A portrait of the human health system, directors Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor (Leviathan, Caniba) continue their ethnographic filmmaking project, reaching unseen depths in human bodies and the health care infrastructure that struggles to maintain them. Revolutionary micro-cameras free the filmmakers to wander through the human body without limit, slithering through intestines and arteries no differently than the hallways and cavities of labyrinthian hospitals. Guided only by the scarce fragments of conversations of doctors and nurses, a picture forms of exhausted doctors, traumatized staff, and an institution crumbling under the magnitude of its work.
Unflinching in its approach, the film is a survey of twin systems, the human body and health care infrastructure, inextricably tied together and unexpectedly similar in structure. The abject horror of open surgery gives way to the abstract beauty of clinical medical imaging, as the film repurposes them to create a harrowingly immersive cinematic experience.
France/USA/Switzerland
2022
In French with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Romería
An orphan from a young age, 18-year-old Marina intends to pursue a university scholarship. The application, however, requires the signatures of her paternal grandparents, compelling her to embark on a pilgrimage and seek out the family she has never met.
Democracy Under Siege
As the USA turns 250, Oscar-nominated director Laura Nix considers the roots of the current political crisis with commentary from historian Heather Cox Richardson, progressive politician Jamie Raskin, and cartoonist Ann Telnaes, among others.
Peter Asher: Everywhere Man
A chart topping pop star as one half of Peter and Gordon, Peter Asher was brother to Jane, brother in law to Paul McCartney, ran the Beatles' Apple, produced and managed James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, and 10,000 Maniacs, to name just a few. He did it all.
Another World
This hit anime from Hong Kong gives us an unpredictable, sometimes darkly karmic tale taking place on either side of the afterlife involving a headstrong princess with bad karma and the spirit guide who tries to help her get on a better path.
Unforgiven
Bill Munny (Clint Eastwood) is face down in pig shit when we first see him. He's a bad farmer, but has a natural facility for killing people – a vocation to which he returns in a quest that combines both profit and justice. Or so he chooses to believe.
Credits
Producer
Valentina Novati, Charles Gillibert, Pauline Gygax, Max Karli, Véréna Paravel, Lucien Castaing-Taylor
Cinematography
Véréna Paravel, Lucien Castaing-Taylor
Editor
Véréna Paravel, Lucien Castaing-Taylor
Directors
Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor
Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor collaborate as filmmakers at Harvard University’s Sensory Ethnography Laboratory. Their films and installations have been screened at BAFICI, the Berlinale, CPH:DOX, Toronto International Film Festival, and New York Film Festival. Recently, their work joined the permanent collections of New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the British Museum, and has been exhibited at Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, and Berlin Kunsthalle. Their film Leviathan (2013) received many awards, including the FIPRESCI Award at Locarno International Film Festival. Their documentary Caniba (2017) won the Special Jury Award at the 74th Venice Film Festival, among other awards.
Filmography: Leviathan (2012); Somniloquies (2017); Caniba (2017)