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
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Jay Kelly
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Ben Whishaw is extraordinary in this conjuring trick of a movie from Ira Sachs (Passages), a minimalist masterpiece recreating a conversation between New York photographer Hujar and writer Linda Rosenkrantz in 1974.
The Librarians
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Snowtime!
VIFF Kids Club is our monthly family series with films, crafts and more! Doors at 11 am for activities, film at 12 pm. Snowtime! is an epic Canadian winter tale about kids who turn their winter break into the ultimate snowball war.
Little Amelie or the Character of Rain
Baby Amelie believes herself to be a god. Her parents (Belgian diplomats in 60s Japan) can barely cope -- but find the perfect nanny to restore order in this delightful animated feature.
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)