MENTAL ILLNESS AND ADDICTION are fundamental parts of our human experience and they have always been difficult to present and discuss in the public arena. Fear and stigma routinely make accurate representations and presentations next to impossible.
The vehicle through which mental illness and addiction are most often presented publicly is mainstream film. Through these films the public can, in most instances, sit back and watch from a safe distance. Audiences are secure in the belief that they are watching the experiences of others and remain divorced from the realities of society.
Film can also enable new and established artists to visually explore ideas and express stories of mental illness and addiction in ways that are nearly impossible in other artistic media. The technical freedom of film allows for these artists to challenge perceptions of reality and to express the truth of mental illness and addiction. RWM explores these cinematic representations and hosts panel discussions after each screening. The films are the art, the discussion gives them perspective. www.rendezvouswithmadness.com
Friday November 4
5:15pm Opening Night Pre Gala Reception TIFF Bell Lightbox, BlackBerry® Lounge; Reitman Square, 330 King St. West
7:00pm Opening Night Gala Feature: Sisters & Brothers Carl Bessai, Canada, 2011, 90 min, English. A comedic, endearing look at dysfunctional families and the bonds that hold them together. Featuring an ensemble cast including Glee’s Cory Monteith and Corner Gas’s Gabrielle Miller. Director in attendance.
Saturday, November 5
1:00pm – Workman Arts, 651 Dufferin St. West; Feature: Yelling to the Sky Victoria Mahoney, USA, 2011, 95 min, Canadian Premiere, English. With an alcoholic father, and mentally ill mother, Sweetness has had to grow up tough. But is she strong enough to make it alone in the slums of New York? Starring Zoe Kravitz and Gabourey Sidibe (Precious).
Short: Collect Call Christopher Mills, Canada, 2010, 5 min, English. A meditative short that follows a young woman as she faces her mortality, death, and her ultimate renewal. Part ‘goodbye lullaby,’ part steampunk hallucination, and part music video (Metric).
3:00pm – TIFF Bell Lightbox, Reitman Square, 330 King St. West. Feature: Isolerad (Corridor) Johan Lundberg, Sweden, 2010, 80 min, Canadian Premiere, Swedish with English subtitles, Brussels European Film Festival: Cineurope Prize 2010
A withdrawn medical student suspects something terrible is happening in the apartment above him. Without a friend to confide in, paranoia and reality converge and terror becomes real.
7:00pm – TIFF Bell Lightbox, Reitman Square, 330 King St. West. Feature: U.F.O. Burkhard Feige, Germany, 2010, 95 min, Toronto Premiere, German with English subtitles. Bodo’s always loved science fiction, but in 1986 the lines between fantasy and reality blur when the Challenger explodes, Chernobyl erupts, and his mother, Christa, falls apart.
Sunday, November 6
1:00pm – Workman Arts, 651 Dufferin St. West. Our Stories, Our Voices: Canadian Shorts When someone has a mental illness, it can change everything. As friends, family, and individuals struggle with the impact, the affects can ripple through generations.
Pins and Needles; Nicole Nyholt, Canada, 1 min, No Language; Wilderness; Dawn Wilkinson, Canada, 2011, 10 min, World Premiere, English; Nowhere Elsewhere; Annick Blanc, Canada, 2010, 15 min, French with English Subtitles; Beyond the Pale; Maureen Bradley, Canada, 2010, 18 min, Toronto Premiere, English; I Need My Best Friend Back; Gina Simone, Canada, 2011, 15 min, World Premiere, English; Burning Blossom; Kathryn Threlkeld, Canada, 2010, 9 min, World Premiere, English
3:00pm – TIFF Bell Lightbox, Reitman Square, 330 King St. West. Feature: Baderech Lemalla (The Way Up) Shirly Berkovitz, Israel, 2009, 52 min, North American Premiere, Hebrew with English subtitles, Best Documentary: Romania International Film Festival. From the streets and alleys of Tel Aviv, Lian searches for a family, fights her addictions, and rebuilds her life in this powerful and intimate portrait.
Short: Latzuf (Floating) Inbal Gibrolter, Israel, 2010, 33 min, North American Premiere, Hebrew with English Subtitles. Two young women battle with their weight: one is a binge eater, the other an anorexic. They share a hospital room in the facility in which they have been committed. Both girls rebel against their rehabilitation, bonding over the experience, but to terrible consequence. This film is a cautionary story about female body image.
7:00pm – TIFF Bell Lightbox, Reitman Square, 330 King St. West. Feature: Part Time Fabulous; Alethea Root, USA, 2011, 78 min, Canadian Premiere, English, Best Narrative Feature Audience Award: Berkshire International Film Festival 2011. Blending documentary and drama, Alethea Root captures the ups and downs of loving someone with mental illness with an accuracy rarely seen on screen. Filmmaker in attendance.
7:00pm – Workman Arts, 651 Dufferin St. West. Industry Artist Talk: Jenn E Norton; Jenn will discuss how working intimately with the technology used in the production of her practice in a DIY capacity marries intuitive and formal approaches to her creative process.
8:00pm – Workman Arts, 651 Dufferin St. West. Wee Requiems: Shorts; Curated by Deirdre Logue and Erik Martinson. A program of short experimental videos in lament. Mourning for the increasingly complex worlds of animals, plants and people, these works wander in and around the real and the alien, animated, mutated, recorded and illustrated.
How to Care for Introverts; Leslie Supnet, Canada, 2010, 2 min; Bird; Julieta Maria, Canada, 2010, 3 min; Wee Requiem; Jenn E Norton, Canada, 2010, 7 min; Beauty Plus Pity; Emily Vey Duke & Cooper Battersby, Canada, 2009, 14 min; The Fire Theft; Isabelle Hayeur, Canada, 2010, 9 min, Toronto Premiere; Thalé; Barry Doupé, Canada, 2009, 5 min; Golden Room; Michael Stecky, Canada, 2008, 5 min, Toronto Premiere; Cartoon For Those Who Have A Certain Fondness For Ideas but Are Tired Of Thinking; Steve Reinke, Canada, 2010, 2 min, Toronto Premiere
Monday, November 7
1:00pm- Workman Arts, 651 Dufferin St. West. Feature: 22 Mei (22nd of May); Koen Mortier, Belgium, 2010, 86 min, French with English subtitles, Golden Palm: Mexico International Film Festival. It’s a quiet day at the mall, until a suicide bomber destroys the tranquility. Immediately afterwards, Sam struggles to make sense of the chaos, the terror, the loss.
5:00pm – Workman Arts, Lower Hall, 651 Dufferin St. Opening Reception ? Between the Temporal and the Eternal Falls the Shadow, Raja Moussaoui (Runs until November 12th). The installation explores the potential for architecture to reveal beauty and communicate meaning through the simple but powerful use of light, shadow and reflection — elements that characteristically serve to animate architecture.
7:00pm – Workman Arts, 651 Dufferin St. West. Feature: People in White; Tellervo Kalleinen, Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, Netherlands, Finland, 2011, 65 min, Dutch with English subtitles. In this performative doc, the directors manage to subtly undermine the power imbalances inherent in psychiatric treatment by capturing the haunting reflections of people who’ve been through it. Short: Art Works; Julie Pasila, Canada, 2011, 19 min, World Premiere, English Art Works explores the transformative, regenerative, and healing power of the arts through a look at the practices of three Toronto artists.
Tuesday, November 8
7:00pm – Workman Arts, 651 Dufferin St. West. Feature: We’ll Get Used to It; Mohsen Ostad Ali Makhmalbaf, Iran, 2009, 52 min, Canadian Premiere, Farsi with English subtitles
In Iran, women end up institutionalized for mental illness, addiction, and disobeying their fathers. The women in this film, struggle with patriarchy as much as mental health.
7:00pm – NFB, 150 John St. Industry Presentation: Portrayals of Suicide: Shifting the Lens, featuring clips from The Next Day, The High Level Bridge, and Burning Blossom Industry panel discussion and multi-media interactive exhibition of documentary approaches to suicide, in conversation with filmmakers, academics, journalists and clinicians exploring the changing attitudes around presenting this difficult issue.
Wednesday, November 9
6:00pm – Workman Arts, 651 Dufferin St. West. Laughing like Crazy: Shorts Program – A lighter look at mental illness and addiction in this collection of short films. Hello Caller; Andrew Putschoegl, USA, 2011, 6 min, English, Toronto Premiere; Distilled Love; Joe Kicak, Canada, 2010, 14 min, English, National Screen Inst Drama Prize; What the Fud? Phillipp Berg, Canada, 2011, 4 min, English; Blunderkind; Zak Mechanic,USA, 2011, 20 min, Canadian Premiere, English; Monster Flu; Brian Wiebe, USA, 2010, 6 min, Canadian Premiere, French with English Subtitles; Cataplexy; John Salcido, USA, 2010, 7 min, Canadian Premiere, English
8:00pm – Workman Arts, 651 Dufferin St. West. Performance: The Bi-Polar Buddha
A stand-up comedy performance by Big Daddy Tazz. Acclaimed as “one of the most talented comics in the business,” Tazz brings his unique worldview of life after mental illness to the Festival. Hosted by Yuk Yuk’s founder and Toronto-native Mark Breslin, followed by a conversation with Big Daddy Tazz and Dr. Kwame McKenzie of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
Thursday, November 10
12:00pm – Media must reserve. The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), 33 Russell St. CAMH Grand Rounds Presentation: Television Presentation: Intervention Canada Karen Wookey, Canada, 2011, episode highlights, English; Join Rendezvous with Madness and DOC Toronto as we explore the balance between exploitation and recovery with the creative team of one of Canada’s hottest new shows.
6:30pm -TIFF Bell Lightbox, Reitman Square, 330 King St. West. Television Presentation: Intervention Canada; Karen Wookey, Canada, 2011, 44 min/episode, English; Join Rendezvous with Madness and DOC Toronto as we explore the balance between exploitation and recovery with the creative team of one of Canada’s hottest new shows.
9:30pm – Workman Arts, 651 Dufferin St. West. Feature: Gods of Youth, Kate Twa, Canada, 2009, 95 min, Canadian Premiere, English. Paul and Jay are getting desperate. What started as an adventure is spiralling out of control. When the drugs run out, the ride doesn’t always stop.
Friday November 11
6:45pm – TIFF Bell Lightbox, Reitman Square, 330 King St. West. Feature: Finding Kind Lauren Parsekian, USA, 2010, 75 min, English, Student Choice Award: Sprockets Film Festival; In this acclaimed documentary, filmmaker Lauren Parsekian travels the USA with a mission of healing: to stop the emotional trauma girls inflict on one another.
9:30pm – TIFF Bell Lightbox, Reitman Square, 330 King St. West. Feature: Amphetamine; Scud, China, 2010, 97 min, Toronto Premiere, Cantonese and English with English subtitles; For Kafka and Daniel, finding the perfect love was easy. Keeping it against a backdrop of emotional trauma, hardcore drug addiction, and conflicting sexual identities is a bit harder.
Saturday, November 12
12:00pm – Workman Arts, 651 Dufferin St. West. Feature: Sisters & Brothers (encore screening) Carl Bessai, Canada, 2011, 90 min, English. A comedic, endearing look at dysfunctional families and the bonds that hold them together. Featuring an ensemble cast including Glee’s Cory Monteith and Corner Gas’s Gabrielle Miller.
8:00pm ? Closing Night Gala: Carnivale of the Mind featuring “Lens of Illusion” with Dr. Bruce Ballon- Workman Arts, 651 Dufferin St. West. Multimedia Performance: The Lens of Illusion with Dr. Bruce Ballon; Leah Cherniak, Director; Andy Moro, Designer; Lisa Brown, Producer
For your consideration, a collection of possible inner truths and outer deceptions ? or is it inner deceptions and outer truths? Please join your guide on a mysterious multimedia journey through distorted perceptions and uncertain realities. Experience mysteries that unite us; for people are more alike than different. A gala party to close the Festival will follow Dr. Ballon’s performance; the Workman Theatre will be transformed into a carnival of the mind with midway refreshments, buskers, sideshow amusements and flim flam.
Workman Arts presents Rendezvous with Madness and supports artists who live with mental illness and addiction issues in their art practice. It is an award-winning arts organization like no other and is recognized globally as a model for its outstanding programming. Its dedication to the development of its artists, its contribution to the Toronto arts community, and its ability to create meaningful dialogue that increases knowledge of mental illness and addiction through the arts is exceptional.
BOX OFFICE: Online: www.rendezvouswithmadness.com By phone: 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. daily, 416-599-TIFF (8433) / Toll free: 1-888-599-8433 In person: 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. daily, TIFF Bell Lightbox, Reitman Square, 350 King St.West – Tickets may be purchased at the venue one hour before each screening, if available. PRICE: Regular Programs: $10 or pay what you can at the door (suggested min. $2) / Opening Night Gala: $30 / Special Presentation (Big Daddy Tazz and reception): $15 / Closing Night Gala (Carnivale of the Mind): $15 / Artist Talks, Industry Events: Free!
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