VIVRE EN GRAND | BIGGER THAN US
Flore Vasseur | 2021 | France | 95 minutes | English 

How does one keep it together in a world coming apart at the seams? Climate change ravages the planet as greedy corporations keep polluting the environment at an unsustainable rate. With much of the global population living like there’s no tomorrow, fighting for change can feel pointless. Writer-director Flore Vasseur’s documentary, Bigger Than Us, offers viewers reason to remain hopeful.

Bigger Than Us follows 18-year-old Indonesian activist Melati Wijsen on her quest to meet with the 18 to 25-year-olds fighting for change. Melati heads to Lebanon, Malawi, Greece, the United States, Brazil and Uganda, to celebrate the activists fighting for free speech, food security and equal rights. These defiant young people refuse to let soulless corporations and self-interested politicians dictate their future. This beautifully shot documentary will shock, inspire and most importantly, leave viewers hopeful about the future. 

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: Climate Change | Women’s Rights | Refugee Crisis
Genre: Documentary (feature) Documentary (short)
#RWMFEST #MoreThanRebellion

MI VACÍO Y YO | MY EMPTINESS AND I | Adrián Silvestre | 2022 | Spain | 98 minutes | Toronto Premiere | French and Spanish with English Subtitles

Rendezvous With Madness is pleased to present the fabulous fiction film Mi Vacío Y Yo / My Emptiness And I directed by  Adrián Silvestre available for streaming across Canada from October 27th to November 6th. With the film, there is a prerecorded talk about the film with the d moderated by Anna Daliza to enjoy.

“Raphi, young and naive, enjoys writing love poems and dreams about falling in love. She leaves her native France and moves to Barcelona, where she works in a call centre. She struggles with maintaining relationships with boys and what it means to be diagnosed with gender dysphoria.  As a trans woman, Raphi feels the pressure to define and defend herself to anyone who asks but also deals with the social pressures to move forward with irreversible reassignment surgery. Even among her trans support group, Raphi receives mixed messages about needing to love herself exactly as she is … or instead, change her body in order for someone to love her in return. The brutal dating scene is no help as she’s matched with men who see her as more of a sexual novelty than a human being searching for love and connection. Wading through serious doubts and an array of intimate encounters of varying pleasure, Raphi must learn to trust herself and her newfound opportunity of the arts as a means of healing and empowerment. Raw, honest, and thought-provoking, Mi vacío y yo is an intensely intimate journey of self-discovery and acceptance.” —Cleveland International Film Festival

Anna Daliza is an emerging writer, artist and educator, was born in Southwestern Ontario to an Anglo-Canadian father and a Lebanese immigrant mother. She describes her cultural upbringing as a marriage between oil and water. 

Screening with 

The Spiral | María Silvia Esteve | 2022 | Argentina | Spanish with English subtitles 

The Spiral is a dive into a lonely ride, an hypnotic escalation towards childhood, family, and the loneliness of “home”.

Keywords: Dating | Gender Dysphoria | Family | Anxiety | Youth
Genre: Fiction (Feature) Fiction (Short)
#RWMFEST #MoreThanRebellion

GEMMEL & TIM
Michiel Thomas | 2021 | United States | 91 minutes | English

Rendezvous With Madness is pleased to present the award-winning documentary film Gemmel & Tim directed by Michiel Thomas  available for streaming across Canada from October 27th to November 6th 

In the span of 18 months, two gay Black men died of drug overdoses inside the West Hollywood home of political donor Ed Buck. Yet, it was four years (and many public protests) before a federal jury convicted Buck for his crimes. Writer-director Michiel Thomas’s documentary Gemmel & Tim tells the story of Gemmel Moore and Timothy Dean, the two men who died in Buck’s home under suspicious circumstances.

Throughout the film, their family and friends reminisce about their lives and share the shocking details surrounding their deaths. The film paints a touching portrait of love and regret as friends and family come to grips with the tragic loss of their loved ones. Gemmel & Tim is also a scathing indictment of America’s broken justice system, calling out the blatant racial inequalities persisting decades after the abolition of Jim Crow.

Screening with

Lay Me By The Shore | David Findlay | 2022 | Canada | 18 minutes | English

Introducing a young cast of first-time actors, Lay Me by the Shore follows a week in the life of Noah, a high school senior in his final days of school as he comes to terms with his best friend’s passing. Bathed in the warm light of long June days and with the intimidating spectre of an unknown future looming, the tale is told from the perspective of the recently departed. Through the prism of grief, the film highlights the raw and potent emotions of youth.

Keywords: Addictions | Racism | Class | Overdose | Trauma
Genre: Documentary (feature) Documentary (short)
#RWMFEST #MoreThanRebellion

二〇二〇年的一场雨  |  RAIN IN 2020  
Lee Yong Chao | 2021 | Myanmar, Taiwan  | 79 mins | Burmese and Chinese with English Subtitles | Canadian Premiere 

Rendezvous With Madness is pleased to present the extraordinary documentary film Rain In 2020 directed by Lee Yong Chao available for streaming across Canada from October 27th to November 6th 

Rain in 2020 took director Lee Yong Chao seven years to make. It intimately documents a family coping with the constantly changing situations in Myanmar. Amid the pandemic in 2020, a torrential rain caused the family and the entire village to live their daily lives in the flooding sewage. Nobody knows when the muddy water will be gone and what will come after the storm. 

“At the beginning of 2020, I was in the process of filming The Bad Man in Myanmar. The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 forced me to stay at home. Meanwhile, I was suffering from some health issues when the tragedy of a major fatal collapse of a jade mine in Pakant, I could do nothing but worry every single day about my brother who worked in the mine. Month after month, the pandemic in Myanmar became more and more out of control, which prevented me from returning to Taiwan. Various factors interweaving, triggered my anger and doubts toward things which happened in Myanmar society in recent years. In mid-September, there was a sudden rainfall. Along with the flood, I let out my long accumulated dissatisfaction with people’s daily life in my hometown in Myanmar over the years.” – Lee Yong Chao

Keywords: Environmental Catastrophe | Dictatorship | Pandemic | Anxiety | Resource Extraction
Genre: Documentary
#RWMFEST #MoreThanRebellion

MIS DOS VOCES / MY TWO VOICES  
Lina Rodriguez | 2022 | Canada | 68 minutes | Spanish with English subtitles

On October 27th at Rendezvous With Madness enjoy an in person screening of the film Mis Dos Voces / My Two Voices directed by Colombian/Canadian filmmaker Lina Rodriguez. Post-film talk moderated by Tamara Toledo

 In My Two Voices, Canadian director Lina Rodriguez paints a lyrical and truly unique portrait of what it means to be an immigrant and how this can affect one’s sense of self. Shot with luminous 16mm film, the documentary introduces audiences to three Latina women who gradually reveal their individual migration stories, discuss the inherent challenges in starting afresh in a new country and explore how those difficult experiences have shaped their lives. Though their origins differ greatly, all three have faced similar struggles with language and belonging as they attempt to balance their present with complicated memories of the past. Rodriguez allows the identities of these women to remain concealed throughout and, instead, useså their voices to shift perspectives and reframe their emotional journeys of self-discovery and understanding. My Two Voices is a thoughtfully constructed cinematic ode to resilience in the face of trauma and perseverance in the face of seismic upheaval.

Tamara Toledo is a Chilean-born Toronto-based curator, scholar, writer, and artist. For over a decade, Toledo has curated numerous exhibitions offering spaces, platforms and opportunities to Latin American and diasporic artists. 

 Screening with Under The Full Moon  | Lynn Dana Wilton | 2022 | Canada | 1 minute | silent 
When anxiety affects g your ability to sleep it can be difficult to tell what is real and what is a dream. A short film animated with vine charcoal.

For accessibility Mis Dos Voces / My Two Voices and Under the Full Moon are also available online via Workman Arts & Cinesend from October 27th to November 6th, 2022 

Keywords: Resilience | Immigration | Women’s Issues
Genre: Documentary (Feature) Animation (short)
#RWMFEST #MoreThanRebellion