Film is a storytelling format that can splice directly into a person’s awareness of something. Yet in hindsight, when has the medium showcased the sensitive and nuanced topics of mental health and/or addiction?

Hindsight is a short film retrospective that traverses the topic of mental health and addiction within the National Film Board’s extensive archive. This co-presented program looks back almost seventy years to dynamically highlight a spectrum of stories and filmmaking techniques. Films sampled from the archive include Breakdown (1951), a fictitious film about a seemingly well-adjusted young woman who’s schizophrenic episode has landed her in a modern mental hospital. The Agony of Jimmy Quinlan (1978), a portrait documentary depicting the life of Jimmy Quinlan, one of an estimated 5000men who struggled with addiction in the alleys of late 1970s Montreal. Street Kids (1985), a succession of montaged black and white photographs voiced over to reveal a glance into juvenile prostitution. Nowhere Land (2015), a documentary narrated by Inuit Bonnie Ammaaq and her family tells their faint memories of attempting to live while the government-manufactured community of Igloolik becomes an elegy for Indigenous displacement and mental health. XO RAD MAGIQUE (2019) is an animated video work both psychedelic and hypnotic in nature, that takes you on an abstract journey living with schizophrenia in daily life.

Accompanying this NFB retrospective is a pre-recorded video interview with local Toronto artists Katelyn Gallucci, Greg Mccarthy and Derek Coulombe. In conversation, the artists will discuss the activity of looking back. How do the films bring up feelings of hindsight? How do we navigate these feelings? Why do we as artists sample from archives? Why is it important to create discussions around archival material?

In preparation for visits from foreign dignitaries, the authorities in Tehran clear the streets of homeless people, sex workers and drug users. Those who get picked up are taken to special detention centers outside the city. Stripped of their rights, dignity and freedom, the authorities hold them there until the outside world’s eyes are directed elsewhere. Then the men are released to go back out onto the streets. But the women are not: instead, they become official state prisoners for life. First time feature film Director Behzad Nalbandi found ways around the official channels and gained access to one of the women’s prisons, where he used a sound recorder to document the harrowing stories of its inmates. Utilizing original stop-motion animation to illustrate the accounts of violence, humiliation, poverty and addiction, as well as the Director’s own impressions of the bleak detention center. Such inventive animation allows Nalbandi to offer these “invisible” women a platform without exposing their identity. What this powerful five-years-in-the-making documentary does reveal is the grim reality concerning the position of women in Iranian society—and these women in particular.

برای بازدید های مقامات عالی رتبه خارجی، مسئولان شهرداری تهران خیابان های شهر را از بی خانمان، کارگران جنسی و معتادان پاکسازی و بازداشت شدگان را به مکانی خارج از شهر انتقال می دهند. محروم از حقوق، عزت و آزادی خود مسئولین آنها را در این اماکن نگه می دارند تا زمانی که دنیای بیرون توجهش معطوف چیز دیگری شود. سپس، مردان آزاد می شوند اما زنان می مانند و تبدیل به زندانیان حکومت برای طول عمرشان می شوند. بهزاد نعلبندی با اولین فیلم بلند خود، به یکی از این زندان های زنان دسترسی پیدا کرده و با استفاده از دستگاه ضبط صدا داستان های دلخراش زندانیان را مستند کرده است. با به کارگیری خلاقانه از تکنیک استاپ موشن، این مستند–انیمیشن وضعیت خشونت، تحقیر، فقر و اعتیاد را در این اماکن به تصویر می کشد. فیلم‌ساز با انتخاب نوآورانه متریال و تکنیک متناسب با موضوع فیلم، فضایی را برای حضور این زنان “نامرئی“، بدون فاش شدن هویت شان فراهم می کند. این فیلم مستند تاثیر گذار که تولید آن ۵ سال طول کشیده است موقعیت ظالمانه و تلخ زنان را در جامعه ایران و بخصوص این زنان زندانی را نمایان می کند.

Following the screening of The Unseen, join us for a virtual panel with graphic artist and documentary filmmaker Behzad Nalbandi to discuss the addiction crisis in Tehran and the harsh realities of the city’s homeless population. Moderated by representatives from the Intercultural Iranian Canadian Resource Centre.

بعد از اتمام اکران فیلم، با ما و هنرمند گرافیست و فیلمساز بهزاد نعلبندی همراه شوید تا بیشتر درباره ی بحران اعتیاد در تهران و واقعیت های سخت جمعیت بی خانمان های شهر بحث و گفتگو کنیم.  این جلسه مجازی توسط نمایندگانی از مرکز فرهنگ ایرانی– کانادایی (Intercultural Iranian Canadian Resource Centre) مدیریت می شود. 

In 1982, 1.5 million Afghan refugees fled the USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan. Leaving behind the war of their home, starting their new lives in Iran, The Silhouettes witnesses a family attempting to make sense of their new reality, which presents its own unique sets of challenges. Touching on the effects of war, trauma, displacement and isolation, we go on a journey with Taghi, one of the younger members of the family. Caught between the confining reality of his people’s place in Iranian society and his desire to return to his continually war-ravaged home in Afghanistan, Taghi begins to explore his future, navigating the familial responsibilities in this increasingly precarious situation. Trapped between his suffocating existence in Iran that is rife with discrimination and stigma, while having to face returning to his homeland, still in the midst of war. What future awaits him in each land?

Screening with

Stray Dogs Come Out at Night 
Hamza Bangash | 2019 | Pakistan | Punjabi with English subtitles | 11 minutes

Iqbal, a migrant sex worker, cannot come to terms with his illness.  Desperate for respite, he convinces his uncle to take a day trip to the beach. The Arabian Sea beckons.

Living through waves of political reform spurred by transnational interference undoubtedly challenges one’s sense of identity. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 uprooted millions of Afghans who sought refuge elsewhere, including the family featured in The Silhouettes. How might this inherited cultural and geographical displacement be experienced by younger generations of Afghans in Iran or the Afghan diaspora? Is it possible to seek some semblance of resolution by returning to one’s homeland? These issues will be explored in the post-screening Q&A with director Afsaneh Salari. Moderated by Toronto-based filmmaker and programmer Aisha Jamal.

What happens when inpatients of a psychiatric institution are being encouraged to get married to each other and build lives together within the hospital grounds? The Marriage Project, a thematically unique and intriguing Iranian documentary, tells you just that. The film is set almost entirely in Ehsan’s House, a psychiatric facility in southern Tehran housing around 500 patients. With unprecedented access to the hospital’s communal spaces and events, Directors Atieh Attarzadeh and Hesam Eslami chronicle a bold project conducted by the hospital’s director, Dr. Farhad Ramezanejad. Historically, the hospital has always segregated men and women. But Ramezanejad proposes a social experiment – he advocates for patients to form relationships, get married and live as a family within Ehsan’s House. Facing scrutiny from his colleagues and a variety of responses from the patients, Ramezanejad is determined to get the project off the ground. But are Ehsan’s House’s patients ready to get married? And who exactly should decide that?

چه اتفاقی می افتد اگر بیماران یک مرکز روانپزشکی تشویق به ازدواج یکدیگر شوند و شروع به زندگی مشترک داخل مرکز درمانی کنند؟ پروژه ازدواج، مستندی منحصر به فرد و جذاب است که بر حول محور همین سوال می گردد. این فیلم تقریبا به طور کامل در خانه ی احسان، یک مرکز روانپزشکی در جنوب تهران که حدود ۵۰۰ بیمار را در خود جای می دهد، می گذرد. عطیه عطارزاده و حسام اسلامی کارگردانان این فیلم، در فیلم خود پروژه ی خیره انگیز مدیر این مرکز روانپزشکی، فرهاد رمضان نژاد را روایت می کنند. به طور معمول، زنان از مردان در این بیمارستان جدا زندگی می کنند. اما آقای رمضان نژاد تجربه ی اجتماعی جدیدی را پیشنهاد می کند– او بیماران خود را تشویق به ایجاد رابطه، ازدواج و زندگی مشترک در خانه ی احسان می کند. رمضان نژاد با اینکه با  موجی از انتقادات از سوی برخی از همکارانش و بیماران مرکز روبرو است، مصمم است تا این پروژه را عملی کند. اما آیا بیماران مرکز روانپزشکی احسان آماده ی ازدواج هستند؟ و دقیقاً چه کسی باید در این باره تصمیم بگیرد؟

Screening with

If I Die Please Delete My Soundcloud
Natasha Matila-Smith | 2019 | Aotearoa / New Zealand | English with English subtitles | 8 minutes

Captured on video stillness, wondering and a matrix of existential dread. “In the middle of a sleepless night a variety of digital devices provide comfort and distraction for a restless mind. But does it help?”

How do we imagine conventional clinical spaces in relation to how we imagine life in the wider world? The Marriage Project allows us to consider ideas of personhood, love, and choices in the realm of institutionalized settings and what a lack of those experiences might suggest. The themes for this panel are centred on Iranian perspectives on mental health and relationships as well as alternative forms of therapy and community. 

چگونه می توان فضاهای متعارف درمانی را در ارتباط با زندگی خارج از آن تصور کنیم؟ پروژه ازدواج این امکان را فراهم می کند تا ایده هایی از قبیل فردیت، عشق و حق انتخاب را در حیطه ی فضاهای سازمانی بررسی کنیم و به تاثیر نبود این تجربیات هم بپردازیم. موضوعات این جلسه متمرکز بر دیدگاه های ایرانی در رابطه با سلامت روح و روان است و به آلترناتیوهای درمان و جامعه هم می پردازد.    

For the fourth consecutive year, If You Ask Me (IYAM) has supported emerging filmmakers with mental health and/or addiction experiences to create new work. This year’s program features eight shorts by filmmakers across Canada: Malaika Athar, Hanna Donato, Manvinder Gill, Kitoko Kasiama, Jae Lew, Claudia Liz, Samyuktha Movva and Shubhi Sahni.

These new films were developed in summer 2020 under the guidance of Gillian Muller and IYAM alumni and mentors Saba Akhtar, Erum Khan and James Knott. Over three months, filmmakers deepened their knowledge of film in the company of peers and industry guests. Rendezvous is excited to screen these distinctly personal works created during an unprecedented time.

Rendezvous would like to thank the following workshop guests: Linsey Stewart, Dane Clark, Kelly Fyffe Marshall, Carine Zahner, Ashley Iris Gill, Marcus Armstrong and Gagan Singh.

This program was made in partnership with BIPOC TV and Film and Trinity Square Video.

Plus a special screening of youth film competition winner from 2020 Singapore Mental Health Film Festival: 

When Mirrors Had Meaning
Yuga J. Vardhan | 2020 | Singapore | Hindi and English with English subtitles | 10 minutes

When Mirrors Had Meaning presents the searing experience of 70-year-old Krishnan, as he sets off on a journey in search of a distant memory, leaving behind a letter to his family. 

Courtesy Singapore Mental Health Film Festival (smhff.com)

The world changed dramatically between the initial planning of IYAM 2020 and now. This year’s cohort of filmmakers pivoted their practices to adapt to ever-changing conditions. Join the Q + A session to learn how recent events informed the production of their films and hear their predictions on how this time will shape the future of film.

முதல்முறையாக படம் இயக்கி உள்ள அருன் கார்த்திக் திலிப் குமாரின் கதை ஒன்றினை மூலமாக கொண்டு உணர்வுபூர்வமான படம் எடுத்துள்ளார். தமிழகத்திலுள்ள கோயம்புத்தூரில் வாழும் நாசிர் என்னும் இஸ்லாத்தை பேணும் குடும்பஸ்த்தரின் கதைதான் இந்த படம். கோவை மாவட்டத்தில் பரவி வரும் இந்து மத அடிப்படை வாதத்தின் கோர குரல் ஒளிபெருக்கிகளில் தொடர்ந்து ஒளிக்கின்றன. நாசிர் வேலை செய்யும் துணிக்கடையின் முதலாளி முஸ்லீம்களின் மேல் கொண்ட வெறுப்பினை தொடர்ந்து வேளிப்படுத்துகிறார். கடைக்கு வரும் வாடிக்கையாளர்கள் நாசிரை துச்சமாய் எண்ணி மதிப்பின்றி நடத்துகின்றனர். இதில் நாசிருக்கு வீட்டு கவலைகள் எழும்பி அவர் அபு தாபி சென்று உழைத்துச் சம்பாதிப்பதை பற்றி யோசிக்கிறார். நகரத்தின் பரபரப்பினூடே அமைதியான சாதாரனமான நாசிரின் தின்சரி யதார்த்தங்ககளை இயக்குனர் கார்த்திக் உயிரோட்டத்துடன் நம்முன் கொண்டு வருகிறார். அதே சமயம் நாசிரை சுற்றி புறளும் செய்திகளும் ஆங்காங்கே நடக்கும் உரையாடல்கள் இவ்யதார்த்ததின் ஓரங்களில் பதுங்கியிருக்கும் வன்முறையை நினைவுபடுத்துகிறது.

This gentle portrait from sophomore feature filmmaker Arun Karthick is based on a short story by Dilip Kumar. It follows Nasir, a Muslim family man in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, where Hindu nationalism has taken on more dangerous forms in recent years.  Propaganda constantly booms from loudspeakers everywhere in public spaces. The owner at the textile store where he works makes little effort to hide his contempt for Muslims while customers treat Nasir as a doormat. In the meantime, Nasir starts worrying about his wife and wonders whether he would be better off as a migrant labourer in Abu Dhabi. With equanimous, stunning images of everyday life, Director Karthick brings us fully into Nasir’s prosaic world  Still, off-screen news reports and casual conversations remind us of the violence that hangs in the peripheries.

TAMIL WORLD INITIATIVE

Panelists for this film, in conversation with Director Arun Karthick, will address issues of art-making during the context of Right wing Hindu fundamentalism, Islamophobia and casteism in the Tamil speaking world. Panel in Tamil and English with translation.

நாசிர், கலந்துரையாடலில் சேருங்கள்
கருத்து முன்வைக்கும் நபர்கள் இயக்குனர் அருன் கார்த்திகுடன் கலந்துரையாடுவர். இதில், இந்து மதவாதம், சாதி வெரி, இஸ்லாத்தை வெறுத்தல் அகிய உண்மைகள் நம்மை சூழ்ந்துள்ள இக்காலத்தில், தமிழ்ச் சூழளில் கலை உருவாக்கம் பற்றி பேசுவர். கலந்துரையாடல் தமிழ் ஆங்கிலம் இரண்டிலும் மொழிபேயர்ப்புடன் நடைபேரும்.    

袴田巌という心のラビリンス

元プロボクサー・袴田巌は、1968年、無実を訴えつつも強盗殺人の容疑で死刑判決を言い渡され、史上最長の48年間を独房で過ごしました。しかし2014年、静岡地裁は死刑判決の決め手となった証拠について、捏造された可能性があることを認めました。こうして袴田さんは釈放され、現在は郷里の静岡県浜松市で、姉の秀子さんと平穏な生活を送っています。

私は、釈放から一年が経った2015年、79歳になった袴田さんに出会い、彼の心に今も残りつづけている、48年間という計り知れない孤独についてインタビューしました。完治していない拘禁症状のために生じる袴田さんの妄想、風化しつつある記憶、そして無実を証明するために勝つのだという決意、こうした様々な情報と情動が複雑に入り組んだ迷宮が、そこにはありました。この映画は、袴田さんの心の迷宮を辿りながら、人生の苦境にねじ曲げられた彼の精神と、そこに現れる驚くべき明快な論理の双方を、記録したものです。

Iwao Hakamada, a former professional boxer was sentenced to death in 1968 for mass murder and held on death row for 48 years, the longest solitary confinement in history. In 2014, Hakamada was granted immediate release after Shizuoka district court found that the evidence against him had been fabricated. One year later, now 79 years old, Mr. Hakamada suffers from prison psychosis. While adjusting to his newfound freedoms, he navigates a labyrinth of delusions within his life’s predicaments. This phenomenal documentary is a sensitive and intimate portrait with a dazzling score by Arto Lindsay (DNA, The Lounge Lizards, Ambitious Lovers) capturing Hakamada’s victorious will against the immeasurable consequences of spending nearly half a century in complete solitude.

Screening with

Bittersweet
Sohrab Hura | 2019 | India | English | 13 mins

In this experimental and visually enriching audio-visual essay, photographer Soharb Hura documents his intimate family life, his mother, who was diagnosed with acute paranoid schizophrenia, and her dog, Elsa. Over ten years, a project that began as a coping mechanism reveals the banalities of everyday home life.

Following the screening of 48 Years – Silent Dictator, join filmmaker Hiroshi Sunairi and James Ruston from Toronto Prisoners’ Rights Project for a virtual Q&A to discuss director’s experience documenting the life of Iwao Hakamada and the impact of the prison system on one’s mental health.The discussion will be moderated by Amina Mohamed, a representative from Prisoners with HIV/AIDS Support Action Network.

Winter’s Yearning is an eye-opening portrait documentary of the small fishing town of Maniitsoq, Greenland, which has been selected as the next plant location for US aluminium giant ALCOA. An aluminium plant could provide a useful step towards Greenlandic independence. However, visions of the anticipated windfall fade into a waiting game. Directors Sidse Torstholm Larsen and Sturla Pilskog intertwine the lives of three Maniitsoq residents: a social worker, a young woman and the town’s ‘aluminium coordinator’. Through attentively layering their stories, situations and personal efforts towards self-sufficiency, the atmosphere of a small-town yearning for progression and change is beautifully portrayed.

Screening with

Carlotta’s Face
Valentin Riedl and Frédéric Schuld | 2018 | Germany | German with English subtitles | 5 minutes

Carlotta’s Face illuminates a relationship dysfunction in its sensitive portrayal of a woman who suffers from prosopagnosia, the inability to recognize faces, and her salvation through art.

A North Korean housewife, Ryun-hee Kim went to China to receive healthcare only to end up in South Korea trying to pay off her medical debts. Once she was discovered by South Korean authorities, she was alleged of being a North Korean spy and forced to become a South Korean citizen. Separated from her family with no hope of seeing them again, Ryun-hee starts her extensive and harrowing fight to return home. She tries to smuggle herself out of South Korea, first by seeking political asylum and then organizes protests to raise awareness about North Korean citizens trapped in South Korea against their will. Her far-reaching attempts to reunite with her family don’t stand a chance against aggressive propaganda tactics and ongoing complex politics between two countries. After seven years of continuous struggle, Ryun-hee dreads the growing distance between her and her family as their reunion seems far away and improbable.

In Shadow Flowers, viewers are invited into an observational space to question preconceived notions of what freedom grants and what oppression might look like. The polarizing narratives about North and South Korea looms above Ryun-hee Kim and her simple desire to return to family. Join the Q&A with director Seung-Jun Yi to discuss the isolating effects of being caught in liminal spaces dictated by bureaucracy as it pertains to North and South Korean relations. Moderated by Jack Kim, board chair of HanVoice.