edge of Niagara’s Alternative Scene
Matt Jaekel, Jess Nguyen, & Taylor Elliott | Canada | 2025 | 60m
Miles away from the bright lights & soaring skylines of Toronto, in the darkest recesses of Niagara’s underground, something strange & spectacular is afoot. Descend into Niagara’s Alternative Scene, or Niagara’s Freak Scene, home to a new wave of outsider artists straddling the line between inspiration & insanity, earnestness & irreverence.
ORA OBSCURA offers a inside look at this burgeoning sub-culture, featuring live performances & candid interviews with members of the experimental label ROUTINE EXPLOITS.
MASALA LOVE
Gursimran Datla | Canada | 2024 | 11m
Masala Love is a vibrant, heartfelt comedy set in a family run restaurant in Toronto GTA , where a single mother struggles to keep her Punjabi takeout restaurant afloat amid cultural clashes, generational rifts, and rising competition. With rich characters, witty dialogue, and spicy visuals, Masala Love serves a warm, relatable dish of diaspora life.
Gursimran Datla is an Ontario-based filmmaker and producer, and the founder of BetterHalf Films. Known for championing South Asian Canadian stories, his work blends comedy, drama, and social commentary. Gursimran’s films have screened at the International Film Festival of South Asia, Emerging Lens Cultural Film Festival, and Nuit Blanche. A graduate in advanced filmmaking and arts administration, he honed his craft through programs like the Whistler Producers Lab, Reykjavik Talent Lab, and NSI EAVE. Gursimran was recently selected for the 2025 Banff-Netflix Diversity of Voices Initiative.