Questioning the nature of our material world, artists from South Africa, Spain, Iran and Brazil invite conditional realities to ponder memory, history and the length of existence. Witness and wonder, prepare to confront the possible meaning of it all.
This short film program includes the following films:
A Bird Called Memory
Leonardo Martinelli, Brazil/United Kingdom (15 min)
Returning to MODES with his latest lyrical offering, Leonardo Martinelli (Fantasma Neon, VIFF ’21) explores the existential longing and interior world of Lua, a trans woman on a wistful search for a missing bird amidst the streets of Rio de Janeiro.
Mast-del
Maryam Tafakory, Iran/United Kingdom (18 min)
An intimate mid-night moment between two Iranian women, Mast-del explores threat posed to forbidden bodies and desires.
Loving In Between
Jyoti Mistry, South Africa/Austria (19 min)
Repurposed archival footage from the Eye Film Museum, and animation encapsulate a portrait of social norms, religious persuasions, and political interventions that dictate and punctuate how and who we love. Yet, emancipation is found in the erotic.
Aqueronte
Manuel Muñoz Rivas, Spain (27 min)
Passengers settle in for a reflective and contemplative voyage aboard a ferry from one port to another. Destination unknown. The journey seems to expand, as the impending and distant shore is postponed. Observations are sharp, yet the magnitude of space becomes blurred.
Series Media Partner
Community Partner
Various
Various
2023
MODES
Various with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
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The Art of Adventure
The unbelievable adventure story of how painter Robert Bateman and ecologist Bristol Foster drove a Land Rover from Africa to Australia in 1957, developing a love of nature to last a lifetime. An inspirational love letter to the adventure of life itself.
Agatha's Almanac
Shot over six years on vibrant 16mm film, Agatha’s Almanac is an artful documentary portrait of filmmaker Amalie Atkin’s octogenarian aunt, who has fashioned herself an endearingly simple and self-sustaining lifestyle on her Manitoba farm.
Follies
After two kids and 16 years of marriage, François and Julie decide to open up their relationship in a bid to rekindle their dwindling sex life. A painfully hilarious and brutally honest depiction of love, sex, and intimacy in the age of the internet.
Paying for It
Talk about a hall of mirrors! Sook-Yin Lee wittily adapts the graphic novel of the same name by her ex-boyfriend, Canadian cartoonist Chester Brown, about the end of their relationship and Brown's subsequent decision to start paying for sex.

