GENRE: DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE) | DOCUMENTARY (SHORT)
TYPE: FILM | IN-PERSON
KEYWORDS: INDIGENOUS ISSUES | TRAUMA | FAMILY | HEALING

“I’m a descendent of a people who have more or less disappeared, all that’s left are a few indigenous and mixed-race people dotted around the world”. Having arrived in Europe at the age of 19 and lived in Brussels for many years, Colombian Sergio Guataquira Sarmiento carries a complex idea of his identity deep inside of him, because not only is he living in exile, he’s also an Indian, and “being an Indian person in Colombia is a burden, a source of shame, so we tend to lie low and westernise ourselves.” When the filmmaker learns that an epidemic of young indigenous people hanging themselves is raging through the jungle in his home country, he decides to visit the area in person, moved by a desire to investigate this phenomenon, but also to untangle his own confused feelings related to his roots” – ​​Fabien Lemercier (Cineuropa)

Screening with Short Film

Love and the Art of Despair | 2023 | Tara Grundmanis | Canada | 9 minutes | English with open captions

Love and the Art of Despair is a profile on Rebeccah Love; a Toronto based filmmaker who perseveres over mental and physical illness to create art.

Genre: DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE), DOCUMENTARY (SHORT)
TYPE: FILM | IN-PERSON
Keywords: TRAUMA | TRANS RIGHTS | MURDER | SEX WORK

Kenya is an intimate portrait of a transgender female sex worker whose fate changes when faced with the transfeminicide of her sex worker partner. I came to this story with the intention of talking about the violence that trans women experience in Mexico, but the struggle in Kenya overcame violence and overcame all the systemic and structural limits that keep these women on the margins of society. Kenya is a film that brings us closer to a world full of darkness, which little by little is filled with light through the actions of the protagonist, her conviction to fight, and her humanity. Kenya is an intimate and powerful portrait that gains dimension and strength as this story progresses, which in its bowels reveals the violence experienced by trans women in Mexico, this being the country with the second most hate crimes due to transphobia in the world.

Screening with Short Film

Nicole | Chadi Bennani | Canada | 2023 | 23 minutes | French with English Subtitles and open captions

In this touching documentary, filmmaker Chadi Bennani accompanies his mother, Dominique, as she sets out to empty Nicole’s apartment, her mother who passed two years prior. Through their discoveries, Dominique and Chadi share their memories of Nicole, as well as their apprehensions of a future without her.

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.

GENRE: DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE)
TYPE: FILM | IN-PERSON
KEYWORDS: SUICIDE | TRAUMA | FAMILY | OVERSTIMULATION | ANXIETY

back home follows the filmmaker’s pursuit to get to know her older brother, Josh, twenty years after he took his own life. As she connects with the friends who knew him best as a teen, a complex portrait emerges. Through intimate recollections re-imagined on Super8 and 16mm, and lyrical images hand-processed with plants, seaweed, soil and ashes, back home floats between memory and present time in a fragmented meditation on identity, grief and loss: illuminating the transformative power of healing in community.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

It is my pleasure to share my first feature film, “back home,” with you. I was 11 years old when Josh’s death forever changed our family and shifted my perspective on the value of closeness and the impact broader society can have on a young mind. “Back home”’s unique handmade quality recalls the photochemical processes I found solace in during my teenage years when I took refuge in the high school darkroom. The abstract film images represent the changing chemistry of Josh’s brain, as well as illustrating my physical pain – a manifest form of grief.

Screening with Short Film

White Noise | Tamara Scherbak | Canada | Drama | 2023 | 18 minutes | English with open captions

White Noise follows Ava, who suffers from misophonia – an extreme hyper-sensitivity to sound. When this reaches new terrifying heights, her doctor enrolls her in an experimental trial involving an anechoic chamber: the world’s quietest room.

GENRE: DOCUMENTARY
TOPICS: FILM | IN-PERSON
KEYWORDS: ISOLATION | ADDICTION | HOMELESSNESS | TRAUMA | ABUSE | SCHIZOPHRENIA

Canadian filmmaker Stephen Hosier focuses the lens of his feature debut uncomfortably close to home as he joins his childhood friend, Richard Csanyi, in investigating the life and death of the latter’s twin brother, Attila. Found dead on a Hamilton rooftop in May 2020, the 28-year-old was expelled from a long-term care residence even as he grappled with addiction and schizophrenia. 

A creative expression of grief and healing, this stirring home-grown film compassionately explores the intersection of personal trauma and the systems that fail those in need, while striving toward a place of forgiveness and understanding. ATTILA is a beautiful portrait honouring one man’s tragedy and the family he left behind, while providing the audience with a valuable window into the extreme systemic obstacles experienced by far too many in Canada and around the world.

Tuesday October 10, 2023 marks the 75th Anniversary of World Mental Health Day. This year’s theme is ‘mental health is a universal human right’. The sentiment aligns with the ambitions of ATTILA, the film. In presenting an authentic and local portrayal of addiction and schizophrenia. We hope to destigmatize these circumstances and create a space for dynamic conversation that lead to change.

Join us after the film screening for a post-film panel discussion moderated by Aisha Jamal (filmmaker and film programmer) featuring Dr. Naheed Dosani (palliative care physician and health justice activist), Chris Summerville (Schizophrenia Society of Canada), Diana Chan McNally (community and crisis worker) and other special guests to be announced.

Hashtags: #RWMFEST #MindtheGaps #ATTILAfilm

Masking is required at all Rendezvous events for everyone’s safety (masks provided) Thank you.

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