Skip to main content
This House film image, director Miryam Charles

This House

Cette maison

This event has passed

With its 16mm cinematography lending it an uncanny air, Miryam Charles’ haunting nonfiction work examines the mysterious circumstances surrounding her teenage cousin’s death, while speculating on the life that this young woman might’ve led had she survived. “My story is both tragic and hopeful,” incants cousin Tessa (brought to life by Schelby Jean-Baptiste). Through the graces of Charles’ direction, her tale is also equal measures puzzle and poetry. Transporting us between New England, Haiti, and Montreal, This House allows a speculative future incarnation of Tessa to commune with her bereaved mother (Florence Blain Mbaye) and retrace her family’s immigration odyssey.

“I refuse reality and try to understand it through art,” professes Charles in her director’s statement for her first feature-length work. While abstraction and experimental techniques are undeniably key to this enigmatic piece, there’s also a sense of anguish that serves as its emotional core. It’s a lyrical yet potent reminder of violence’s capacity to rupture reality and shake the foundations of family.

 

Silvestre Award for Best Feature Film, IndieLisboa 2022

 

Q&A Oct 1 & Oct 5

 

Presented by

Media Partner

Global BC Logo

Director
Cast

Schelby Jean-Baptiste, Florence Blain Mbaye, Eve Duranceau, Matthew Rankin, Yardly Kavanagh

Credits
Country of Origin

Canada

Year

2022

Language

In French and Haitian Creole with English subtitles

Film Contact
Links
Content Warning

Self Harm

18+
75 min
Award Winners Documentary Experimental & Avant Garde Women Directors

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

Frankenstein

Dir. Guillermo del Toro
149 min

Frankenstein and Guillermo del Toro might have been made for each other. The movie does not disappoint, a ripping yarn of grand adventure, spectacle, hubris, passion and XXL body parts, a tale of the fantastic that rings the imagination. Screening in 35mm.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Outcasts

Dir. Robert Wynne-Simmons
95 min

One of earliest examples of "folk horror", The Outcasts (1982) draws on Irish mythology and folktales to eerie effect. Simple Maura is rumoured to have spent the night with the mythical fiddler Scarf Michael, with dire consequences for all... Screening followed by a panel discussion on Irish horror.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Urchin

Dir. Harris Dickinson
99 min

This impressive, award-winning debut as writer-director from actor Harris Dickinson is a probing portrait of a troubled street kid trying to get his life back on track before it's too late.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Köln 75

Dir. Ido Fluk
116 min

The true story behind the greatest solo concert in jazz history, this is Keith Jarrett's legendary 1975 Köln Concert — as organized by 18-year-old rebel music promoter Vera Brandes. Fun, inventive and feminist, it's the Bend It Like Beckham of jazz films.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Orwell: 2+2=5

Dir. Raoul Peck
119 min

Oscar-nominated director Raoul Peck reimagines 1984 in this urgent essay on power, language, and control. With narration by Damian Lewis, it’s a chilling portrait of how Orwell’s warnings became our reality.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

After Life

Dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda
119 min

This month's Talking Pictures title is a profoundly beautiful meditation on memory and happiness from Japan, the second feature film by the acclaimed writer-director Hirokazu Kore-eda.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Credits

Producer

Félix Dufour-Laperrière

Screenwriter

Miryam Charles

Cinematography

Isabelle Stachtchenko, Miryam Charles

Editor

Xi Feng

Production Design

Georges Michael FanfanAnnick Marion

Original Music

Romain Camiolo

Director

Miryam Charles headshot, This House director

Miryam Charles

Miryam Charles is a Haitian-born director, producer, and cinematographer living in Montreal. She has produced several short and feature films, and directed several short films. Her films have been presented at various festivals in Quebec and internationally. This House, her feature film combining documentary and fiction elements, had its world premiere at the Berlinale this winter and won the Silvestre Award at the IndieLisboa.

Filmography: Mosaic (2017)