FILM PROGRAM
DAY TWO - JULY 19th
*Premiere Status*
World Premiere (WP), North American Premiere (NAP), Canadian Premiere (CP), Ontario Premiere (OP, Toronto Premiere (TP).
Hemorrhage
Directed by Ella Lentini
A young woman must travel from Georgia to Virginia to get an abortion. When she starts to hemorrhage in a state that has criminalized abortion, she must decide whether to race back across state lines to safety or risk arrest in an emergency room.
(21:25, Drama, 2024, United States, WP)
Feature Presentation
Rebelled/ Rebeladas
Directed by Andrea Gautier and Tabatta Salinas
On March 8th, International Women’s Day, the world mobilizes to raise its voice against sexist violence. Rebelled features a group of Mexican female filmmakers who meet to tell their story. In the 1970s, they created the Colectivo Cine Mujer (Women's Cinema Collective) as political activists. Their films addressed issues of gender violence, rape, femicide, abortion and discrimination in the workplace; ongoing issues that still plague Mexico. Marked by the Revolution of 1968 and the second wave of feminism, these pioneers witnessed how the issues they addressed 40 years ago remain unresolved. Laying the foundation of a feminist cinema.
(01:22:25, Documentary, 2023, Mexico, CP)
It Will Pass Away
Directed by Nan Yao
Following the end of a relationship, a woman's amplified emotions while in the throes of insomnia touch subtle voices.
(14:30, Animation, 2023, China, WP)
Repeat, Reverse
Directed by Shuyue Su
A woman becomes aware of the tedious and meaningless daily routine of her life in an all-women work place that serves as a visual metaphor to self-perception under duress.
(02:36, Experimental, 2023, United States, CP)
Discordia
Directed by Rowan Gray
A gymnast develops a mysterious disorder that prevents her from competing. Shot on 16mm, Discordia is a visual interpretation of the feeling and frustration that comes with wanting something that exists outside the bounds of your ability.
(09:39, Drama, 2023, Winnipeg, MB, OP)
White Noise
Directed by Tamara Scherbak
Ava's debilitating hyper-sensitivity to sound is becoming unlivable. Her doctor’s prescription of exposure therapy backfires as she descends into a fit of panic in class and collapses in a park when bombarded by ambient noise. When her attempt at suicide fails, her doctor enrolls her in an experimental trial involving an anechoic chamber: the world's quietest room. In this soundless space, her euphoria quickly mutates into madness when she hears the inner workings of her own body.
(16:54, Psychological Thriller, 2023, Montreal, Quebec, TP)
FEATURE PRESENTATION
Just Hear Me Out
Directed by Malgorzata Imielska
Gosia’s schizophrenia has kept her away from home for most of her adolescence. After 7 years in and out of mental health facilities, she returns to her family and friends. All Gosia wants is a chance at ordinary life, just like any other young woman, but inner voices threaten her and her loved ones at every turn. Just Hear Me Out provides a rare glimpse into a rare and much misunderstood illness and its debilitating impact on those afflicted with the illness and their family.
(01:13:00, Documentary, 2023, Poland, NAP)
Chicken Girl
Directed by Em Humble
After having an aneurysm at a Jack and the Beanstalk panto in 2006, Chicken Girl can’t get golden eggs off her brain. With the assistance of her “better half” Gary, Chicken Girl is loving her chickens to death. Inspired by Grey Gardens, This Country, and What We Do in the Shadows, this mockumentary follows a deranged couple on their journey to gold.
(09:17, Comedy, 2023, United Kingdom, NAP)
Feature Presentation
Den siste våren / Sister, What Grows Where Land is Sick?
Directed by Franciska Eliassen
From a small Northern Norway town, Eira tries to navigate the world around her brilliant and rebellious older sister, Vera, in a quest to better understand her. When Eira reads Vera’s diary she enters a universe imbued with intense light, glitter and mythology with hope for a more beautiful world until Vera’s diary reveals darkness and rage that Eira did not foresee.
(01:20, Drama/ Coming of age/ Magic Realism, 2022, Norway, CP)
Measure
Directed by Helen Simmons and Julia Cranney
When Jen takes her autistic son to a children’s birthday party in her hometown, the horror of her own youth catches up with her. A stark exploration of the effects of long-term internalised trauma caused by invisible disability, Measure takes a unique look at the social and sensory experiences of high-masking autistic women who have been white-knuckling their way through life.
(13:51, Horror, 2023, United Kingdom, CP)
Just Grand
Directed by J. Christian Hamilton
A bizarre encounter in 1969 with a beautiful and frightening stalker has a ricochet effect into the present day, where a young woman grieves the loss of her grandmother. “Just Grand” uses experimental elements to explore intergenerational hauntings while evoking a nostalgic feeling for the period.
(05:00, Thriller, 2024, Canada, CP)
The Flacalta Effect
Directed by Rochée Jeffrey
Two Black sisters find themselves in the fight for their lives - and looks - when the newest anti-aging drug has the inadvertent side-effect of causing the zombie apocalypse. The Flacalta Effect is a pitch-perfect satire about the unyielding pressure that Black women face when trying to navigate the rigid standards of toxic beauty culture.
(07:50, Horror/Comedy, 2024, United States, CP)
Rasch und mit Feuer
Directed by Mia Watanabe Miller
When Aria Choi secures a rare audition for the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra amid a worsening case of chronic bronchitis, her grandmother offers her a cure in the form of exotic meats. As her condition escalates and the audition nears, will Aria become increasingly willing to blur the lines of what she consumes in order to live up to her grandmother’s expectations and achieve her own dreams? At once gruesome and elegant, Rasch und mit Feuer uses cooking and classical music to explore loss, intergenerational familial relationships, and the pressure to succeed.
(15:40, Thriller, 2023, United States,CP)
TOOTH
Directed by Jillian Corsie
Brushing, flossing, picking, gargling, whitening - from the daily grind of dental hygiene, the tooth revolution begins. Using a blend of 3D-animation and puppets made from real teeth, Jillian Corsie’s TOOTH takes a wild and nightmarishly funny jab at the forced perfection of modern beauty standards, wondering what might happen if our teeth could push back.
(04:32, Comedy, 2022, United States, TP)
Ethixxx of Desire
Directed by Larena Danielle Winn and Marcella Elyse Winn
A new dominatrix faces a moral dilemma, when her client asks her to castrate him.
(07:45, Black Comedy, 2023, United States, WP)
Mermaid
Directed by Ginger Gonzaga
Relocating the story of “The Little Mermaid” to the world of reality tv and extreme plastic surgery, Isla exchanges her voice for a head-to-toe makeover with a disturbed plastic surgeon in order to improve her chances of finding her dream man on “The Prince!”. In a return to the dark origins of fairy tales, Mermaid is a cautionary tale of the very real consequences and regrets that can come from believing that internal happiness can only be achieved through external conformity.
(19:08, Horror/Comedy, 2023, United States, CP)
3pm Thursdays
Directed by Michèle Kaye
A dancer’s afternoon shift at a dive bar takes an unexpected turn. Well-choreographed and gory, Michèle Kaye’s 3pm Thursdays is a fresh take on body horror that asks, in a world where female bodies are still so often objectified through a voyeuristic male gaze, what blood is acceptable and what blood is not?
(06:23, Horror, 2023, Canada, OP)
Olga’s Eyes
Directed by Sarah Carlot Jaber
Olga is a music-loving octogenarian who is tired of killing humans. Could it be the vampire blues? When her daughter places her in a care home for those who have “one foot in the grave”, Olga embarks on a journey to rediscover her lust for (taking) life. Olga’s Eyes is a witty and stylish take on the undead featuring a female protagonist of an age rarely seen in horror cinema.
(22:08, Horror/Comedy, 2023, Belgium, CP)