Skip to main content
Hardly Working film image, co-directors Total Refusal (Susanna Flock, Robin Klengel, Leonhard Müllner, Michael Stumpf)

Hardly Working

North American Premiere

Total Refusal returns to MODES with new work following 2020’s dazzling live performance of Operation Jane Walk, and their anti-war masterpiece, How to Disappear. In the moments when the algorithm of their existence shows inconsistencies, the Non-Playable Characters (NPCs) of the popular action-adventure game, Red Dead Redemption, break out of their routines momentarily to display their faultiness and present something touchingly human.

Director
Cast

Jacob Banigan

Credits
Country of Origin

Austria

Year

2022

Language

English

Film Contact
Links
21 min

Featured in:

Perforated Realities film image, director Gustaf Broms

MODES 3

Whimsical, questioning and utterly absorbing, a collection of animated work delving into worlds of wonder, subversion, and Marxist mystery. These works are fun and some re-construct ideas of animation, paying homage to experimentalists who came before.

 

MORE INFO

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

A Streetcar Named Desire

Dir. Elia Kazan
122 min

"I don't want realism. I want magic!" declares Blanche du Bois, the tragic heroine who meets her nemesis in her sister's husband, Stanley Kowalski, in Tennessee Williams' great play. Brando's performance as Stanley is a turning point in American acting.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
Georgia O'Keeffe: the Brightness of Light
Georgia O’Keeffe: The Brightness of Light film image; painted reds, pinks, oranges, and yellows that combine to look like a flower

Georgia O'Keeffe: the Brightness of Light

Dir. Paul Wagner
118 min

Drawing on her copious correspondence and the world's leading scholars, this is a definitive documentary on the life and work of "the mother of American Modernism."

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

While You Weren't Looking

Dir. Catherine Stewart
72 min

The changing landscape of South African politics and lifestyles is portrayed through a trio of artfully counter-pointed relationships.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
The Other
The Other film image; two people looking out at sandy dunes

The Other

Dir. Joy Sela
100 min

Filmed from 2017-2024, including post October 7 and during the subsequent war, Joy Sela's documentary is an inspiring testament to how human beings -- even in the worst circumstances -- can transcend difference to forge connection and understanding.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Familiar Touch

Dir. Sarah Friedland
90 min

A loving portrait of an octogenarian transitioning into an assisted living facility, this award-winning first feature by choreographer Sarah Friedland has a simplicity and warmth that's exceptionally poignant.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Stories of Our Lives

Dir. Jim Chuchu
138 min

Stories of Our Lives (62 mins) documents personal stories of lovers, fighters and rebels and the community histories that characterize the queer experience in Kenya. This is preceded by the touching and resonant 38-minute Nigerian love story, Ìfé.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Credits

Screenwriter

Total Refusal

Cinematography

Total Refusal

Editor

Total Refusal

Original Music

Adrian Haim

Director

Total Refusal (Susanna Flock, Robin Klengel, Leonhard Müllner, Michael Stumpf) group shot, Hardly Working co-directors

Total Refusal (Susanna Flock, Robin Klengel, Leonhard Müllner, Michael Stumpf)

The pseudo-marxist media guerilla collective Total Refusal explores and practices strategies for artistic intervention in contemporary computer games. They work with tools of appropriation and rededication of game resources. Their films and performances were presented among others at the Berlinale and at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. They received the award for Best Short Documentary Film at the 2020 Diagonale Festival of Austrian Film.