TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27
7PM
Small World Centre
180 Shaw Street, Unit 101
Toronto, Ontario
ACCESSIBILITY
Wheelchair Accessible Venue, Open Captions
Carol Nguyen / 2026 / English & Vietnamese / Canada / 76 min
GENRE: DOCUMENTARY
TOPIC: BIPOC EXPERIENCE, FAMILY, GRIEF
TYPE: FILM
Award-winning short film director Carol Nguyen makes her feature documentary debut with a deeply affecting and personal documentary about family secrets and healing. With a pointed but sensitive lens, Nguyen speaks with her father, aunt and cousins to explore her paternal uncle Thach’s tragic death a decade ago.
The director deftly shines a light on how different generations and cultures deal with loss and grief, and how much has changed in our understanding of mental health in the intervening years. As the extended family travels back to Vietnam to say a bittersweet and ceremonial goodbye to Thach and both of his parents, they all begin to open up and come together with a newfound honesty and affection. Still Night, Burning House is a beautiful and visually stunning ode to the rebirth and renewal of one family, but it transcends that specificity to give an all-encompassing sense of forward momentum and hope for the future.
— Emma Badame, Rendezvous with Madness 2026 Film Programmer
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Carol Nguyen is a Montreal-based, Vietnamese-Canadian filmmaker whose films explore themes of cultural identity, family and silence. Her short film Nanitic (2022) was screened at the Berlinale and TIFF. No Crying at the Dinner Table (2019) was shown at TIFF, IDFA and South by Southwest, where it won the Jury Prize for Short Documentary. Carol is currently working on several projects, including a feature-length fiction selected for the TIFF Writer’s Studio in 2025.
WITH SHORT FILM ——— A Tenderness —— Sabrine Khoury | 2026 | Nederland | Drama | 17 minutes | Arabic
During her parents’ visit, a new Palestinian mother living in Amsterdam struggles to connect with her newborn. As family dynamics unfold, postpartum challenges and family expectations grow. Through unspoken tensions, small gestures, and moments of care, the film explores the quiet suffocation that can exist within love.
AND SHORT FILM ——— Please —— Anna Mantzaris | 2026 | Sweden, France, Czech | Dark Comedy | 9 minutes | English
In a bustling city, various characters craving affection are searching for a relationship and find themselves caught up in situations that are comical, absurd, funny and touching.
ABOUT THE DIRECTORS
Sabrine Khoury is a Palestinian filmmaker based in the Netherlands. Her work explores identity, political and social realities, and stereotypes through intimate spaces: the female body, the home, and family relationships. Her short documentary, The Miracle of Life (2025), screened internationally, including at CPH:DOX and Galway Film Fleadh, where it won Best Documentary. It also received Best Documentary and the Audience Award at IFF Integrazione. Her fiction short, A Tenderness, developed through the Doha Film Institute Short Script Lab and supported by the Netherlands Film Fund, premiered at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival.
Anna Mantzaris is a director and stop motion filmmaker. Her work blends awkwardness, humour and the absurdity of being human. She is drawn to characters who don’t quite have it together, who are strange yet relatable. Her works have received over 100 international awards, including an Emmy Award, an Annie Award and a European Animation Award. In addition to her filmmaking, she directs commissions for clients such as Apple and Greenpeace. Anna has an MA in animation from the Royal College of Art and was part of the animation team on Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs. She has lectured at leading film and art schools such as the Royal College of Art (UK), Konstfack (SE), the National Film School of Denmark (DK), and the National Film and Television School (UK).
PANEL DISCUSSION
HELEN
NGUYEN
Director, Client Care and System Navigation at HF Care
ABOUT THE PANELISTS
Helen Nguyen is the Director of Client Care and System Navigation at HF Care – formerly known as Hong Fook Mental Health Association – which provides culturally rooted mental healthcare for people from East and Southeast Asian communities. Helen strongly champions HF Care’s position as a crucial enabler for equity-deserving individuals to access the healing resources they need to live their fullest lives.
As an immigrant woman from Viet Nam, Helen brings a deeply personal understanding of intersectionality and systemic barriers to her work. She has spent over a decade in the mental health sector, navigating its inherent complexities across both community and clinical settings at both individual and systemic levels. Her diverse background includes valuable experience working within primary healthcare environments, such as hospital, community health centre, and the mental health and justice system.
Helen’s dedication and impact were recently recognized when she was named a recipient of the prestigious 2026 OASW Inspirational Leader Award. Her mission is centered on the powerful truth that mental health is health. At the institutional level, she draws upon her cross-sector experience to untangle complex, fragmented networks so that vulnerable populations do not slip through the cracks. Her work also focuses heavily on increasing mental health literacy and empowering individuals to unpack cultural beliefs, navigate collective shame, and recognize their own agency in their wellness journeys.