Faced with an unplanned pregnancy, an offbeat young woman makes an unusual decision regarding her unborn child.

Banel and Adama are fiercely in love. The young married couple lives in a remote village in northern Senegal. For them, nothing else exists except each other. But for the rest of their tight-knit village, duty dictates that Adama soon accept the role of chief. The two lovers have their own plans… until something in the air changes. The rains do not come, the cattle begin to die, the men leave. The curse weighs on Adama's sense of duty, and the chasm between them drives Banel into a feverish, mystical chaos. A rare debut feature that premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, and Senegal's official submission to the 96th Academy Awards®, Banel & Adama is a lush and lyrical West African dreamscape, a tragic romance that soars to the heights of longing and descends deep into the realm of myth as it sets its protagonists' perfect everlasting love on a collision course with their community’s traditions.

For nearly five years, acclaimed German filmmaker Werner Herzog desperately tried to complete one of the most ambitious and difficult films of his career, Fitzcarraldo, the story of one man’s attempt to build an opera house deep in the Amazon jungle. Documentary filmmaker Les Blank captured the unfolding of this production, made more perilous by Herzog’s determination to shoot the most daunting scenes without models or special effects, including a sequence requiring hundreds of indigenous Peruvians to pull a full-size, 320-ton steamship over a small mountain. The result is an extraordinary document of the filmmaking process and a unique look into the single-minded mission of one of cinema’s most fearless directors.

Werner Herzog is the reigning champ of impossible real-life adventures undertaken in the name of cinema. And this masterpiece is the romantic flipside to Aguirre: The Wrath of God – a backbreaking epic that ecstatically treads the line between a portrait of madness and a genuine expression of obsession. Fitzcarraldo fictionalizes the mad, true-life mission of South American rubber baron Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald to establish an opera house in the Peruvian jungle – which can only be accomplished by hauling a gigantic river boat over a mountain. No special effects here -- this is the real deal, with the impossible results executed before your eyes.

In India Donaldson’s insightful, piercing debut, 17-year-old Sam embarks on a three-day backpacking trip in the Catskills with her dad, Chris and his oldest friend, Matt. As the two men quickly settle into a gently quarrelsome brotherly dynamic, airing long-held grievances, Sam, wise beyond her years, attempts to mediate. But when lines are crossed and Sam’s trust is betrayed, tensions reach a fever pitch, as Sam struggles with her dad’s emotional limitations and experiences the universal moment when the parental bond is tested. Selected in both Sundance and Cannes' Directors' Fortnight, Good One is an emotionally expansive work that probes the limits of familial trust, understanding, and ultimately, forgiveness.

In a time of immense environmental degradation and global uncertainty, the buffalo can lead us to a better tomorrow. After a dark recent history, the buffalo herds of North America are awaiting their return, aided by dedicated Indigenous activists, leaders and communities, including award-winning Cree filmmaker Tasha Hubbard (nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up). Together with Blackfoot Elder Leroy Little Bear, Hubbard weaves an intimate story of humanity’s connections to buffalo and eloquently reveals how their return to the Great Plains can indeed usher in a new era of sustainability and balance. On her journey, Hubbard explores the challenges faced by buffalo allies and shares the positive steps already taken towards the ultimate - but uncertain - goal of buffalo rematriation. Richly visualised and deeply uplifting, Singing Back the Buffalo is an epic reimagining of North America through the lens of buffalo consciousness and a potent dream of what is within our grasp.

Ground control has been receiving mysterious transmissions from the three remaining residents of the Solaris space station. When cosmonaut and psychologist Kris Kelvin is dispatched to investigate, he experiences the same strange phenomena that afflict the Solaris crew, sending him on a voyage into the darkest recesses of his consciousness. With Solaris, the legendary Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky created a brilliantly original science-fiction epic that challenges our conceptions about love, truth, and humanity itself.

Busy navigating his final year of high school, brainy aspiring teacher Tom (Waiting for Caroline’s Robert Howay) is determined to land an elusive scholarship, but his hard work is constantly interrupted by his real obsession: pursuing the opposite sex. Before long, he develops a romance with former classmate Elaine (The Boy Who Could Fly’s Angela Gann), who persistently declines his sexual advances. This inspires Tom to consider other options, including his good-natured study buddy Kathy (Carol Pastinsky). But when they take their friendship to the next level, shocking complications threaten to derail Tom’s future, inspiring his friends to take drastic action. In the wake of The Bitter Ash and the censorship battles it inspired, director Larry Kent returned with this more playful – but no less provocative – sophomore effort. An intoxicating blend of carefree sex comedy and unsparing coming-of-age drama, Sweet Substitute plays like a hedonistic reimagining of the same year’s Nobody Waved Good-bye aimed at the exploitation film market. A surprise success in the U.S. (under the title Caressed), it set the stage for Kent’s next leap forward with When Tomorrow Dies, the third and final entry in his celebrated Vancouver Trilogy.

With a dead-end job and a potentially pregnant girlfriend jeopardizing his freedom, Des (Cathy’s Curse’s Alan Scarfe) spirals into bitterness, misanthropy, and fantasies of violent crime. While visiting a sick friend one afternoon, he crosses paths with the similarly jaded, even suicidal Laurie (Lynn Stewart), a young parent working as a waitress to provide for her child and struggling playwright husband (Philip Brown). Desperate to recapture a sense of vitality – and raise money for rent – this troubled couple invites Des and a group of local beatniks over for a hedonistic party that culminates in a series of shocking acts of violence and betrayal. Made for just $5,000, The Bitter Ash is the first feature from celebrated independent filmmaker Larry Kent, a cinematic trailblazer cited as a key influence by countrymates David Cronenberg and Atom Egoyan. Playing like a Canadian answer to John Cassavetes’ Shadows, this first entry in Kent’s seminal Vancouver Trilogy (followed by Sweet Substitute and When Tomorrow Dies) also flirts with the frank sexuality and other provocations of ’60s exploitation cinema, which led to a series of censorship battles, dooming the film to decades of obscurity. CIP is thrilled to resurrect this groundbreaking classic with a new 4K restoration.

Before Dario Argento’s Deep Red, there was Mario Bava’s Blood and Black Lace. At the Cristiana Haute Couture fashion house, models and their boyfriends excel at the art of backstabbing, blackmail, and snorting cocaine. That is, until a faceless maniac embarks on a mission of death! After the one-two punch of Black Sunday and Black Sabbath, Mario Bava unleashed Blood and Black Lace – the movie that perfected the ultra-violent sub-genre that would come to be known as “giallo.” With a mood that mashes together the elegance of a quiet rain on a summer night with the luridness of a trashy paperback, it’s no wonder why Martin Scorsese once referred to this movie as “an incredible moment for cinema.” Content warning: This film contains scenes of violence and gore.

The final feature from gothic horror legend Mario Bava, Shock eschews grand guignol excess for a more intimate portrait of mental breakdown in which true horror comes from within. Dora (Daria Nicolodi, Deep Red) moves to her old family home with her husband Bruno (John Steiner, Tenebrae), and son Marco (David Colin Jr., Beyond The Door). But domestic bliss proves elusive as Dora is haunted by nightmares and hallucinations, many of them involving her dead former husband. Originally released in the U.S. as a sequel to Beyond The Door, the finest Exorcist rip-off ever filmed, Shock more than lives up to its name. Newly restored for the first time ever! Content warning: This film contains scenes of violence and gore.

Larry Kent’s third feature and first “professional” film—i.e. cast and crew were actually paid!—saw the director age up his thematic concerns from youthful malaise to marital unrest. Scripted by Robert Harlow, a creative writing professor at UBC, this Vancouver-set portrait of domestic disillusionment adopts the perspective of a stifled, put-upon housewife (Patricia Gage, Rabid) who seizes on the ’60s social-liberation movement, much to the chagrin of her traditionalist husband (Douglas Campbell). Believing she can balance familial duties and female empowerment, she enrolls in higher education and falls for her debonair English professor (Neil Dainard). When Tomorrow Dies marked Kent’s biggest budget to that point, enabling him to hire trained actors and an experienced cinematographer (Doug McKay, Madeleine Is…). Its excursions into impressionism signaled an evolution in Kent’s visual style, while the story evinced a clear-eyed grasp of the lopsided nature of “free love” under patriarchy.

*Ticket price: pay what you can *With post screening Q&A Program: • Of the Other Spaces - Dir. Sibi Sekar | 24 mins, Digital File, 2021 • HYPNAGOGIA - Dir. Tushar Nongthombam | 11 mins, Digital File, 2023 • The Dustbin of a Middle-class Family - Dir. Parashar Naik | 9 mins, Digital File, 2021 • Memories of a City - Dir. Sarvesh Singh Hada | 18 mins, Digital File, 2022 • Slow Wave - Dir. Pooja Kadam | 10 mins, Digital File, 2023 • WordCount - Dir. Srotoswini Sinha | 10 mins, Digital File, 2023 • Marks of Wound Marks of Woe - Dir. Koushik Mitra | 8 mins, Digital File, 2022

*Ticket price: pay what you can *With post screening Q&A Program: • Second Slide - Dir. Jack Parker | 3.5 mins, 16 mm, 2024 • Glistening Seagull –Dir. Chae Yu | 10.5 mins, DCP, 2023 • The Ragwort – Dir. Ellie Kyungran Heo | 10 mins, DCP, 2023 • Papaya –Dir. Dédé Chen | 11 mins, DCP, 2023 • Next Her Heart - Dir. Anna Kipervaser | 12 mins, 16 mm, 2023 • The Secret Garden – Dir. Nour Ouayda | 27 mins, DCP, 2023

*Ticket price: pay what you can *With post screening Q&A Program: • Corps Tannés (Worn Bodies) - Dir. Malou Six | 19 mins, DCP, 2024 • Gender: Blob - Dir. Rea Saxena | 1 min, DCP, 2024 • Negative/Positive Film - Dir. Federica Foglia | 14.5 mins, DCP, 2024 • why i never became a taxi driver - Dir. Yuula Benivolski | 11 mins, DCP, 2023 • Narcisse and the Travel Agency - Dir. le Ratoire | 17 mins, 16 mm, 2023 • Gl0ry H0le Antiverse –Dir. kay ess | 8 mins, 16 mins, 2023 • 123 - Dir. Omid Moterassed | 7 mins, DCP, no sound, 2023

*Ticket price: pay what you can *With post screening Q&A Program: • before seriana - Dir. Samy Benammar | 19 mins, DCP, 2024 • Albums de Familles - Dir. Moïa Jobin-Paré | 8.5 mins, DCP, 2023 • Too much past is a dangerous thing - Dir. Mahshid Mahboubifar | 8.5 mins, DCP, 2023 • I Used to live Here - Dir. Ryan McKenna | 13.5 mins, DCP, 2023 • ʎɔuǝɹɐdsuɐɹʇ - Dir. Joaquin Arturo Dolera Rosa | 2 mins, DCP, 2023 • sebastian_1 - Dirs. Alex Lo, Sebastian Smith | 13.5 mins, DCP, 2024

*Ticket price: pay what you can *With post screening Q&A Program: • No More Room in Hell - Dir. rebecca shapass | 23 mins, DCP, 2024 • Alberta’s Room - Dir. Victoire Karera Kampire | 18 mins, DCP, 2023 • Fort Garry Lions Pool - Dir. Ryan Steel | 6 mins, DCP, 2024 • The Birds Live Here - Dir. Anna Holmen | 8 mins, DCP, 2024 • Welcome to the Enclave - Dir. Sarah Lasley | 12 mins, DCP, 2023 • WRITE A POEM - Dir. Suhan Lalettayin | – 7 mins, DCP, 2024

*Ticket price: pay what you can *With post screening Q&A Program: • Action! - Dir. Arne Körner | 1 min, 35 mm, 2024 • Abgad Hawaz - Dir. Robin Raid | 1.5 mins, DCP, 2024 • Michif Land-Based Knowledge - Dir. Robyn Adams | 3 mins, DCP, 2024 • River - Dir. Penny McCann | 3 mins, 16 mm, 2024 • Geométrika - Dir. Nicole Blundell | 4 mins, 16 mm, 2024 • spring rebirth at source du Pêcher - Dir. Emma Roufs | 1.5 mins, DCP, 2024 • Starlight Sojourn – Dirs. Chantal Rousseau, Darcy Tara McDiarmid | 4 mins, DCP, 2024 • Come out of your shell - Dir. Yannick Mosimann | 2.5 mins, DCP, 2024 • DESLIZO - Dir. Samu Mariani | 1 min, DCP, 2024 • grain cloud atmosphere - Dir. martin moolhuijs | 6.5 mins, DCP, 2025 • Bleach Kiss - Dir. Santiago Vitale | 3 mins, DCP, 2004 • Opaline - Dir. Alix Galdin | 7 mins, DCP, 2024 • Resting Place - Dir. Brittney Appleby | 3 mins, DCP, no sound, 2023 • zur See geflochten - Dir. Ania Ślusarczyk | 3 mins, DCP, no sound, 2023 • A Symphony - Dir. Fabian Krebs | 4 mins, DCP, 2023

*Ticket price: pay what you can *With post screening Q&A Program: • Ceremonial - Dir. Caroline Monnet | 3 mins, digital file, 2018 • Valley of Light - Dir. Heidi Phillips | 67 mins, DCP, 2023

Field Notes from a Rainy Day: The Animations, Meditations and One Takes of Leslie Supnet *Ticket price: $10 *With post screening Q&A, followed by an opening reception Program: • Last Light Breaking - Dir. Leslie Supnet | 8 mins, digital file, 2013 • In Still Time - Dir. Leslie Supnet | 11 mins, digital file, 2016 • gains + losses - Dir. Leslie Supnet | 3.5 mins, digital file, 2011 • How to Care for Introverts - Dir. Leslie Supnet | 2 mins, digital file, 2010 • A Small Misunderstanding - Dir. Leslie Supnet | 1 mins, digital file, 2008 • Fair Trade - Dir. Leslie Supnet | 4.5 mins, digital file, 2009 • The Island - Dir. Leslie Supnet | 3 mins, digital file, 2016 • Weekend - Dir. Leslie Supnet | 3 mins, digital file, 2010 • Sun Moon Rain Stars - Dir. Leslie Supnet | 3.5 mins, digital file, 2009 • Finding the Truth Around Us - Dir. Leslie Supnet | 2.5 mins, digital file, 2013 • Peak Experience - Dir. Leslie Supnet | 8 mins, digital file, 2018

WNDX Feature Documentary *Ticket price: pay what you can *With post screening Q&A Feet in Water, Head on Fire Experimental Documentary, 90 mins, DCP, 2023 Dir: Terra Long Terra Long’s experimental documentary takes us to California’s Coachella Valley, where date palms are closely intertwined with local community life, culture, and identity. A sensory meditation akin to a daydream in motion, the film unpacks the way these imported Middle Eastern palm trees have directly or indirectly influenced every aspect of daily life, as well as the region’s economy, gastronomy, and festivities. With its hypnotizing cinematic approach, the visual journey of Feet in Water, Head on Fire sweeps the viewer into a waking dream both mesmerizing and evocative, in which every detail of the landscape reveals layers of memory and meaning. (RIDM) Feet in Water, Head on Fire was a programming selection made by Jaimz Asmundson, a long-time WNDX Festival Producer, before his untimely death earlier this year. Asmundson described the film as one of his “absolute favourite films of 2023.”

Join us on Saturday, September 28 for expanded cinema performances featuring no outside (NO BORDERS ON STOLEN LAND), a new work by arc commissioned for WUFF 11, drawing inspiration from a 1968 land art work by Dennis Oppenheim and shared experiences of refused entry at the US/Canadian border, to be performed via set of instructions by Scott Fitzpatrick, Leslie Supnet and Kristiane Church. Each guest performer will also select and project a short work from our all celluloid Secret Cinema catalogue. Presented in partnership with The Winnipeg Underground Film Festival.