Paint Me A Film
In this assemblage of films, the documentary camera turns inward. Looping from director to lens like a cinematic carousel, the films in this Spotlight contend with the camera's role against a backdrop of sociopolitical themes, its gaze moving across images as both reckoner and redresser; disruptor and archivist; gatherer and memorialist; manipulator and liar.
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Between Pictures: The Lens of Tamio Wakayama
Cindy Mochizuki, Canada/USA, 2024, 71 mins
Local artist Cindy Mochizuki explores the life and images of the late Japanese-Canadian photographer Tamio Wakayama, whose internment and relocation during WWII had a profound impact on his photography both in BC and, unexpectedly, on the frontlines of the civil rights movement in America's deep south.
Preceded by the short film Here and There
For screening times, click here.
I'm Not Everything I Want to Be
Klára Tasovská, Czechia/Slovakia/Austria, 2024, 90 mins
"I need to make sure I exist." Amidst the tightening grip of Soviet oppression in Czechoslovakia, photographer Libuše Jarcovjáková sought a life of her own. With psychedelic charm, director Klára Tasovská follows the meandering trajectory and personal diaries of Jarcovjáková who, following the Soviet invasion of Prague in 1968, turned to her camera to assert her presence in a changing, constrained world.
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The Cemetery of Cinema
Thierno Souleymane Diallo, France/Senegal/Guinea/Saudi Arabia, 2023, 96 mins
Camera in hand, Guinean filmmaker Thierno Souleymane Diallo sets out to find a film widely believed to be the first made by a Black French-speaking director: Mouramani (1953). But, no one quite knows where it is. At once tender and quirky, The Cemetery of Cinema is a meandering search through the colonial legacy and cinematic history of Guinea.
For screening times, click here.
The Movie Man
Matt Finlin, Canada, 2024, 89 mins
In the heart of Lake Country, Ontario, lies a miniscule town called Kinmount—which, thanks to the singular vision of local septuagenarian Keith Stata, boasts a multiplex cinema located in the middle of its forest. Ever since his first visit as a 12-year-old, director Matt Finlin has recognized the uniqueness of this place, and shares it with the world in this affectionate portrait.
For screening times, click here.
The Stimming Pool
The Neurocultures Collective (Sam Chown Ahern, Georgia Bradburn, Benjamin Brown, Robin Elliott-Knowles and Lucy Walker) and Steven Eastwood, UK, 2024, 67 mins
Co-directed by The Neurocultures Collective and Steven Eastwood, The Stimming Pool is a cinematic exploration of a world shaped by neurodiverse perspectives. Using what the directors call an 'autistic camera', the film navigates environments that are both inclusive and exclusive of the autistic experience before experimenting with a third, alternative space for neurodivergent life.
For screening times, click here.
The Wasp and the Orchid
Saber Zammouri, Tunisia/France, 2023, 66 mins
When television first arrived in rural Tunisia, people began turning toward the screen instead of each other. Broadcast images of France began boring into the consciousness of Tunisian communities in a new kind of colonialism. But as villagers migrate in pursuit of the Parisian dream, Saber Zammouri's eclectic film questions their agency in doing so: "Did someone drive us out of our own country, or did someone lure us to go somewhere else?"
For screening times, click here.