Spotlight: Thin Places

"There are places," says Irish writer Kerri ní Dochartaigh, "both hollowed and hallowed, all in one." Thin places, as they are known in the Celtic tradition, are locales where a sense of Heaven and Earth meet. But in this dense collection of films, Hell is present too.

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Films in this program:

Anhell69
Theo Montoya, Colombia/Romania/France/Germany, 2022, 75 mins

Part queer ghost story, part ode to Colombian cinema, director Theo Montoya was set to make his first fiction film when his protagonist died of an overdose at 21. Now a phantom of its former cinematic self, Anhell69 bores its gaze into the streets of Medellín, where political violence directs the doubts and dreams of a generation.

For screening times, click here.

Excess Will Save Us
Morgane Dziurla-Petit, Sweden, 2022, 100 mins

An eccentric village in northern France features squarely in this tragicomedy from director Morgane Dziurla-Petit, who happens to call it home. When a falsely suspected terrorist threat throws the village into a full-scale theatre of war, the French media, paranoia and xenophobia play their parts dutifully.

This film will screen with The Film You Are About To See (Le Film que vous allez voir). For screening times, click here.

Feet in Water, Head on Fire
Terra Long, Canada/USA, 2023, 90 mins

Planted for generations, miles of date palm trees from the Middle East dot the landscape of Southern California. Terra Long’s sensorial film curiously traces, like fault lines, the people and vegetation shaping the region’s identity, whether inherited or imported.

For screening times, click here.

Fragments from Heaven
Adnane Baraka, Morocco/France, 2022, 84 mins

In the sweeping vastness of the Moroccan desert, a search party seeks fallen celestial stones. Wondrously shot, Adnane Baraka’s atmospheric film encircles nomads and scientists as they comb the land for a piece of the sky.

For screening times, click here.

 

Kokomo City
D. Smith, USA, 2023, 73 mins

Four Black transgender sex workers in New York and Georgia share reflections on tangled desires, far-reaching taboos, and identification within labour and gender's many meanings, offering a cutting analysis of Black culture and society at large from a vantage point that is vibrating with energy, sex, provocation and hard-earned wisdom.

For screening times, click here.

Má Sài Gon (Mother Saigon)
Khoa Lê, Canada, 2023, 100 mins

Following various members of the Queer and Trans community in Saigon, Khoa Lê constructs a series of intimate portraits. Lingering on desire, belonging and the spaces between, Má Sài Gòn (Mother Saigon) tenderly observes not only the sight of love, but the site of it.

For screening times, click here.

North Circular
Luke McManus, Ireland, 2022, 86 mins

Shot in black and white, Luke McManus’s meditative film is a musical ode to Dublin’s (in)famous, working class North Circular Road. Tackling issues of class, poverty, incarceration and colonization, the various strands of North Circular are harmonized through traditional Irish music and community fellowship through song.

For screening times, click here.

The Golden Thread
Nishtha Jain, India/Bosnia-Herzegovina/Netherlands/Norway/UK, 2022, 91 mins

Sonically immersive and made with creative precision, The Golden Thread follows the production of jute fibre from farm, harvest and transport, to the jute mills of West Bengal. But what will remain for workers as the industry shifts from quality to profit?

For screening times, click here.

Veranada
Dominique Chaumont, Canada/Argentina, 2022, 75 mins

At summer’s end, in the uplands of the Argentinian Andes, a lone herder migrates his flock in search of greener pastures, as the region withers from unprecedented drought. Veranada is a contemplative observation of a remote community bearing the brunt of climate change.

For screening times, click here.

20 Days in Mariupol
Mstyslav Chernov, Ukraine, 2023, 95 mins

After nearly a decade of conflict reporting, Ukrainian journalist Mstyslav Chernov’s first film painfully documents his country at war, as he and his colleagues remain trapped in a city under siege. A harrowing account of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, 20 Days in Mariupol is an increasingly important and courageous piece of documentary journalism.

For screening times, click here.