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Mariposa film image, co-directors John Greyson, Bongani Ndodana-Breen

Mariposa

An operatic cine-poem weaving together the stories of African-Canadian singer Portia White, South African chef Phelokazi Ndlwana, and the Free Gender activist group—a Black lesbian organization based in Khayelitsha, a township on the outskirts of Cape Town.

 

Supported by

Community Broadcast Partner

Community Partner

Director
Cast

Chantelle Grant, Vanya Abrahams, Ray McKenna

Credits
Country of Origin

Canada

Year

2022

Language

English

Film Contact
Content Warning

Sexual Violence

G
6 min

Featured in:

From Chile to Canada film image

VIFF Short Forum: Program 1

What kind of alchemy occurs to transform hardship into fortune? Here, the extraordinary burn brightly.

 

MORE INFO

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No Bears

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106 min

Dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi plays himself in this ingenious meta-fiction about the making of a film, and the unmaking of love story.

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Sex

Dir. Dag Johan Haugerud
125 min

Two chimney sweeps living in heterosexual marriages find their views on sexuality and gender challenged by a series of unexpected events. In a set of sharply scripted conversations, both men confront heretofore unexplored aspects of their identity.

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3 Faces

Dir. Jafar Panahi
100 min

Iranian filmmaker Panahi and actress Behnaz Jafari, both playing themselves, receive a video in which a distraught teenaged girl, whose acting dreams have been quashed appears to kill herself. Panahi and Jafari decide to investigate...

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Dreams

Dir. Dag Johan Haugerud
110 min

The third installment in the Sex/Dreams/Love trilogy is another rich, absorbing tale. 17-year-old Johanne writes a confessional about her flirtation with a (female) teacher. But the writing is too good to stay private...

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Transit
Transit film image; woman leaning her head against a man's back

Transit

Dir. Christian Petzold
101 min

Trust the director of Phoenix and Barbara to re-imagine a WWII romantic intrigue into something unsettlingly contemporary. With occupying forces closing in, a German refugee (Franz Rogowski) assumes a dead writer's identity and flees to Marseille.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Credits

Screenwriter

John Greyson

Cinematography

John Greyson

Editor

Nick White

Original Music

Bongani Ndodana-Breen

Directors

John Greyson headshot, Mariposa co-director

John Greyson

John Greyson is a Toronto filmmaker whose features, shorts, and new media works include Photo Booth (2022), Lilies (1996), Zero Patience (1993), Fig Trees (2009), and International Dawn Chorus Day (2021). A pioneer of the new Queer Cinema, his films have won four Berlin Teddies, five Canadian Screen Awards, and more than 50 Best Film prizes at festivals, including TIFF, Frameline, Inside Out, Locarno, Berlin, and Torino.

Selected Filmography: The Law of Enclosures (2000); Proteus (2003); Fig Trees (2009); Photo Booth (2022)

Bongani Ndodana-Breen headshot, Mariposa co-director

Bongani Ndodana-Breen

Bongani Ndodana-Breen is an award-winning South African composer whose operas and symphonic work include Winnie: The Opera, Orange Clouds, and Harmonia Ubuntu. He was awarded the Standard Bank Young Artist Award in 1998, holds a PhD in Composition from Rhodes University, and currently teaches music at Yale University.