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Human Condition (14)
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BydloPatrick Bouchard 2012 8 minAn allegory of mankind heading for disaster, this animated short is a tragic vision inspired by the 4th movement of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Drawing on the composer’s brilliant ability to evoke work and labour in his music, animator Patrick Bouchard brings earth to life through animated clay sculptures, creating a tactile nightmare in which man is his own slave driver. -
Blue Like a GunshotMasoud Raouf 2003 5 minDiscover a short, animated film that explores the conflict between nature, civilization, and the absurd vanity of human warfare. With its interplay of shadow and light, this film is sure to sweep you away.
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Blind VayshaTheodore Ushev 2016 8 minThis short film tells the story of Vaysha, a young girl born with one green eye and one brown eye. But colour isn’t the only thing that’s different about Vaysha’s gaze. While her left eye sees only the past; her right sees only the future. Like a terrible curse, Vaysha’s split vision prevents her from inhabiting the present. Blinded by what was and tormented by what will be, she remains trapped between two irreconcilable temporalities. “Blind Vaysha,” they called her.
In this metaphoric tale of timeless wisdom and beauty based on the eponymous short story by Georgi Gospodinov, filmmaker Theodore Ushev reminds us of the importance of keeping our sights on the present moment. -
The ConquerorsTibor Banoczki & Sarolta Szabo 2011 12 minIn this animated short, a young couple washed onto a strange, inhospitable shore, attempts to transform the land into an Eden. Through great effort they prosper, learning to conquer nature and their environment. But what will their victory mean? Alternately a vision of paradise and purgatory, with allusions to the Book of Genesis and prehistory, the film tells the story of human beings and their conquests, offering a dark, critical view of the rise and fall of civilizations.
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GriefwalkerTim Wilson 2008 1 h 10 minThis documentary introduces us to Stephen Jenkinson, once the leader of a palliative care counselling team at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital. Through his daytime job, he has been at the deathbed of well over 1,000 people. What he sees over and over, he says, is "a wretched anxiety and an existential terror" even when there is no pain. Indicting the practice of palliative care itself, he has made it his life's mission to change the way we die - to turn the act of dying from denial and resistance into an essential part of life.
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I Am HereEoin Duffy 2016 4 minThis short film from Eoin Duffy introduces a mysterious traveler journeying across time and space in search of the origin of life, God, and the universe. Looking for answers, he arrives at a devastating realization, yet the earth continues to spin. Through sharp modernist shapes and a riveting score by Menalon, I Am Here takes a curious and contemplative approach to dark and complex themes. Featuring the voice of Nicholas Campbell (Da Vinci's Inquest), the film is a thoughtful and open-ended exploration of existence itself.
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Inhale ExhaleDanielle Sturk 2009 27 minThis short documentary filmed at Saint Boniface General Hospital, in Manitoba, focuses on the work of 2 women: Gisèle Fontaine, who helps women in childbirth; and Louise Saurette, who attends the dying. Birth and death, moments of transition that involve a transformative journey, have much in common. The midwife and the chaplain offer themselves as guides on the painful and essential path of letting go.
This documentary short was produced as part of the Tremplin program, which enables young Francophone filmmakers to make a first production in a professional context. -
L'homme sans ombreGeorges Schwizgebel 2004 9 minWhy bother dragging around one's shadow? A man agrees to a pact with a magician and swaps his shadow for riches. He soon discovers that the absence of a shadow can be a humiliating handicap. After fleeing to the far corners of the earth, he ends up in Bali, in a theatre of shadow puppets, where he discovers the true worth of shadows.
Swiss filmmaker Georges Schwizgebel animates this adaptation of Adelbert von Chamisso's The Strange Story of Peter Schlemil (1814), a fantastic tale inspired by Goethe's Faust. His film L'homme sans ombre is a reflection upon human nature and an allegory celebrating the magic of performance. Virtuoso Georges Schwizgebel's images are wonderfully mobile and textured, his composition formally elegant. (Each cel is freshly repainted with the characters and settings.) He is a master conjurer whose images become a bewitching choreography. The animator's eye guides the painter's hand, and vice versa. A film without words. -
The Measure of Your PassageEsther Valiquette 1993 29 minThis short film tells of two rugged journeys: that, autobiographical, of a young woman who learns she is harboring the AIDS virus; and that of the ancient Minoan civilization, wiped out by the greatest cataclysm in history. Today, the world is held hostage by a killer disease that is stealthier than a volcano, but it exacts the same price. Now, as then, some profound questions exist: How does humanity define itself? How do we measure our passage on this planet?
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Mystical BrainIsabelle Raynauld 2006 52 minThis documentary reveals the exploratory work of a team from the University of Montreal who seek to understand the states of grace experienced by mystics and those who meditate. Filmmaker Isabelle Raynauld offers up scientific research that suggests that mystical ecstasy is a transformative experience and could contribute to people's psychic and physical health, treat depression and speed up the healing process when combined with conventional medicine. In French with English subtitles.
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Self(less) PortraitDanic Champoux 2014 1 h 38 minIn this feature documentary, 50 people decide to bare all about their personal lives and discuss a multitude of subjects on camera, ranging from funny anecdotes to heartbreaking experiences. From their stories emerges a human mosaic with which we can all identify, one that celebrates the diversity of human experience. This inventive, free-form ensemble film breathes new life into the documentary genre.
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Scared SacredVelcrow Ripper 2004 1 h 44 minScared Sacred is a feature documentary that asks the question: Can we be Scared into the Sacred? The film takes us on a journey to the pivotal ground zeros of the world, places like Bosnia, Hiroshima, New York City and Afghanistan in search of stories of hope and meaning.
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The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great LiberationHiroaki Mori , Yukari Hayashi , … 1994 45 minThe Tibetan Book of the Dead is a two-part series that explores ancient teachings on death and dying. It was filmed over a four-month period on location in the Himalayas where the original text still yields an essential influence over people's views of life and death. The Great Liberation, is a docudrama which, in the company of an old Buddhist lama and a 13-year-old novice monk, leads us into the very foundations of Buddhist philosophy--the search for compassion and truth. Pema Choden, the lama, and Tubten, the young monk, read from the texts of The Tibetan Book of the Dead as they conduct the 49 days of final rites for a deceased Himalayan villager. We must all face the death of somebody we love, as well as our own death. This film helps us to prepare for these inevitabilities.
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The Tibetan Book of the Dead: A Way of LifeYukari Hayashi & Barrie McLean 1994 45 minThis two-part series explores ancient teachings on death and dying. It was filmed over a four-month period on location in the Himalayas where the original text still yields an essential influence over people's views of life and death. A Way of Life contains footage of the rites and liturgies surrounding and following the death of a Ladakhi elder. The Dalai Lama explains his own feelings about death, while other scenes within a palliative care hospice in San Francisco depicts the use of the texts to counsel dying AIDS patients. This film, by revealing ancient teachings on how to think about death and dying, can be a valuable source of counsel and comfort.
