ANNY

ANNY

WATCH ONLINE
Oct 29 – Nov 7 available in Ontario only

PRE-RECORDED VIRTUAL Q&A
Available with the film

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Helena Třeštíková / 2020 / Czech with English subtitles / Czech Republic / 67 mins / Canadian Premiere

Anny became a sex worker at the age of 46, and since then has kept returning to the streets of Prague, rain or shine, as cars pass by her at a snail’s pace. Director Helena Třeštíková recorded Anny between 1996 to 2012 as is her unique approach: she follows ordinary people for years in what she’s dubbed “time-lapse documentaries.” These carefully crafted portraits indirectly capture larger lines of histories — in this case, the economic crisis years that sometimes prompt Anny to reflect on communism. Gently edited, this documentary shifts in time between Anny slowly growing older and her daily life that is often challenging, filled with concerns about her grandchildren and her failing health. An insightful portrait of a person who, with courage and determination, carries on despite life’s surprises.

 

SCREENING WITH SCARS Alex Anna | 2020 | Canada / France | 10 min | French with English subtitles

Alex Anna’s body is a canvas: her scars come to life to tell a new story of self-harming. Live action and animation intertwine in this short and poetic documentary, both intimate and universal.

 

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: Q&A Watch a pre-recorded Q&A with Director Helena Třeštíková and learn about her experience documenting the life of Anny over 16+ years. The discussion will be moderated by Jenny Duffy, a representative from Maggie’s Toronto Sex Workers Action Project.

 

Keywords: Aging | Class | Gender | Sex work | Trauma
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Maggies
Point of View Magazine

THIRZA CUTHAND: ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

THIRZA CUTHAND: ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

THIRZA CUTHAND / Canada / total run time 67 mins

Rendezvous is thrilled to be presenting a spotlight on Thirza Cuthand, a prolific artist who works
across multiple disciplines to explore interconnected issues related to madness, queer identities,
Indigeneity, and oh yes, sex and sexuality.

 

EXTRACTIONS (2020 | 15 min) A personal film about so-called Canada’s extraction industries and
the detrimental effects on the land and Indigenous peoples.

ANHEDONIA (2001 | 9 min) Depression and suicide are met head on in this confessional piece.
Anhedonia urges the viewer to open their eyes to the source of illness in Indigenous communities.

SIGHT (2012 | 3 min) Super 8 footage layered with Sharpie marker lines and circles obscuring the
image illustrates the filmmaker’s experiences with temporary episodes of migraine-related blindness
and her cousin’s self-induced blindness..

LOVE & NUMBERS (2004 | 8 min) A Two Spirited woman surrounded by spy signals and psychiatric
walls attempts to make sense of love, global paranoia and her place in the history of colonialism.

LESS LETHAL FETISHES (2019 | 9 min) “Not a sex video. Maybe a sexy video? About a latent gas
mask fetish, but maybe actually about a certain art world tear gas controversy the filmmaker was
involved in.” – T.C.

MEDICINE BUNDLE (2020 | 9 min) “A film about a bundle that was used in my family to heal by Great
Great Grandfather from a smallpox epidemic and a life threatening wound from a gun used against
him during the Battle of Cutknife Hill in 1885.” – T.C.

WOMAN DRESS (2019 | 6 min) A montage of archival images and dramatized re-enactments, this
film shares a Cuthand family oral story, honouring and respecting Woman Dress without imposing
colonial binaries on them.

NEUROTRANSMITTING (2021 | 8 min) In her most recent piece to date, Cuthand and her mother,
Ruth, explore wellness as it connects to mental health, psychiatric institutions, family and the medical
industrial complex. The intimate conversation is held over a backdrop of Ruth’s beaded scans of brains
affected by mental illness.

 

Keywords: Class | Environmental extraction | Gender | Indigeneity | Trauma

IN PERSON SCREENING
Wed, Nov 3, 6:30 PM

WATCH ONLINE
Oct 29 – Nov 7 available across Canada

IN PERSON + VIRTUAL
Q&A WITH ARTIST
Wed, Nov 3, 7:45 PM ET

ACCESSIBILITY
COMMUNITY PARTNERS
Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre
Toronto Queer Film Festival

JOIN THE CONVERSATION:
Q&A WITH THIRZA CUTHAND

Please join artist Thirza Cuthand for a live
and virtual Q&A to discuss their film and art practices. The discussion will be moderated by local Indigenous media artist and cultural worker Ariel Smith.

VISIÓN NOCTURNA / NIGHT SHOT

VISIÓN NOCTURNA / NIGHT SHOT

WATCH ONLINE
Oct 29 – Nov 7 available across Canada

VIRTUAL Q&A
Mon, Nov 1, 5 PM ET

ACCESSIBILITY

Carolina Moscoso / 2019 / Spanish with English Subtitles / Chile / 80 mins / Toronto Premiere

Few challenges are harder for a first-time filmmaker than the one Carolina Moscoso set for herself: to make a film based on the rape she was the victim of eight years before, when she was a film school student. The title Visión Nocturna refers to a function that allows digital cameras to film at night, to see in the dark, by enhancing their sensitivity. In order to give form to this darkness, Moscoso coordinates two kinds of contrasting materials and narrative modes. A silent linear account, via a text printed on shots or on a dark background, establishes the naked facts of the rape and its violence, prolonged by a legal process that failed to acknowledge it and to see justice through. In the background or in the gaps of this account, the editing arranges disparate fragments out of the raw footage that she has been shooting for the past fifteen years, as a kind of diary. Joyful, carefree scenes with friends, or solitary impressions; no comment, no explanation that reveals the secret. Only by delving into the silence, and cultivating this secret, does Visión Nocturna pull off the impossible feat of sharing the unshareable. (description courtesy FIDMarseille Festival)

 

SCREENING WITH JULIETA Y LA LUNA / JULIETA AND THE MOON
Milena Castro Etcheberry | 2020 | Chile | 8 min | Spanish with English subtitles
Julieta’s voice tries to reconstruct the family history of sexual abuse from her childhood, traveling
through the house in which it occurred. The place seems empty; however, she comes to life with the
projection on the walls of the family archive material of the protagonist.

 

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: Q&A WITH Carolina Moscoso and Milena Castro Etcheberry
Please join Directors Carolina Moscoso and Milena Castro Etcheberry for a virtual Q&A to discuss
the experience of creating their haunting films. The discussion will be moderated by Tamara
Toledo, a curator and writer from Latin American-Canadian Art Projects.

 

Keywords: Gender | Rape | Sexual violence | Trauma
COMMUNITY PARTNERS
aluCine
Sur Gallery
Toronto Rape Crisis Centre

NORTH BY CURRENT

NORTH BY CURRENT

WATCH ONLINE
Oct 29 – Nov 7 available across Canada

PRE-RECORDED VIRTUAL Q&A
Available with the film

ACCESSIBILITY

Angelo Madsen Minax / 2021 / English / USA / 76 mins / Canadian Premiere

After the inconclusive death of his young niece, filmmaker Angelo Madsen Minax returns to his rural Michigan hometown to make a film about a broken criminal justice system. Instead, he pivots to excavate the depths of generational addiction, Christian fervor and trans embodiment. Lyrically assembled images, decades of home movies and ethereal narration form an idiosyncratic and poetic undertow that guide a viewer through lifetimes and relationships. Like the relentless Michigan seasons, the meaning of family shifts, as Madsen Minax, his sister and his parents strive tirelessly to accept each other. Poised to incite more internal searching than provide clear statements or easy answers, North By Current dives head-first into the challenges of creating identity, the agony of growing up and the ever-fickle nuances of family.

“For me, a personal, first-person approach to storytelling was the only way to make North By Current. My own voice is the only one I feel capable of representing. This merger of personal and political storytelling became an opportunity for my family members and myself to converse, collaborate, and create together — our own version of transformative justice.” — Angelo Madsen Minax

 

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: Q&A WITH ANGELO MADSEN MINAX
Watch a pre-recorded Q&A with the filmmaker Angelo Madsen Minax about his experience creating the deeply intimate personal documentary North By Current. The discussion is moderated by Mike Hoolboom, a filmmaker and writer who lives in Toronto and director of Rendezvous 2020 opening film Judy Versus Capitalism.

 

Keywords: Addictions | Family | Gender | Religion | Trauma
COMMUNITY PARTNERS
Inside Out
The 519

POLY STYRENE: I AM A CLICHÉ

POLY STYRENE: I AM A CLICHÉ

WATCH ONLINE
Oct 29 – Nov 7 available across Canada

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Celeste Bell and Paul Sng / 2021 / English / UK / 96 mins

Marianne Joan Elliott-Said (aka Poly Styrene) is a punk rock legend. She entered the music business as
a rebellious teenager with big dreams and then willed those dreams into reality. As the frontwoman for her band X-Ray Spex, Poly Styrene was the first Black woman in the UK to front a successful rock band. She would go on to earn legions of fans by producing defiant songs about consumerism, class, and
racial identity.

Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché looks at the icon’s life and career from the perspective of her daughter, the film’s co-director, Celeste Bell. Bell uses archival footage, electrifying live performances, and her mother’s diary entries to celebrate Marianne Joan Elliott-Said, and Poly Styrene. Narrated by Oscar-nominee Ruth Negga, this intimate portrait of a punk icon offers a candid look at a reluctant public
figure who struggled with fame while battling mental illness.

 

SCREENING WITH ABSOLUTE PANIC
TJ McEachran | 2019 | Canada | 1 minute | English
A music video for “Absolute Panic,” a song from R U Experiencing Discomfort?, the debut album by
Vancouver’s punk band, Bedwetters Anonymous made by its bassist/vocalist.

 

Keywords: Gender | Immigration | Mother & Daughter | Punk rock | Racism
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