Film Categories: Culture

Controller

A fly compresses time and captures itself on video by triggering a motion-activated surveillance webcam.
All She Wrote Anthology

A series of shorts films about a group of talented, passionate and brave women who make their voices heard though the art of graffiti.
THREE BORDERS

“Three Borders” is a found-footage film reminiscent of Chris Marker’s “La Jetée” (1962). It consists of family photos of the artist and other anonymous found (family) photos. In the style of Magic Realism, the video narrates anecdotes from the families of Alisa Berger’s Jewish father and her North Korean mother. The ten stories narrate the meeting between Koreans and Jews from Galicia. They address the overcoming or the construction of inner, outer, national, ethnic, spiritual or emotional borders which span three generations.
Heimat

The short film “Heimat” is one story from ten stories in “Three Borders.” It is the story of the filmmaker’s father about migration and homeland. “Three Borders” is a 55-minute found-footage film reminiscent of Chris Marker’s “La Jetée” (1962). It consists of family photos of the artist and of other anonymous found (family) photos. In the style of Magic Realism, the video narrates anecdotes from the families of Alisa Berger’s Jewish father and her North Korean mother. They address the overcoming or the construction of inner and outer borders which span three generations.
May 35

A haunting commemoration of the Tiananmen Square uprisings made from fragments of censored archival imagery transferred onto film using razor blades and scotch tape. “May 35” speaks to the difficulty of remembering in the absence of memory, especially when June 4 histories have been censored and obscured. It is a tribute to the thousands of lives devastated by this upheaval. Sound Design: Kadet Kuhne
Badassery

This compelling exposé takes a look at three female DJs who are unapologetically disrupting the Toronto hip-hop scene. The film chronicles the journey of women who are pursuing their passions and crafting their careers in a male-dominated industry. From the up-and-coming independent curator to the global powerhouse, these creatives have crafted a brand for themselves as industry leaders, without compromising who they are. They are paving the way for a generation of women and LGBTQ people, previously excluded from the social and cultural norms of the hip-hop world. It is the weirdos and nonconformists who are now redefining what it…
Leagan (Peppermint Ashes)

It has been a many years since Irina and her mother left Romania to live in Montreal. Away from their family, Irina becomes disconnected and absorbed in virtual worlds which separate her from her mother. When she is faced with the passing of a grandparent, she turns to her closest ally in an attempt to understand the meaning of loss and family through distance and time.
Topology of a String

Topology of A String is a video installation of seven looping videos that investigate permutations and possibilities of a single continuous line in space. Without ever breaking the line, hundreds of variant forms can be created by weaving the string over and under fingers, across the palms or backs of the hands. This project links string games, an ancient form of entertainment shared by cultures the world over, to the branch of mathematics called topology. Each sequence starts at the same opening position yet a single change in the over-under pattern results in a completely different form. The near infinite…
Rettet das Feuer (Rescue The Fire)

Berlin, 1993. Photographer and artist, Jürgen Baldiga, battles HIV. In the 1990s, the AIDS epidemic reached its climax, to which no one was prepared. Infected bodies and their stories diminish, erasing their existence. Through the death of his friends and subsequently his own, Baldiga becomes the chronicler of his time: “I am taking a picture. I photograph the world. I exist.” Identity and history disappear without the persistence of memory. Until the final days of his life, Jürgen documents the exodus that seizes him. Rettet das Feuer (Rescue the Fire) directs the gaze to a piece of West Berlin history…
Through Foreign Eyes

The filmmaker thought of making this poetic, mosaic documentary in a bookshop, when she came across the words of poet Manoel de Barros about “the accent of the place of our origin we carry in our eyes”. She never found the quote again, but in the course of the next few years, she carried out the project with the help of other contributors, mainly the film editor. She created a film essay combining reflections on the identity and ethnic roots of several natives of the Brazilian city of Recife, who live abroad, and the images of the places where they…