Desana Justino lives in Manaus, a port city in the Amazon rainforest, having left behind his home in the wilderness many years ago. As an Indigenous man, he tries to navigate between the disappearing natural landscape and his own life. His daughter has to decide if she will pursue medical school in Brazil and the potential separation weighs heavy in the air as she worries about her father’s health. Working as a security guard to support his family as seemingly supernatural forces manifest, Da-Rin’s camera intimately captures a man still intensely connected to the land. Justino is a quiet man caught between the old ways of his people and the industrialized ways quickly taking over; juxtaposing images of confining industrial cityscapes over the simple and quiet way of life more in tune with nature. A languid, hypnotic story that both makes his yearning for a simpler and sturdier time palatable and makes us question our place in it.

Following the screening of The Fever, join us for a virtual Q&A with Brazilian filmmaker, visual artist and former documentarian Maya Da-Rin to discuss the making of her first fiction feature, her country’s “post-apocalyptic state” and the catastrophic impact of Bolsonaro’s brutal regime on Brazil’s Indigenous communities. Moderated by Jaene F. Castrillon, a multi-disciplinary artist, filmmaker and Rendezvous with Madness programmer.

Judy Rebick is a seminal, local Toronto feminist figure on the forefront of the Pro-choice movement in Canada since the 1970s, who went on to head the biggest women’s organization in Canada in the 1990s while wrestling with her own personal triumphs and tragedies. This reverent, experimental portrait of an iconic Toronto figure touches on her struggles with mental health and childhood traumas as she becomes a pivotal figure in Canada’s progressive movements. Director Mike Hoolboom presents a poignant portrait of Rebick using her own words layered with striking Super-8 footage, contextualized within a stream of consciousness that chronicles Judy’s iconic moments in Canadian history with a  lens on her own personal histories and internal landscape. The rhythm of this portrait mimics the ebbs and flows of the effects of mental illness on life while capturing the strength and resilience of an incomparable human in unprecedented times.

Join us for our first panel discussion with Judy Versus Capitalism’s iconic Canadian feminist, writer, journalist and radical activist Judy Rebick and moderator Nora Loreto as they discuss Judy Rebick’s lifelong fight for social justice, her own experience with mental health and childhood trauma and Mike Hoolboom’s unconventional approach to documenting his friend’s extraordinary life.

In this free screening on Bell Let’s Talk Day, witness the impact childhood trauma can have over a lifetime through the story of master impressionist, comedian and Saturday Night Live veteran Darrell Hammond. While shining brilliantly in the spotlight, Hammond struggled with drugs, alcohol and debilitating flashbacks—and was misdiagnosed by doctors for decades. Not until a suicide attempt brought him together with Dr. Nabil Kotbi was he properly treated, unleashing the memories his brain had locked away for over 50 years. Director Michelle Esrick balances humour and tragedy to create a poignant story of hope and resilience.

Followed by a Q&A with director Michelle Esrick and special guests.

In partnership with Bell Let’s Talk and Hot Docs, we’re showcasing a series of free docs-and-conversations about mental health leading up to and on the 10th annual Bell Let’s Talk Day. Join the conversation to break the stigma around mental illness and help create positive change. Each doc will feature a post-screening Q&A with special guests and experts.

In recognition of the potentially triggering content of the participating films, supportive listeners will be present at each screening.

Tickets: FREE (maximum of two per person). Available as of Tuesday, January 7.

Winner of the Golden Leopard Award at the 2018 Locarno Film Festival, Chaos tells the story of three women in three cities and asks: what’s the effect of war on the human spirit? As the personal stories of these Syrian women are intimately revealed, Chaos bears witness to the scarred existence of survivors. One woman lives in Damascus, spending her days in silence as she grieves for her teenage son. Another has fled the country to a Swedish village, where she’s coping with traumas by painting. The third woman is Sara Fattahi herself, Chaos’ director, who now lives in Vienna. She’s portrayed on-screen by an actor, while excerpts from a radio interview with the Austrian author Ingeborg Bachmann give expression to Fattahi’s innermost feelings. Fattahi explores the women’s immediate surroundings with equal attention to detail; interiors speak to us, the winds whisper clues and the rain is tangible. Beguiling our senses, Fattahi draws us into the processes of profound grief and inner disengagement.

سارة فتاحي / 2018 / بالعربية والألمانية مع ترجمة إلى الإنجليزية / النمسا ، سوريا ، لبنان ، قطر / 95 دقيقة / العرض الأول في تورونتو

الصنف: وثائقي

الموضوع: الهجرة ، البقاء ، الصدمة ، قضايا المرأة

النوع: فيلم

يروي فيلم “فوضى” الحائز على جائزة الفهد الذهبي في مهرجان لوكارنو السينمائي لعام 2018 قصة ثلاث نساء في ثلاث مدن، متساءلاّّ عن تأثير الحرب على الروح الإنسانية. بينما يتم الكشف عن القصص الشخصية لهؤلاء النساء السوريات بحميمّية، يشهد “فوضى” على وجود الناجين المجروح. تعيش امرأة في دمشق وتقضي أيامها في صمت وهي تحدّ على ابنها المراهق. امرأة أخرى هربت من البلاد إلى قرية سويدية حيث تتعامل مع الصدمة عن طريق الرسم. والمرأة الثالثة هي سارة فتاحي مخرجة الفيلم والتي تعيش الآن في فييّنا، تم تصويرها على الشاشة من قبل ممثلة بينما تعبر مقتطفات من مقابلة إذاعية مع المؤلف النمساوي إنجبورغ باخمان عن مشاعرها الأعمق. تستكشف فتاحي محيط النساء المباشر باهتمام مماثل بالتفاصيل – تتحدث إلينا البنية الداخلية للأماكن وتهمس الريح عن دلالات ويصبح المطر ملموساّّ. تقوم فتاحي بخداع حواسنا وبذلك تجذبنا إلى عمليات الحزن العميق والانسحاب الداخلي.

Displacement and the Syrian Refugee Crisis 

How does displacement affect those living with mental health conditions and how are mental health conditions a result of displacement? As we look at the film Chaos, we will take time to discuss the Syrian refugee crisis and how this global crisis intersects with gender, mental health diagnoses and the importance of sharing these stories.

GETMAD#: انضم إلى الحديث

النزوح وأزمة اللاجئين السوريين

كيف يؤثر النزوح على المصابين بأمراض الصحة النفسية وكيف تظهر حالات الصحة النفسية نتيجة النزوح؟ بعد أن نستعرض فيلم فوضى” سنكرّس بعض الوقت لمناقشة أزمة اللاجئين السوريين وكيف تتقاطع هذه الأزمة العالمية مع النوع الاجتماعي وتشخيصات الصحة النفسية وأهمية مشاركة القصص المتعلقة بها.

Menahem Lang is an Israeli actor with a tragic past. He was raped as a child by several older men from his own community. Lang grew up in the Haredi sect, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community known for its theological conservatism. After confronting one of his abusers, Lang left his hometown of Bnei Brak and hasn’t been back until now. In M, Lang returns to face his community, his trauma and to seek justice. But more than anything, Lang ends up finding other survivors. Shooting her film entirely at night, director Yolande Zauberman follows Lang as he runs into multiple strangers on the streets of his old neighborhood where they all confess the same thing – they were also sexually abused as children by older men in the community. Through many candid interviews in M we learn that child molestation is rampant in their community, turning the abused into abusers in a vicious circle of sexual violence.

Extended Panel: Childhood Sexual Abuse & Recovery 

Join us for an extended discussion following the screening of the documentary M, as we are joined by specialists who work in trauma informed care, childhood sexual abuse and sexuality studies. We will sensitively discuss the realities and impacts of (early) sexual abuse, the complexities of finding treatment and the journey of recovery in the context of observant communities as well as in more secular contexts.

Director Beryl Magoko underwent Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) as a child. Unlike many of her peers, she wasn’t forced into it. Feeling pressured by societal expectations, Beryl went through FGM behind her mother’s back. Nobody told her about the pain, guilt and trauma that would follow her into adulthood. Years later, Beryl learns that her FGM can be reversed with the help of reconstructive surgery. But after everything she has been through, she’s hesitant to make a decision. “Will I be making another terrible mistake?” In her documentary account, Beryl is searching for an answer. She asks other women who survived FGM about their experiences and thoughts on reconstructive surgery. By frontlining these stories, Beryl processes her trauma and exposes the extreme misogynist ideologies behind FGM.

Screening with

This River
Erika MacPherson, Katherena Vermette | 2016 | Canada | 19 min

Kyle Kematch and award-winning writer Katherena Vermette offer an Indigenous perspective on the devastating experience of searching for loved ones who have disappeared. Born out of the need to do something, their stories ignite a relationship between resilience and activism.

Q&A with Beryl Magoko

Following the screening of In Search…, join the filmmaker (who is also the subject of the documentary) Beryl Magoko as she discusses working on the film which recounts her journey with reconstructive surgery after surviving Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) as a child.