The Dependents

SOFIA BROCKENSHIRE | CANADA, ARGENTINA | DOC | 2022 | 90 MINUTES | ENGLISH, SPANISH, KOREAN, ENGLISH SUBTITLES | TORONTO PREMIERE

GENRE: DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE), DOCUMENTARY (SHORT)
TYPE: FILM | IN-PERSON
KEYWORDS: IMMIGRATION | TRAUMA | MOBILITY | MUTUAL AID | HEALING

Should we leave our origins behind or can we give them new meaning? This is the question posed by The Dependents, in which the filmmaker combs through decades of diary entries written by her father, a retired immigration officer, interrogating him as he did countless applicants who appeared before his desk in Canadian embassies across the globe. This work is a reflection on the right to mobility for some and not others and the discourses that justify this inequality. Sofia Brockenshire’s film merges the past and present in a bold and sonically rich family portrait about home, displacement, and current forced and voluntary migration movements. — Jason Fox (RIDM, Montreal)

Screening with Short Film

Neighbour Abdi | Douwe Dijkstra | The Netherlands | Doc | 2022 | 29 minutes | Somali and Dutch with English subtitles 

How can you understand a violent past? Somali-born Abdi reenacts his life, marked by war and criminality, with the help of his neighbour and filmmaker Douwe. Through playful reconstructions in a special effects studio, they embark on a candid and investigative journey through a painful history, focusing on the creative process throughout.

STREAMING NOW
November 6 - 12, 2023

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Streaming across Canada October 27th to November 6th

BIGGER THAN TRAUMA
Vedrana Pribacic | 2022 | Croatia | 90 minutes | Croatian with English subtitles

Rendezvous With Madness is pleased to present the extraordinary documentary film Bigger Than Trauma directed by Vedrana Pribacic available for streaming across Canada from October 27th to November 6th 

The brutal Croatian War of Independence came to an end in 1995, but survivors of the conflict continue to feel its devastating effects almost 30 years later. Justice has been slow in coming–if it comes at all–and institutional supports are few and far between, particularly for women who continue to live side-by-side with the very men who captured, tortured and raped them. 

Vedrana Pribacic’s Bigger Than Trauma is an intimate portrait of a group of Serbian and Croatian women who join a groundbreaking and unconventional therapy group to break their long-held silences, share their individual experiences and empower them to begin the long road to healing. However, their journey is not without its fair share of obstacles of pain revisited, cultural friction and resentment. In this tender setting, his documentary gives voice to the oft-forgotten and ignored victims of war for their own self-determination after trauma. 

Screening with
Yaren and the Sun | 2021 | Joren Slaets, Renate Raman | Belgium | 19 minutes | Dutch with English subtitles 

Yaren’s mother died when she was six. Her friend Kato’s father died a year ago. Yet the atmosphere in a therapeutic summer camp is far from mournful when one of the supervisors dances with a girl to the lively song “La Bamba.” It’s fine to have fun, the children learn—it can coexist with sadness.

Keywords: Women’s Issues | Trauma | War | Mutual Aid | Healing
Genre: Documentary (feature) Documentary (short)
#RWMFEST #MoreThanRebellion