Unfolding in a roughly chronological order, 50 Years of Solitude is a sketch portrait of the variety and depth of work in the experimental tradition by Winnipeg Film Group members – from the very beginnings to the present. Curated by James Pomeroy. James Pomeroy is a Winnipeg based film maker, photographer, teacher, and a senior member of the Winnipeg Film Group. He has taught for the Philosophy department and the School of Art at the University of Manitoba. His work is concerned with investigations into colour and rhythm, structure and materiality, and improvisation and analogies between music and film. His work has been screened nationally at venues/ events such as The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra's New Music Festival, The National Arts Centre Ottawa, L'Alternativa, The European Media Arts Festival, The Experimental Art Gallery at The India Habitat Centre, The Kuala Lumpur Film, Video and Music festival (KLEX) , Festival Silêncio, and a bar in Bangkok. okeedoke Dir. Leon Johnson 3:00 | Experimental | Colour | January 1973 A portrait of the filmmaker's former brother-in-law, Steve Jackson, with psychedelic photograph animation synchronized to music performed by Chuck Aliamo. The West Quarter Dir. Joanne Jackson Johnson 4:00 | Documentary | B&W | January 1974 "When I stepped into the field of sunflowers I realized that I was in another world. I could no longer see the surrounding fields and road. It was like walking through a dense forest. I had never seen that many tall sunflowers close up before and didn’t realize at the time that it wouldn’t be long before these giants would no longer be grown, replaced by dwarf varieties. The film is about the experience of being in that field, abstracted by the black and white film, with music composed by Bill Hinkley, who played for years on Garrison Keillor’s The Prairie Home Companion show." A Monster Loose in the City Dir. Gregory Zbitnew 4:00 | Narrative/Fiction / Comedy | Colour | January 1979 A bizarre and humorous pastiche of images and narrative decrying the monster let loose in our minds, our homes and our cities almost every night between 7 and 10 (and sometimes during the day as well). 5¢ a Copy Dir. Gregory Zbitnew, Ed Ackerman 2:52 | Animation | B&W | January 1980 An innovative experimental animated film that makes moving images with a photocopy machine. Through bizarre images and a pulsing electronic musical score, the filmmakers have created a mind expanding work that will long remain in your memory. Hollands New Queen Dir. Grant Guy 3:00 | Experimental | Colour | January 1984 Visual images that confront us daily are in constant flux. Only traces of their existence remain in our conscious thoughts. Bite Dir. MB Duggan 0:01 | Experimental | Colour | January 1985 A car, water, an arm, a poem, titles, and credits. At one second, the world's shortest film. Odilon Redon: The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Towards Infinity (2008) Dir. Guy Maddin 6:00 | Experimental | B&W | January 2008 Keller, an old sub-aquatic locomotive engineer, and his son Caelum witness a train collision and rescue from its wreckage Berenice, an orphaned pre-adolescent girl-snail. Keller and Caelum adopt Berenice as a member of their family. Keller even names his beloved steam engine after his "daughter". When Berenice reaches puberty, both Keller and Caelum fall in love with her, becoming romantic rivals. A disturbed Berenice runs away to marry a Zepplin pilot, only to be kidnapped by her adoptive father. Keller is blinded in a train mishap. Caelum loses his head and turns into a flower. Berenice turns into a cactus. French Ship Dir. Carole O'Brien 3:30 | Experimental | Colour, B&W | September 2003 Techniques: Scratch Animation, Hand Process (b&w), Hand Process (col) In a fishing village, a woman waits anxiously. Will her men return safely? She summons visions of past expectations and calls on her courage. Winged Victory Dir. Victoria Prince 7:40 | Experimental / Animation | Colour, B&W | March 2006 Techniques: Scratch Animation, Hand Process (b&w) Language: English Step right up Ladies and Gentlemen, Step right up! Presenting Winged Victory, an over-the-Big-Top experimental, silent-era-styled, hand-processed, scratch animation. Set in a Circus Ring, a Chicken Lady dreams of being the main stage flying trapeze act. Constantly taunted and teased by scratch-animated clowns and a whip-wielding Ringmaster, there is only one way for her to achieve victory…a death defying act. Tariffica Synthany No. 1 Dir. Robert Pasternak 2:00 | Experimental | Colour | March 2008 Each frame of this rich black, grey and white video looks like an abstract expressionist painting following the path of tar lines on the road in a continual vertical movement as they sway side to side, and mingle with the white lines phasing on and off screen. Set over a background of stacatto concrete sounds composed by the filmmaker. (This film was commissioned by the Winnipeg Film Group’s Cinematheque for its 25th anniversary, Silverscope) The Great Divide Dir. Bryan Besant 3:24 | Experimental | B&W | May 2008 The Great Divide was created as a collaboration with Japanese artist Katsuyuki Hattori, and performed live as part of a video concert. The work is composed of video footage of the Arlington Bridge which sprawls over the often debated train yard and grain transportation depot which segregates the North End of Winnipeg from the rest of the city. This work, Besant’s first attempt at generating audio from video, was inspired by the geometric form of the bridge. It has become something of a tutorial on the sounds generated by contrast and movement, and yet the overall feel of the piece seems to reflect the uncertainty of the politics and disjointed debate to move the train yard out of the city. Tattoo Step Dir. Mike Maryniuk 1:30 | Experimental / Animation | Colour | January 2008 Temporary Tattoos applied to 35mm for eternity. An energetic conjuring of Manitoban spirits. Starring: Haunted HyperActive Hypnotists and Breakneck Butterfly Barfbags. Sitka Dir. Olya Zikrata 4:45 | Experimental | B&W | January 2009 Techniques: Hand Process (b&w) Memories are awash in a haptic eroticism of film grain. Sitka ("net" in Ukrainian) is composed of threads and ruptures into the folds of memory, love, and loss. Body, skin, touch, movement, man and woman, mother and son, memories are awash in a haptic eroticism of film grain. With use of overexposure, vaseline, hand-processing, and flashes of light, this film asks for a close, haptic viewing. The Story of Thomas Edison Dir. Aaron Zeghers 4:38 | Experimental / Animation | Colour | September 2011 Techniques: Scratch Animation, Hand Process (b&w), Hand Process (col), Optically Printed Language: English A film about the childhood heroes you so admired and now don't speak to. Optically printed onto 16mm, the Story of Thomas Edison is a mélange of recorded audio bites that form a libelous biography of the famous inventor. Notes on Gesture Dir. Solomon Nagler 4:33 | Experimental | B&W | January 2010 Techniques: Hand Process (b&w) Language: English A visual essay of indexical failures that examine the bliss of ineffable gestures… Sins of the Father Dir. Deco Dawson 4:20 | Experimental / Narrative/Fiction | B&W | October 2011 Language: English Paying homage to the 1955 masterpiece Night of the Hunter, Deco Dawson has created a collage film using childlike miniatures, in-camera effects, 16mm footage of abandoned houses and a meticulous sound design that captures the eerie doom of the original. Wingdings Love Letter Dir. Scott Fitzpatrick Framestorm Dir. James Pomeroy 3:30 | Experimental / Animation | Colour | January 2012 Techniques: Pixilation Language: English Framestorm is a short abstract film, shot frame by frame using a pixilation of surfaces technique that is an experiment in colour rhythm and movement and an experiment in total improvisation inspired by the Free Jazz compositions of Ornette Coleman. Allan Gardens Dir. Leslie Supnet 5:55 | Experimental | B&W | October 2013 Techniques: Special Effects, Visual Effects Language: English Light bends to reveal the caged garden. Movement by intuition and memory with seemingly endless time. Between by Dir. Heidi Phillips DEMI MONDE Dir. Caroline Monnet 3:29 | Experimental | B&W | October 2013 Techniques: Hand Process (b&w) A distinct world – that is often an isolated part of a larger world – is viscerally envisioned in this uniquely hand- processed film. Stamma Loops Dir. Greg Hanec 4 | Experimental | B&W | July 2025 Techniques: Digitized 16mm film Stamma Loops was designed using found loops of an orchestra demonstration for kids. The black and white footage is of various instruments showing scales, kids singing and whistling, an Indigenous drummer, and more. The loops are presented on a split screen and since they are different lengths (12 seconds/ 14 seconds/10 seconds/etc), they interact in new ways each time around. This new interaction causes unique and unusual "musical" combinations. As well, the projector sounds and the pops and clicks of the tape edits are included. Stamma Loops is another in Greg Hanec’s ongoing investigation into the nature of looping and loop interaction that began in the late 1990's.

Dir. Isiah Medina 1:05:00 | Colour & B&W | 2015 Language: English / French You cannot pay your bill. - . Your heat and lights are cut. -. You pay. The clocks initially flash 88:88, --:--. You set the clocks. You cannot pay. -. You pay. 88:88. --:--. Repeat. 88:88, --:--. Cut. -. You stop setting your clock to the time of the world. 88:88, --:-- . Subtracted: - : you make do with suspension. 88:88, --:--, 88:88, --:--, 88:88, --:--, 88:88, --:--, 88:88 Plays with log 2 Dir. Isiah Medina 14 min | Colour | 2020 From Winnipeg to Paris, from Montreal to the Philippines, the dash between “Filipino-Canadian” becomes a minus. Join us for a post-screening Q&A with Isiah Medina, moderated by Clint Enns

The new film from the visionary director of Pacifiction, Albert Serra’s Afternoons of Solitude is a spellbinding documentary that turns its gaze on the ceremonial splendor and devastating brutality of bullfighting in Spain. With quiet intensity, Serra follows famed matador Andrés Roca Rey, from the solitude of his hotel room and the meticulousness of his preparations to the charged spectacle of the arena. Through his immersive and unhurried lens, Serra reveals Rey’s profound physical, spiritual, and aesthetic commitment to a centuries-old ritual—one that demands he take part in a timeless duel between man and beast. Content warning: This film contains scenes of animal cruelty and death. Viewer discretion is advised.

Dir. Winston Washington Moxam 84 min | Narrative / Fiction / Drama | 2001 Barbara James is a thirty-something, single, hip and opinionated pregnant Black woman. Her life takes an eventful twist of fate when, one particularly ordinary day, she wakes up and realizes that her unborn baby has stopped moving. On this particular day, Barbara James decides she must sort out her past, present and future. She must come to grips with 30 years of mistakes, miscalculations and misinterpretations, all bound up in a reality she has never faced before. Dealing with a judgmental mother, an irresponsible father who abandons her, an overly protective best friend, no money, no career, no place of her own and a ghost who haunts her, she must decide whether or not to keep her child. Barbara James represents and explores the transitions all of us must go through in our lives – always wondering where to go next and what to do when we get there.

At the height of summer, 18-year-old Cécile (Lily McInerny) is languishing by the French seaside with her handsome father, Raymond (Claes Bang), and his girlfriend, Elsa (Naïlia Harzoune), when the arrival of her late mother’s friend, Anne (Chloë Sevigny), changes everything. Amid the sun-drenched splendour of their surroundings, Cécile’s world is threatened and, desperate to regain control, she sets in motion a plan to drive Anne away with tragic consequences. An adaptation of Françoise Sagan’s unforgettable coming-of-age novel by the same title, Durga Chew-Bose’s Bonjour Tristesse masterfully captures the complexity of relationships between women and how they wield influence over one another’s fates.

Adapted from actress and musician Cristiane Felscherinow’s harrowing account of her teenage years, Cristiane F. depicts the impact of West Berlin’s mid-to-late-70s heroin epidemic on one of its youngest and luckiest survivors. On the cusp of fourteen, David Bowie-worshipping Cristiane (Natja Brunckhorst) begins slipping out from under the watch of her divorced mother (Christiane Lechle) and spending time at hip discotheque Sound. There she falls in love with Detlev (Thomas Haustein), whose recent experiments with heroin soon have her hooked. Working with first-time actors and shooting on location with real-life regulars of Zoo Station’s notorious drug cruising scene, director Uli Edel unflinchingly captures the degradation of each phase of junkie life, from underage prostitution to brutal withdrawals to the seemingly endless vows to “go straight.” Bowie himself appears in a concert performance of “Station to Station”; the film’s soundtrack is a virtual compendium of the epochal musician’s celebrated “Berlin period” and a perfect sonic evocation of nightclubbing’s dark side. Content warning: Christiane F. contains themes of drug use. Viewer discretion is advised. Welcome to Cult-O-Rama, our brand-new 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

Graceful, enigmatic, and often frightening, Dogtooth is an ingenious dark comedy that won the Un Certain Regard Prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and an Academy Award® nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, propelling Oscar® winner Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things, The Favourite) to the forefront of contemporary cinema's most ambitious young filmmakers. In an effort to protect their three children from the corrupting influence of the outside world, a Greek couple transforms their home into a gated compound of cultural deprivation and strict rules of behavior. But children cannot remain innocent forever. When the father brings home a young woman to satisfy his son's sexual urges, the family's engineered "reality" begins to crumble, with devastating consequences. Like the haunting, dystopic visions of Michael Haneke and Gaspar Noé, Dogtooth punctuates its compelling drama with moments of shocking violence, creating a biting social satire that is as profound as it is provocative. Restored in 4K from the 35mm camera and sound negatives by Boo Productions and mk2 Films at Asterisk* Post and I Hear Voices sound studio. Colour grading by Gregory Arvanitis and Thimios Bakatakis. Digital sound restoration by Landros Ntounis. The restoration process was supervised by the director, Yorgos Lanthimos. Content warning: Dogtooth contains disturbing themes including psychological abuse, sexual content, incest, and scenes of violence and self-harm. Viewer discretion is advised.

Dir. Guy Maddin 75 min | Narrative / Fiction | 2002 A cinematic version of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s adaptation of Bram Stoker’s gothic novel Dracula. Filmed in a style reminiscent of silent Expressionist cinema of the early 20th century (complete with intertitles and monochrome photography), it uses dance to tell the story of a sinister but intriguing immigrant who preys upon young English women. Join us for a post-screening discussion with filmmakers Guy Maddin and Deco Dawson, and producer Vonnie Von Helmolt, moderated by Olivia Norquay

The WFG founding members were local and independent. They represented all film disciplines and had honed their skills in various ways—in commercial, government and academic work, and by being self taught. Contagious energy fuelled ambitious ideas. Fortunately, there were clear-headed planners involved. Nevertheless, as early co-ordinator Leon Johnson reflected, “we had to start with nothing. There was a lot of struggle”. Most of the films in this selection are from early WFG animation and documentary makers. Moving and I Dream of Driftwood reflect their legacy. Curated by Joanne Jackson Johnson. Joanne Jackson Johnson is a founding member of the Winnipeg Film Group. She and Leon Johnson, then married, had spent several years in Minneapolis involved in the visual art communities. In the late 1960s, they even worked for John Cage shooting 8mm film at a Cage Music Circus. After the first few years of film projects Joanne decided to concentrate on still photography, exhibiting and teaching part time at the School of Art, University of Manitoba. In 1989 Joanne moved to Whitehorse Yukon where she continued to photograph, exhibit and work in art education. For the past twenty years she has been engaged in organic farming and advocacy for organic agriculture. Ho Down Dir. John Paizs 1976, Manitoba, 2 min An enjoyable animated film done by drawing directly on the film in the tradition of Norman McLaren. Two circles, one male and one female, bounce, spin and stretch to lively music. Primiti Too Taa Dir. Ed Ackerman, Colin Morton 1988, Manitoba, 3 min An excerpt from Kurt Schwitters’ “Ursonate” (Sontata in primitive sounds) parades across the screen thanks to a Remington typewriter. Sarah’s Dream Dir. Ed Ackerman 1980, Canada, 5 min Plasticine animation tells the quick amusing story of a girl whose wish to move to Canada from the Old Country is granted. Live Studio Sound Dir. Ed Ackerman 1980, Canada, 5 min Live Studio Sound is a portrayal of a group of people taping the soundtrack to an animated film. The film is Ed Ackerman's riotous companion piece to Sarah's Dream. We discover how the unusual sound effects are created and see how applying the sound track is the last step in completing a film. Moving Dir. Leslie Supnet 2007, Canada, 1 min Moving is Leslie Supnet's first animation made for the Winnipeg Film Group's 48 Hour Film Contest where it took home 1st prize. This short explores the ways in which we move from one place to another, and how we all leave things behind. Havakeen Lunch Dir. Elise Swerhone 1979, Canada, 28 min After eighteen years of operating the favourite lunch counter in Manitoba's Interlake region, Ellen and Martin Kihn have retired. A poignant look at the last day, The Kihns, their friends and their customers, demanding rural life and the place the disappearing institution of the country café plays in these people's lives. A tribute to the cafes found in small towns. You Laugh Like A Duck Dir. Leon Johnson & Cordell Wynne 1980, Canada, 29 min A film of great warmth and insight, this co-production between the Winnipeg Film Group and the Atlantic Filmmaker's Co-operative explores the lives of a number of children in Winnipeg, Manitoba and Halifax, Nova Scotia. I Dream of Driftwood Dir. Matthew Rankin 2006, Canada, 3 min I Dream of Driftwood is a delirious super-8 ransom note cobbled together out of the baroque letters and grandiose names of Winnipeg apartment buildings. Idealistic, absurd and positively insane with Stockholm syndrome, the film glorifies all the smoldering romance that these living spaces fail to provide.

From Miguel Gomes, the award winning director of Tabu and Arabian Nights, comes a globe-trotting tale of unrequited love. Earning Gomes the Best Director prize at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, Grand Tour blends melodrama and screwball comedy in this cat-and-mouse chase between lovers. 1917, colonial Burma. Edward, a civil servant for the British Empire, jilts his lovestruck fiancée Molly the day she arrives to be married. As he escapes into an unexpected odyssey across Asia, she quickly follows suit amused by his moves. Rendered in stunning black-and-white period visuals interspersed with modern-day documentary footage, Grand Tour–Portugal’s Best International Feature entry to the 97th Academy Awards®–is a dazzling multi-city symphony that will leave audiences reeling with wonder.

Sanjivani, a young widow in rural India, grapples with devastating loss after her husband, a farmer who succumbed to the pressures of rising costs, unyielding crop failures, and volatile market prices, commits suicide – one of thousands each year in India’s agriculture sectors. Now absorbed into her brother-in-law’s family, Sanjivani and her two children struggle to be seen and respected. Among her myriad of responsibilities, including homemaker, mother and farm-worker for her brother-in-law, Sanjivani’s efforts to regain self-determination and a semblance of control over her life are compounded by the traditional social stigmas and dogmas attached to widowhood in her community. When Sanjivani cautiously joins a local support group for widows-only, despite having to fabricate excuses to her brother-in-law to explain her absence, she unexpectedly embarks upon a transformative journey of discovery with the other women as they share their grief. Initially cautious and reserved, Sanjivani is slowly drawn in to the healing power of community; her own grief beginning to heal as she focuses on the others instead of herself. When she summons the courage to unveil her own story, Sanjivani finds inspiration in their shared resilience and empowerment forged from their common experiences. Each day, throughout the region, more farmer-widows are made – the ever-growing protests and demonstrations doing nothing to stem the political tide at the core of India’s human and agricultural crisis. Can Sanjivani’s newly-found voice shift adversity into opportunity? Are solidarity and friendships enough to quietly fuel a mental-health revolution? Content warning: This film contains discussions of suicide.

Sonya Ballantyne curates a series of her favourite films from the Winnipeg Film Group that includes friends, Neechis, and folk whose work she loves. Portage Place Dir. Tiff Bartel 3:28 | Documentary / Experimental | Colour | October 2019 Techniques: Live Action Language: English An ironic look at Winnipeg’s Portage Place shopping mall, from its opening day (September 17, 1987), to what may be its final days (fall of 2019). Created for the 2019 WNDX One Take Super 8 Challenge. Backlanes Dir. Madison Thomas 12:34 | Narrative/Fiction / Drama | Colour | September 2013 Language: English On the night of their university graduation, five lifelong friends decide to pull one last all-nighter wandering the back lanes of their town. What seems like a night of fun and goofing around is soon overshadowed by the groups fear of the future as well as the mortality of their ill friend Chloe. Exploitation Dir. Luther Alexander 4:50 | Drama | Colour | November 2014 Language: English In Canada's backyard, a colonial history of oppression and cultural genocide against Aboriginal women has created a vicious cycle of poverty, greed, addiction and abuse. And in the streets these women must overcome their situations in order to survive and at the same time, have their stories known and understood. Nosisim Dir. Sonya Ballantyne 10:31 | Documentary | Colour | May 2017 Language: English In Nosisim, Sonya Ballantyne learns of her grandmother's traumatic past through a drawing titled 'Virginia and Gladys' by famed Indigenous artist Daphne Odjig. This masterful rendition of Sonya's grandmother and mother, Virginia and Gladys George, was done shortly after they were forced from their home due to a manmade hydroelectric dam. Mémére Métisse Dir. Janelle Wookey 30:00 | Documentary | Colour | October 2008 Language: English, French For over sixty years, Cecile St. Amant has been keeping a deep secret - she is Métis. Cecile's granddaughter, Janelle, sets out to understand her Mémére's denial and playfully plots her own mission to open her Mémére's eyes to the richness of their heritage. As the two face-off in a battle of the wills, Janelle soon realizes that her Mémére will not be easily convinced that being Métis is something to be proud of. In this heartwarming and extraordinary journey, Janelle's mischievous and persistent prodding of her grandmother reveals a generation's legacy of shame and the profound courage of the human spirit to overcome it. Kewekapawetan: Return after the Flood Dir. Jennifer Dysart 28:55 | Documentary | Colour, B&W | June 2014 Techniques: Live Action Language: English, Cree A Cree community in northern Manitoba Canada returns to their original village site that they were forced to abandon due to the purposeful flooding of their lake.

A tribute to the late Cinematheque Senior Film Programmer, Dave Barber, join co-editors Andrew Burke and Clint Enns in conversation about the editing process and journey, reflecting on the material, and transforming decades of press clippings, program notes, posters, and personal artifacts into a cohesive and deeply personal portrait, celebrating Barber’s enduring influence on Canadian film culture while offering insight into the archival and editorial process that shaped this important tribute.

Eliza is an unassuming and beloved member of a small fishing community in Newfoundland who sees all of her relationships put in jeopardy after her secret social media persona is exposed. Join us on September 13 for a post-screening Q&A with actress Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers.

IKWÉ Dir. Caroline Monnet 4:35 | Documentary / Experimental | Colour | June 2009 Language: Cree, French IKWÉ is an experimental film that weaves the narrative of one woman’s (IKWÉ) intimate thoughts with the teachings of her grandmother, the Moon, creating a surreal narrative experience that communicates the power of thoughts and personal reflection. Terra Velha Dir. Andrew Lima 10:35 | Documentary / Experimental | Colour | May 2019 Techniques: Time Lapse, Live Action Language: Portuguese Terra Velha is a visual and sonic study of disparate landscapes within the islands of the Azores. Through contemplative observation, elements within the landscapes gradually oscillate, notions of homeland and origin combine into an impressionistic memory, reaching all the way back through time to the moment of their volcanic birthing. Journey My Heart Dir. Reil Munro 8:35 | Documentary | Colour, B&W | June 2007 Language: English An inside look at how one jingle dress dancer physically and mentally prepares for competition pow-wows. Regalia Dir. Farrah Murdock 8:01 | Narrative / Drama | Colour | 2024 Language: English A men’s Chicken Dancer leaves a Powwow and heads into the city, where he doesn’t quite fit in. Shea, by NASRA Dir. Effy Adar 2:40 | Experimental | Colour | April 2020 Language: English A family displaced by greed searches for a new home in a foreign place. As they explore they discover pieces of themselves; old and new. "Shea" celebrates what has always remained in Black/African peoples, an innate sense of home, luxury and interconnectedness. Geométrika Dir. Nicole Blundell 4:00 | Experimental / Animation | Colour | May 2024 Techniques: Scratch Animation, Hand Process (col), Drawing/Painting on cels Language: English, French Geométrika is a mathematical odyssey that invites viewers on an experimental journey through the geometric wonders of the universe, reminiscent of watching floaters under your eyelids. Shot on 16mm, hand painted and developed. Music composed by Kevin Blundell Caribou in the Archive Dir. Jennifer Dysart 8:11 | Documentary / Experimental | Colour, B&W | January 2019 Techniques: Found footage Language: English In Caribou in the Archive, rustic VHS home video of a Cree woman hunting caribou in the 1990s is combined with NFB archival film footage of northern Manitoba from the 1950s. In this experimental film, the difference between homemade video and official historical record is considered. Northern Indigenous women hunting is at the heart of this personal found footage film in which the filmmaker describes the enigmatic events that led to saving an important piece of family history from being lost forever. Hard to Place Dir. Tasha Hubbard 04:16 | Documentary / Experimental | Colour | January 2012 Language: English A hard place. Hardly a place. Hard to place. Biidaaban (the dawn comes) Dir. Amanda Strong 18:15 | Experimental / Narrative/Fiction / Animation | Colour | August 2018 Techniques: Animated Objects, Puppets, Computer Animation, Stop Motion, Visual Effects Language: Anishinaabe, English Accompanied by a 10,000-year-old shapeshifter and friend known as Sabe, Biidaaban sets out on a mission to reclaim the ceremonial harvesting of sap from maple trees in an unwelcoming suburban neighbourhood of Ontario. This mesmerizing stop-motion animation weaves together multiple worlds through time and space, calling for a rebellion.

Dir. Leonard Yakir 1:30:00 | Narrative / Fiction | Colour | March 1976 Techniques: 35mm, 16mm Herschel, a young Jewish cellist, returns to his hometown searching to reconnect. He rents loft space in a warehouse where Kramer, an old tailor, lives out his fantasies of a once thriving garment factory. Kramer tailors Herschel a suit; symbolically fashioning him into the son he has banished. Join us for a post-screening Q&A with Leonard Yakir, moderated by Stuart Hands, Director of Programming for the Toronto Jewish Film Festival

At the end of her mother’s life, decolonial writer Julietta Singh returns to say goodbye to her haunted childhood home. As she digs into the history of the house, she uncovers 140 years of forgotten matriarchs and political rebels she never knew. Singh teams up with acclaimed filmmaker Chase Joynt (Framing Agnes, No Ordinary Man) for a politically charged cross-community collaboration that deftly interweaves Indigenous, Deaf, Japanese and South Asian histories, all connected through the home. A reckoning with memory, matriarchy and the enduring legacies of silenced voices, the film questions who gets lost in the archives of history, and what we stand to gain by resurrecting them. The Nest transforms a single home from a place of siloed histories into a site of radical collective potential.

Winnipeg underground legend Barry Gibson presents his newly restored films made between 1988 - 1997, in conversation with Greg Hanec. Mr. Right Dir. Barry Gibson 7:00 | Narrative / Fiction | Colour | January 1988 An episodic film made from the point of view of a misfit who is never seen on camera, but comments bitterly and cynically on what we see, on the people he has known. This is Living Dir. Barry Gibson 18:00 | Narrative / Fiction | B&W | January 1987 A film for anyone who's ever been out of work! Del is up against it in this comedy of errors—out of work, aimless and about to be thrown out on his keester if he can't come up with the rent money. Question of Reality Dir. Barry Gibson 26:00 | Documentary | Colour | January 1997 A chance encounter at a Tim Horton's in downtown Winnipeg brought filmmaker, Barry Gibson and psychic, David Pandorra together. Pandorra, looking for an audience for his demonstrations, found in Gibson a skeptic about psychic phenomenon, but a believer in chasing a dream. A Question of Reality is a virtual frantic monologue as Pandora attempts to demonstrate the reality of psychic phenomenon. Success and failure at cards and a link to UFO's underscore a desperate effort to be as famous as Uri Geller. Gibson shows the audience a warm and humorous account of life in pursuit of a dream.

Dir. Greg Hanec 1:02:07 | Experimental / Narrative / Fiction | Colour | August 2023 Techniques: Live Action, Visual Effects Language: English A former artist debates with friends the merits of doing art on an overnight walk, all while being followed by a poem. The technique of the film itself acts as a meta-narrative that "debates" with the main character's negative view of art, with it's artfully shot sequences. Content Warning: Flashing lights; Immersive and loud sound Plays with 3 Minutes Before 8 Dir. Greg Hanec 2:58 | Experimental / Narrative / Fiction | Colour, B&W | January 1982 What happens in the world right before your alarm goes off? Join us for a post-screening Q&A with Greg Hanec, moderated by Olivia Norquay

A storm summons the memory of a university library in the subtropics in this first feature by Australian filmmaker Audrey Lam, filmed on 16mm over a period of 10 years. Non-professionals Umi Ishihara and Xiao Deng play versions of themselves — solitary after-hours workers going about their mundane duties night after night. Imagining themselves as explorers lost in a labyrinth or marooned on an island, they embark on small, playful adventures both together and apart, as the library's vast yet shrinking collection becomes a playground for their own stories and secrets.

Dir. Heidi Phillips 1:07:00 | Experimental / Narrative / Fiction | Colour, B&W | November 2023 Techniques: Hand process, 16mm, Super 8mm Logline: A young woman pieces together the remnants of her heritage deep into the wilderness. Synopsis: Across the seasons, two siblings explore and grow in an idyllic but abandoned landscape. A scientist observes the changes with impassive concern. Later, one sibling returns to piece together the remnants of her heritage. Join us for a post-screening Q&A with filmmaker Heidi Phillips, moderated by Olivia Norquay

We’re Still Here: 50 Years of the Winnipeg Film Group Festival kicks off on Tuesday, September 23rd at 7:00 PM with the premiere of special commission short films with new works by filmmakers Charlene Moore and Oliver King, Rhayne Vermette, Ian Bawa, Bisong Taiwo and Danielle Sturk commissioned to honour the milestone, alongside a selection of historical commissioned work made for the WFG’s past anniversaries including films by Jaimz Asmundson, Cathy McInnes & Neil McInnes, Heidi Philips, and Darryl Nepinak. The evening will feature a Q&A followed by an opening night reception.

When We Became Folk Fest is a feature documentary about the founding and explosive growth of the Winnipeg Folk Festival. The driving force of the Festival’s start was the audacious and unflinching founder, Mitch Podolak. Using a cache of unseen Super 8 footage shot in 1975 by the Winnipeg Film Group, we see the Festival’s beginnings through incredible archival images and pristine sound recordings from the Folk Festival collection. Interviews with celebrated fest luminaries and live musical performances carry the story of how an underdog music festival grew out of the meadows of Birds Hill Park to become one of the most important folk festivals in North America. With Tom Jackson, Cathy Fink, Paul Mills, Bruce Cockburn, Ken Whiteley, Grit Laskin and many more.

Desiring to work outdoors and be close to nature, Joseph Fulton, a well-regarded fifty-eight-year-old director of romantic comedies, wants to become assistant groundskeeper at a local cemetery in his Manhattan neighborhood. Meanwhile, he thinks it’s important to have his Last Will and Testament drawn up. But his highly dramatic actress girlfriend imagines he is dying and that he is just too brave to tell anyone. The rumor spreads and soon friends, family and neighbors crowd into his apartment to say their last farewells. Where to Land features long-time Hartley collaborators like Edie Falco, Bill Sage, Robert John Burke and Gia Crovatin. But newer collaborators include Joe Perrino and Obie Award winner Kathleen Chalfant, while introducing Kim Taff and Katelyn Sparks.