Among the most praised and sought-after titles in all contemporary film, this singular masterpiece of Taiwanese cinema, directed by Edward Yang is finally available for audiences. Set in the early sixties in Taiwan, A Brighter Summer Day is based on the true story of a crime that rocked the nation. A film of both sprawling scope and tender intimacy, this novelistic, patiently observed epic centers on the gradual, inexorable fall of a young teenager (Chen Chang, in his first role) from innocence to juvenile delinquency, and is set against a simmering backdrop of restless youth, rock and roll, and political turmoil. Presented in partnership with FascinAsian Film Festival

Art versus commerce, friendship versus status, independence versus conformity—values clash and collide in Edward Yang’s study of an increasingly Westernized country heading into the twenty-first century without moral guideposts. Moving from breakout hit A Brighter Summer Day’s investigation of the past to a critical survey of the present, A Confucian Confusion charts the tangled web of emotional and professional manipulations among a group of young urbanites. At its center is Molly (Ni Shu-chun), director of a floundering public-relations firm. Alienated by the childish fiancé (Bosen Wang) who bankrolls her enterprise—and frustrated by the demands of an assistant, Qiqi (Chen Shiang-chyi), and her own fiancé, Ming (Wang Wei-ming)—Molly lashes out at everyone in her path and threatens to dismantle the company altogether. Meanwhile (amid several other subplots), Molly’s talk-show-host sister (Chen Li-mei) attempts to dissuade her separated husband from continuing to write a dark novel about the return of Confucius to a jaded modern society. Injecting comedic elements into his patented brand of earnest soul-searching, Yang finds humor as well as pathos in the desperate behavior of a lost and lonely generation. Presented in partnership with FascinAsian Film Festival

The largest social housing park in Austria, called Alterlaa, and its former promise of happiness to its residents is the subject of the humorous debut documentary 27 Storeys by Bianca Gleissinger. "Living like the rich for everyone" was the utopian premise in 1970 of the architect with the sonorous name Harry Glück. But what is left of that pioneering spirit? The director, who herself grew up there, meets its eccentric residents - in the shooting club, at the pool on the roof or on the balcony, and provides deep insights into a social biotope. Gleissinger herself appears in the film, ironically and at the same time hauntingly she enters into a place in her past that seemed to have become a stranger to her. This film is a witty, very personal approach to an obscure place and at the same time a confrontation with one's own roots. Generously sponsored by Number Ten Architectural Group

For the first time in its 100-year history, the fashion house Akris grants exclusive access to a documentary film. After more than four decades at its creative helm, Creative Director Albert Kriemler allows a camera into the atelier, offering a rare glimpse into a world usually hidden from view. The film tells the story of three generations of the Swiss Kriemler family, who, as owners and designers of Akris, run one of the last independent fashion houses in the industry. Director Reiner Holzemer accompanies Albert Kriemler and his brother Peter Kriemler, CEO and President of Akris, as they prepare for and celebrate the house’s 100th anniversary. The film captures the intensity of show preparations in Paris, journeys to New York and Washington, as well as a museum exhibition in Zurich. Rare behind-the-scenes moments include fabric sourcing, a fitting with H.S.H. Princess Charlène of Monaco, and an exchange with architect Sir David Chipperfield about his work for Akris. As Albert Kriemler sustains an ongoing dialogue with the worlds of art and architecture, the film explores his creative collaborations with artists and architects such as Imi Knoebel, Anton Corbijn, Thomas Ruff, Sou Fujimoto, as well as his long-standing partnership with renowned ballet director John Neumeier. Through insights into refined craftsmanship, in-house processes, and the master artisans working behind the scenes, Akris – Fashion With a Heritage immerses viewers in the inspired universe of Akris – a quiet powerhouse building its legacy with soul, sensuality, and craft. Generously sponsored by 5468796 architecture

ArchiShorts is a film contest celebrating the narrative potential of places, real and imagined. The contest is free and open to anyone interested in architecture and the built environment, and seeks to create opportunities for emerging filmmakers while building interest in the world around us. Winners of the annual 2-minute film contest will have films screened and a chance to speak about their films, and how they made them. Generously sponsored by Exchange District BIZ

Bauhaus emerged from the ruins after World War I, when visionary architect Walter Gropius set out to bring art, design, and architecture together in a utopian whole. Simplicity, function, and accessibility set new, modern standards for how life could—and should—be lived. The influence of Bauhaus cannot be overestimated. Today it stands as one of the most important cultural movements of the 20th century. The main character in Nico Weber’s cinematic essay is not a person, but a site. The combined Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung in Berlin houses the world’s largest collection of materials on Bauhaus and is currently undergoing renovation, while a new extension is taking shape. The fact that the place is currently both an archive and a construction site is entirely in keeping with the original spirit. Here we meet the people who today manage Gropius’ legacy. And like the archivists and architects of the place, Weber does not compromise on integrity. Around the site, the rest of Berlin is also undergoing rapid change. Generously sponsored by Susan Algie and James Wagner

The narrow streets of the old city of Fez wind around walled houses, crumbling palaces and quiet courtyards. Rajae, a schoolteacher, reminisces about the gardens and streams–places once alive with mystery and discovery–that have now fallen into neglect or vanished entirely. She urges her students to remember the stories still living within the city walls. As architect Rachid Haloui uncovers the hidden network of waterways and springs that shaped Fez, Rajae sets out to develop a play, determined to revive these stories. On a rooftop, the rehearsal begins. Elsewhere in the city, a poet recalls an old poem, a gardener tends one of the last remaining plots, and a dancer encounters the spirit of water. Their stories, rituals and songs, as well as the daily care of the city’s fountains and parks, reveal Fez as a city at a threshold–where memory and imagination persist, deeply intertwined with everyday life. Generously sponsored by HTFC Planning and Design

A definitive feature-length documentary on a pivotal chapter of Modern architecture, this Design Onscreen production directed by award-winning filmmaker Jake Gorst explores the bold, exuberant world of Googie design. Emerging in mid-20th-century Los Angeles, Googie transformed coffee shops, bowling alleys, banks, churches, and car washes into futuristic icons, influenced by visionary architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright and John Lautner and propelled into the commercial mainstream by firms like Armet & Davis. With its sweeping rooflines, dramatic angles, and optimistic embrace of modern materials, Googie reshaped streetscapes across America and captured the spirit of a car-centered, postwar culture. Though many landmarks have been lost, a growing preservation movement now recognizes Googie as a vital and distinctly American expression of Modern design, a legacy this film celebrates through the voices of leading historians and cultural commentators. Jake Gorst is an award–winning documentary filmmaker and writer. Since 2002, Jake and his producing partner Tracey Rennie Gorst have created a body of work that explores architecture, art, design, and cultural history for theatrical, streaming, and public television audiences. He is the author of Andrew Geller: Deconstructed (2015, Glitterati, Inc.) and has contributed writing to The Architect’s Newspaper, VOX Hamptons, HOME Miami, Modern, and Modernism magazines. Generously sponsored by 1X1 architecture

In the heart of the Randstad lies a unique part of the Netherlands: Máximapark. Just 25 years ago, this area was home to greenhouse growers; today it is a vibrant green icon of contemporary landscape architecture and community spirit. From its roots in greenhouse horticulture and the remarkable archaeological discoveries dating back to Roman times, to the carefully designed landscape where rare flora and fauna have found their place, the park is a living mosaic of nature, history, and culture. Volunteers from diverse backgrounds work side by side to maintain and nurture this young yet meaningful place. Visitors to the park find tranquility, inspiration, and opportunities for movement and recreation. The film Máximapark is an ode to the power of collaboration, the importance of heritage, and the beauty of a landscape in which people and nature reinforce one another. Generously sponsored by Scatliff+Miller+Murray

For centuries women have designed spaces, built projects, and transformed architecture. Yet they remain largely invisible in official narratives. This film investigates: why this exclusion? Who organizes and perpetuates it? Through the voices and works of women architects, Out of the Picture explores the mechanisms of erasure at work within the profession. The film also questions the frameworks: those of history, the city, power, and image. It poses a central question: who is granted access to the frame? Generously sponsored by pico ARCHITECTURE Inc.

In the late ’60s and ’70s, a group of architects landed in Vermont with big ideas and a simple plan: to stop just designing buildings and start making them too. Drawing from Bauhaus ideals but rejecting the rigidity of academia, they built by hand, embraced mistakes, and turned architecture into a wild, creative experiment. More than just structures, they built a way of life—one rooted in community, empowerment through doing, and the belief that process matters more than perfection. Stitched into this story are the decades that shaped design/build, told through the houses that best captured each era. The film moves through the radical homes of the ’60s, where sculptural forms and bold ideas first took shape, into the ’70s, when creativity exploded alongside experiments in alternative energy and materials. By the ’80s, Yestermorrow Design/Build School was founded along with the crown jewel Waitsfield10 house. Allie grew up in the middle of it all, playing in half-finished houses where learning happened by trying and failing, and trying again. Years later, she picks up a camera to trace the movement’s history, only to find herself pulled back into its ethos—this time, by building a house of her own. Both nostalgic and full of momentum, the film is a celebration of making cool stuff, messing up, and making more cool stuff—a reminder that the best way to build anything is to just start. Generously sponsored by Public City Architecture

Rule of Stone is a documentary film that exposes the power of architecture and the role it has played – aesthetically, ideologically and strategically – in the creation of modern Jerusalem. In 1967, Israel conquered East Jerusalem, including the Old City, where the Western Wall and the Temple Mount are located. A few years later, the city was declared the united and indivisible capital of the State of Israel. The goal became to make a re-division of the city materially impossible. Architecture and stone are the main weapons in this silent, but extraordinarily effective colonization and dispossession process. At the center of the story is the narrative of Jerusalem Stone, the material decreed by law to give the city its aesthetic quality. The film takes the viewer on a journey seeing how design and the perception of beauty took part in the invisible war of annexation. Jerusalem stone and the way it has been clad on the exterior of every building in the city since the British mandate over Palestine shows how beauty and cruelty go hand in hand. Generously sponsored by Exchange District BIZ

The First Siza is a documentary about the Four Houses, the first project by Álvaro Siza, designed while he was still a student, and the impact of architecture on people's lives. Through the reunion, 60 years later, between the architect and Fernando Neto — his first client and owner of one of the houses in Matosinhos — the film reveals how this project was pivotal in Siza’s career. Featuring interviews with Siza, the residents, and critic Francesco Dal Co, as well as current and archival footage, the narrative explores how architecture and the lives of its inhabitants become intertwined over time. Generously sponsored by h5 architecture

1983. French President François Mitterrand decides to launch an international architectural competition for the flagship project of his mandate: the Great Arch of La Défense, aligned with the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe. Against all odds, Otto von Spreckelsen, a Danish architect, wins the competition. Overnight, this 53-year-old man, unknown in France, arrives in Paris where he is propelled at the helm of this pharaonic project. While the architect intends to build the Great Arch exactly as he envisioned, his ideas quickly clash with realistic constraints and the vicissitudes of politics. Generously sponsored by Wolfrom Engineering

How do you go about merging three well established museums into one giant National Museum? When a new National Museum is being built in Norway, everybody does their very best to make the best museum possible. But what does "best" really mean? With unique access, this observational documentary from the construction of the largest museum in the Nordic countries points us to the question of what art really is, how the new museum will face the challenges of our times, and who an art museum really is for? Generously sponsored by Crosier Kilgour

A philosophical journey into the world of chairs: conversations with design icons about aesthetics and functionality. Generously sponsored by The Professional Interior Designers Institute of Manitoba

Withdrawn and sensitive teenager Carrie White faces bullying from classmates and abuse from her fanatically pious mother. When she begins to suspect that she has supernatural powers, things take a dark and violent turn. Bikini Drive-In is a semi-monthly screening series examining horror films curated and introduced by Cinematheque Film Programmer Olivia Norquay. Generously sponsored by IATSE 856 Manitoba.

A dazzling embroidery of ideas on Black history, identity, and aesthetics gives shape to artist Kahlil Joseph’s eagerly awaited debut feature, an expansion of his acclaimed 2019 Venice Biennale installation BLKNWS. Joseph, who rose to prominence directing music videos for, among others, Flying Lotus, Kendrick Lamar, and Lemonade-era Beyoncé, assembles the film’s kaleidoscopic material as though sequencing an LP, moving fluidly between modes (archival, memoir, essay, pure fiction) and concepts while carrying key, structural motifs forward. One such throughline is Encyclopedia Africana, originally conceived by W.E.B. Du Bois (but unrealized in his lifetime), which serves as an index of Black consciousness in the film. Another is an Afro-futuristic reverie: aboard an enormous ocean liner bound for Africa, the art of a transatlantic biennale is en route to repatriation. “This is not a documentary,” the film declares; either way, truth bristles everywhere. “An immersion into Blackness … By fashioning a kinetic work that pulls together references and sources from Black literature, music, politics, and meme culture, BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions stands as a seismic intellectual awakening.” Robert Daniels, RogerEbert.com “Intimate and sweeping, intellectually exciting and formally audacious … [A] mind-expanding meditation on Black lives, identities, and experiences.” Manohla Dargis, “Best Movies of 2025” (#5), The New York Times

In the late 1990s, eight-year-old Sasha and her family relocate to a new home on Vancouver Island, but their fresh start is interrupted by increasingly dangerous behavior from the eldest son, Jeremy. At wit’s end, their parents are presented with a shattering choice. Award-winning director Sophy Romvari’s feature debut is a lyrical and profound testament to the things we carry with us, masterfully chronicling the haze of a languid summer and the hyaline clarity of the moments that defined it.

Rei (Sawa Suzuki), a seasoned dominatrix and aspiring actor, spends her days rehearsing experimental theatre and her nights whipping straightlaced salarymen into ecstasy. Between appointments, she meets Ayumi (Reiko Kataoka), a call-girl bound to be the wife of a doctor or lawyer. The women bring us into their nocturnal orbit: a life dedicated to the pursuit of pleasure, camaraderie, and the joys of hanging out in the thriving, horny, districts of Shinjuku and Shibuya, at the terminus of the Japanese Bubble era. Marketed in some territories as a sequel to Ryu Murakami’s moody Tokyo Decadence (1992), Banmei Takahashi’s A New Love in Tokyo unfolds as its tonal opposite: less somber sexploitation than unexpectedly sex-positive workplace comedy. Based on a book of essays by Kei Shimamoto and Nobuyoshi Araki that brings the reader into an erotic underworld, the film is also notable for featuring the cult photographer’s work. A glimpse into a bygone era of Japanese eroticism, A New Love in Tokyo provided pink film, V-cinema and Director’s Company veteran Banmei Takahashi (Door, Door II) with a bridge towards a broader range of human experience. Content warning: This film contains scenes of sexual violence. Welcome to Cult-O-Rama, our monthly screening series exploring beloved sleaze, trash, and underground cinema! A celebration of bad taste curated and introduced by Cinematheque Film Programmer Olivia Norquay. Presented in partnership with Sookram’s Brewing Co. Generously sponsored by IATSE 856 Manitoba.

A paranoid young man launches a bizarre crime spree against the citizens of Toronto in this psycho-spiritual thriller comedy starring Rishi Rodriguez, Spencer Rice (Kenny vs. Spenny), and Paul Bellini (Kids in the Hall). Content warning: This film contains scenes of violence and crude content. Welcome to Cult-O-Rama, our monthly screening series exploring beloved sleaze, trash, and underground cinema! A celebration of bad taste curated and introduced by Cinematheque Film Programmer Olivia Norquay. Presented in partnership with Sookram’s Brewing Co. Generously sponsored by IATSE 856 Manitoba. "A new cult classic" - The Toronto Star "Delightfully unlike anything you’ve seen before" - The Chicago Reader

Sara Shahverdi — a divorced, motorcycle-riding former midwife — is an unlikely leader in her conservative northwestern Iranian village. As the first woman ever elected to the local council, she’s determined to break the cycle of empty promises and complacency passed down by the men who came before her. Fierce and unapologetic, Sara pushes for bold reforms, fighting her most difficult battles on behalf of the village’s girls and women. From teaching teenage girls to ride motorcycles to challenging child marriage to advocating for female land ownership, she openly defies patriarchal norms. But when her efforts spark backlash and accusations about her motives, Sara must confront not only her critics — but also her own sense of identity

A lonely gravedigger who stinks of corpses finally meets her dream man, but their whirlwind affair is cut short when he tragically drowns at sea. Grief-stricken, she goes to morbid lengths to resurrect him through madcap scientific experiments, resulting in grave consequences and unlikely love. Dead Lover is a hilarious, delirious, beautiful, horny, and wholly original Frankensteinian tale about the limits one Gravedigger will go to hold onto love. It is the sophomore feature from Grace Glowicki, who directed and stars as the love-obsessed, shovel-wielding Gravedigger turned mad scientist. Ben Petrie, Leah Doz and Lowen Morrow comprise the colourful cast of supporting characters, each playing multiple roles in the style of great romps such as Monty Python and Dr. Strangelove.

A lonely gravedigger who stinks of corpses finally meets her dream man, but their whirlwind affair is cut short when he tragically drowns at sea. Grief-stricken, she goes to morbid lengths to resurrect him through madcap scientific experiments, resulting in grave consequences and unlikely love. Dead Lover is a hilarious, delirious, beautiful, horny, and wholly original Frankensteinian tale about the limits one Gravedigger will go to hold onto love. It is the sophomore feature from Grace Glowicki, who directed and stars as the love-obsessed, shovel-wielding Gravedigger turned mad scientist. Ben Petrie, Leah Doz and Lowen Morrow comprise the colourful cast of supporting characters, each playing multiple roles in the style of great romps such as Monty Python and Dr. Strangelove. Join us on April 11 at 7pm for a virtual Q&A with filmmakers and stars Grace Glowicki and Ben Petrie! Join us on April 23 at 7pm for an in-person Q&A with cinematographer Rhayne Vermette and camera assistant and gaffer Ryan Steel! Presented in Stink-O-Vision, a scratch-and-sniff version, featuring a special recorded introduction from the Gravedigger! The Dead Lover Stink-O-Vision screenings turn cinema into a full-body experience. Each audience member receives a scratch-and-sniff card created by scent artists, unleashing a carefully choreographed bouquet of aromas—funky, foul, seductive, and downright unholy—that sync with key moments in the film. From grave-dirt rot to dandy cologne, ghost puke to BBQ stank, the smells guide viewers through a journey of fetid, funky love where romance and revulsion collide.

Lisa, a sports photographer, vanishes off into the greener pastures of the Georgian countryside, traces of her passing embedded in the landscape like clues. Her father, Irakli (David Koberidze), picks up her scent in the ochre foliage and communal soccer fields she documented for her last assignment. His search-and-rescue trip defies her wishes not to be followed. With a disembodied voice in his passenger seat, he embarks on a winding pastoral picaresque, marked by the recurring gaggles of adolescents, wild dogs, and oral histories he encounters along the way. Undulating between impressionistic reverie and subversive detective story, Irakli’s near-fruitless search invites us to see—with renewed eyes—the quotidian elements which constitute both cinema and life. Shot with a pixelated W595 Sony Ericsson phone camera, Dry Leaf stands as a palpable salvo on cinematic degrowth. While director Alexandre Koberidze teeters on the edge of a formal gimmick to challenge technological tyranny, his characters swim against the false currents of modern life. Taking an audacious leap of faith after his breakthrough What Do We See When We Look At The Sky?, and harkening back to his low-res debut Let the Summer Never Come Again, Koberidze reignites the threadbare wonders of cinematic language in spectacular, big-screen fashion.

Exempt from international climate agreements and rarely scrutinized in mainstream reporting, the Pentagon is revealed here as the world’s single largest institutional polluter—spewing carbon, contaminating water, and scarring landscapes across the globe. Combining investigative journalism, striking visuals, and stories from impacted communities, Earth’s Greatest Enemy challenges audiences to rethink the hidden costs of a global military empire and its planetary consequences. Provocative, urgent, and eye-opening, this is a documentary that will change how you see both the military and environmentalism. Join us on May 22 for a virtual post-screening conversation with filmmaker Abby Martin. Presented in partnership with Peace Alliance Winnipeg, Manitoba Energy Justice Coalition, and the Manitoba Eco Network.

Shakespeare’s most enduring tragedy is reimagined in a bold, modern adaptation set within London’s elite South Asian community. When Hamlet (Riz Ahmed) returns for his father’s funeral, he is stunned to discover his uncle Claudius is marrying his newly widowed mother. Visited by his father’s ghost, Hamlet learns his brutal murder was at the hands of Claudius - and spirals into a quest for vengeance that exposes the rot at the heart of the family’s empire and threatens his own sanity.

Edward Yang’s penultimate film is an acerbic, sprawling tragicomedy, a poison love letter to Taipei as a rising cosmopolis of big money, big dreams, and big cons. Once more focusing on directionless youth, Yang depicts the four immature toughs who share the same apartment and, frequently, the same women. Led by the amoral Red Fish (Tang Tsung-sheng), the crew implements a slate of swindles and illicit business deals aimed at naive foreigners—including French teenager Marthe (Virginie Ledoyen), who is looking to reconnect with her older English lover (Nick Erickson)—and superstitious gold diggers (Carrie Ng). But when mobsters seek to collect on a debt owed by Red Fish’s ex-criminal father (Chang Kuo-chu), they accidentally abduct translator Luen-Luen (Lawrence Ko), the only crew member with scruples and, seemingly, an ounce of compassion. In several intertwined tales of greed, violence, and shattered principles, Mahjong examines how a city can grow in power and wealth while abandoning its heart and soul. Presented in partnership with FascinAsian Film Festival

A film editor breaks up with his girlfriend, unsure if he is in love. Join us for McDonald at The Movies, where comedian, star and co-founder of Kids in the Hall, Kevin McDonald presents a film handpicked from the archives of comic history. Generously sponsored by IATSE 856 Manitoba.

Amy Davis and James Duval play a pair of rival conceptual artists battling for fame and funding in the near-future dystopia of Shitville, Earth. As one ascends the heights of neoliberal capitalist success, the other seeks inspiration and solace in the euphoric waves of a new cyber drug called Skullfuck. Ingenious production design and savvy location shooting evoke the urban sprawl and rural industrial collapse against which the filmmakers frame this scathing satire of art world pretension. Ostensibly a riff on the absurdity of art, warfare of people, material control/secular terror, addictions of every genre, and self-actualization thru internal Jungian conflict, the movie - at its most base level - is a full-on and mega-entertaining cinematic odyssey tinged with ludicrous sci-fi, raw poignancy, and utter brutalism. A Punk Rock Blade Runner for Artists! Featuring a special pre-recorded introduction from director Jon Moritsugu! “Overflowing with eye-popping production design, eardrum-destroying rock ’n’ roll, gross-outs aplenty and deadpan one-liners you’ll be quoting for weeks.” – Wall Street Journal “One of the 25 Greatest Punk Rock Movies of All Times” (My Degeneration, Moritsugu’s first feature that Roger Ebert walked out of after seven minutes at its Sundance premiere) – Rolling Stone

Acclaimed Argentinean filmmaker Lucrecia Martel (ZAMA, THE HEADLESS WOMAN) takes a sweeping approach to this tragic true story, triangulating the murder trial of three men, the lives of activist Chocobar and his fellow Chuchagasta people, and the centuries-old, colonialist legacy of land and property theft across Latin America.

Powwow People is a vérité-style documentary grounded in the rhythms, relationships, and lived experience of a contemporary Native gathering. Rather than entering as outside observers, the filmmakers organized the powwow itself, inviting dancers, singers, vendors, and community members to participate in the making of this film. Structured around the arc of a single day, the film follows four central figures: Gina Bluebird, who frames the powwow’s shape and guides its setup; Ruben Littlehead, the MC whose presence anchors the present moment; Jamie John, a non-binary dancer imagining the future of these traditions; and Freddie Cozad, a singer and drummer who considers the past. The film culminates in a 30-minute unbroken shot of a Northern Traditional dance special, drawing the viewer into the textures, movement, and collective presence of the powwow. It is both a reflection of a beloved and complicated community and a gesture toward the continuities of Native life.

Lost souls reach out for human connection amidst the glimmering night world of Hong Kong in Wong Kar Wai’s hallucinatory, neon-soaked nocturne. Originally conceived as a segment of Chungking Express only to spin off on its own woozy axis, this hyper-cool head rush plays like the dark, moody flip side to Wong’s breakout feature as it charts the subtly interlacing fates of a handful of urban loners, including a coolly detached hitman (Leon Lai) looking to go straight, his business partner (Michelle Reis) who secretly yearns for him, and a mute delinquent (Takeshi Kaneshiro) who wreaks mischief by night. Swinging between hardboiled noir and slapstick lunacy with giddy abandon, Fallen Angels is both a dizzying, dazzling city symphony and a poignant meditation on love, loss, and longing in a metropolis that never sleeps. Join us for our Staff Picks series, where our Winnipeg Film Group staff select and introduce new and old favourites. This month’s selection was chosen by Cinematheque projectionist Victoria K. Generously sponsored by IATSE 856 Manitoba.

Edward Yang’s second feature is a mournful anatomy of a city caught between the past and the present. Made in collaboration with Yang’s fellow New Taiwan Cinema master Hou Hsiao-hsien, who cowrote the screenplay and helped finance the project, Taipei Story chronicles the growing estrangement between a washed-up baseball player (Hou, in a rare on-screen performance) working in his family’s textile business and his girlfriend (pop star Tsai Chin), who clings to the upward mobility of her career in property development. As the couple’s dreams of marriage and emigration begin to unravel, Yang’s gaze illuminates the precariousness of domestic life and the desperation of Taiwan’s globalized modernity. Presented in partnership with FascinAsian Film Festival

The extraordinary, internationally embraced Yi Yi (A One and a Two . . .), directed by the late Taiwanese master Edward Yang, follows a middle-class family in Taipei over the course of one year, beginning with a wedding and ending with a funeral. Whether chronicling middle-age father NJ’s tentative flirtations with an old flame or precocious young son Yang-Yang’s attempts at capturing reality with his beloved camera, the filmmaker deftly imbues every gorgeous frame with a compassionate clarity. Warm, sprawling, and dazzling, this intimate epic is one of the undisputed masterworks of the new century. Presented in partnership with FascinAsian Film Festival