Koroneburg: Faires, Scares and Fantasies

Directed by Terry Nowak. This early film about the Southern California Renaissance Fair, with Les Blank as cameraman, is shot in sensuous detail on a 16mm Bell & Howell camera. It is apparent in this early work that Blank was already developing his own unique style of shooting. Film to tape transfer of a scratchy work print copy is all that remains of the original film. Filmed 1963-64.

TMB (The Merry Band of time travelers) made their first appearance in the 2019 book The Mystery of The Patch. In the book, they assisted Captain John White, solve the mystery of the mysterious patch, on his map, which was discovered in 2012 by The First Colony Foundation and The British Museum. This short, animated, stop motion film tells the 5-year history of this charming group of characters. It contains scenes of their first public appearance, at the 2021 Kansas City Renaissance festival, through a combination of live action and animation.

Three best friends and dedicated roleplayers take to the woods to reenact a dungeons and dragons-like scenario as a live action role-playing game. Trouble arises when a prop spellbook purchased from the internet ends up being a genuine grimoire and they unwittingly conjure up a blood-lusting succubus from hell.

Woman aspires to become an elite Renaissance dancer. She spends most of her time training in the galliard form and adopting a 16th century Europe style of living. Woman's family urge her to pursue a more conventional path of life - study for the SAT, go to college, work in finance, etc. Faced with the impending decisions of the future, Woman embarks on a quest to prove her skills to her family and persuade them to let her attend FFCSFF. She decides to search for a student to whom she could teach all that she knows. Despite some initial difficulties, Woman and her new learner Ant develop a strong bond and an amazing routine. Because if she could teach an ant to dance, she could do anything.

Cassia, a young naïve girl who is pure of heart, has been chosen to be the last Vestal of Light and must set off on a quest to seal away the darkness.

On a film reel electrified by static charges, we meet five people who survived the impact of lightning.

All across the globe, Chinatowns are under threat of disappearing – and along with them, the rich history of a community who fought from the margins for a place to belong. Big Fight in Little Chinatown documents the collective fight to save Chinatowns across North America.

The oldest Quebecois Benedictine convent open its gates to a documentary filmmaker for the first time. Observed up close, life behind its walls is busier than one would expect. About twenty cloistered nuns, most of them over 70, share their daily life with diligence and humor. A contemplative portrait of a community of sisterhood and solidarity emerges, punctuated by prayer, work and games evenings.

Zoe McIntosh introduces us to Peter One, King of Caravans, and his realm, the Bignell Street Motel Caravan Park in Whanganui. Bignell Street has a reputation for being a place of last resort for the down and out, where people with nowhere else to go can always find a caravan roof for their heads. A social butterfly and a self-admitted garage sale addict, motel manager Peter says he acts as a de facto social worker to the weird and wonderful itinerant inhabitants of his trailer park, although some claim he’s just as strange and desperate as they are. - NZIFF 2013

Ich glaub, ich mach nicht mal Filme, ich glaub, ich filme nur irgendwas, um irgendwem zu beweisen, dass ich eine Person bin

A series of static shots repeated throughout the seasons slices and builds an anonymous forest with a river winding through it. Using remarkably precise sound, this film immerses us in a place with fauna that flourishes and flora that expresses itself through interactions with the elements. Eventually, a discrete human presence is felt within this natural setting, and the filmed landscapes gradually change before our eyes, alluding to a higher power that could upset the balance. With this carefully constructed, surprising and minimalist film, Robert Morin blurs boundaries and reminds us that reality is always fabricated in cinema.

The Myth of the Black Woman is a feature-length documentary that examines the imagery of black women in the media, from the 18th century black slave to Michelle Obama. It is an investigation into how stereotypes originate from slavery and still affect the lives of black women in Quebec. These stereotypes include Jezebel (the seductress, the femme fatale); Mammie (the obese woman, the asexual mother figure) and Sapphire (the angry, ambitious and arrogant black woman). This story will be told by black women on whom stereotypes have a high impact, through interviews with fascinating experts, and through archival footage from centuries past to the present.

Correspondance

Under the cover of night, skaters claim back the streets.

An intimate look inside the immigrant community in Portland, Maine, as told by Nyamuon Nguany Machar who arrived as refugee in 1995 and David Zwalita Mota who came as an asylum seeker in 2019.

The short documentary/experimental film is depicting intimate perspective, a surreal reflection of death and life through the rarely captured moment of the funeral of a deceased relative in the flare of poetic lenses. The film is a farewell to the vanishing world of the traditional Ruthenian community in the hills of eastern Slovakia. Metaphorically, a farewell to the personal worlds which are fading with the death of each of our ancestors. Visually highly subjective, dream-like black and white imagery brings the audience into the world of memory and inter-looping past and present.

As he grieves his father’s recent death, Kevin Rainha searches for answers within the traces left by José and the family members who surround him. An intimate portrait, Tio Kevin explores the support between a niece and uncle, a director and their subject. The film follows their return to the family cottage for the first time since José’s death, a place which holds the foundations of many family memories.

Based on diaries that detail 30 years of service abroad of a Canadian Immigration Officer, The Dependents is an intimate audiovisual exploration of transient lives. It navigates through travel, my father’s employment, and my mother’s role as a spouse. Home and belonging are reconstructed between the past and present as a direct result of displacement and globalization, marking the political complexities between East and West, North and South, and Men and Women.

Twenty years after Allard brought back the relationship with his mother to a minimum, the police calls him. They found her in a completely dishevelled house where she can no longer take care of herself. He decides not to abandon her in this state and takes responsibility for her care. Eventually, she ends up in a closed psychiatric ward. In this documentary, she blames her son for everything and wants him to behave like a good son.

Chaperons rouges