Canadian Premiere
In May 1949, the Scottish painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, a key figure of the modernist St. Ives group of artists, ascended the Grindelwald glacier in Switzerland. The experience proved transformative, irrevocably altering her life and art. For the next half-century, the patterns and geometries of rock and ice she found there became recurring motifs in her work, the hike proving to be a fount of creative inspiration which she would return to time and time again.
In this imaginative biography by renowned documentarian Mark Cousins (narrated by Tilda Swinton), Barns-Graham’s imaginative vision comes alive. Winner of the top prize at Karlovy Vary, A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things traces not only the facts of the artist’s biography, but also her deeper aesthetic and spiritual fixations, the complexities of gender in the art world, and even the looming threat of climate change. Reflective, lyrical, and charmingly discursive, the film is a plangent exploration of art and its inextricable relation to the natural world.
Grand Prix: Crystal Globe Competition, Karlovy Vary 2024
Presented by
Media Partner
Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Tilda Swinton
UK
2024
English
At SFU Woodwards
At Fifth Avenue
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Producer
Mary Bell, Adam Dawtrey
Screenwriter
Mark Cousins
Cinematography
Mark Cousins
Editor
Timo Langer
Original Music
Linda Buckley
Mark Cousins
Mark Cousins is a multi-award-winning Northern Irish/Scottish filmmaker, best known for his documentaries about cinema and visual culture. Over the past decade, his films have screened at most of the world’s major festivals, including Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Telluride, and Sundance. In 2020, he won the European Film Academy’s inaugural Innovation Award for Women Make Film. He received a special lifetime achievement award at Telluride in 2022, followed by lifetime awards at the Cairo and Sarajevo Film Festivals in 2023.
Filmography: The First Movie (2009); A Story of Children and Film (2013); The Eyes of Orson Welles (2018); The Story of Looking (2021); My Name is Alfred Hitchcock (2022)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Giant
This was the Yellowstone of its time: a big, sweeping modern Western built around an imposing ranch and family dynamics -- except Giant is much more subversive. James Dean strikes it rich as Jett Rink, much to the disgust of his former boss, Rock Hudson.
Familiar Touch
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.
Super Happy Forever
This beguiling film depicts a man’s return to the Japanese seaside town where he met his now-deceased wife five years earlier. He tries to relive the past, and in the film's final section -- a flashback to 2018 -- the audience is afforded that privilege.
A Streetcar Named Desire
"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.
Georgia O'Keeffe: the Brightness of Light
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."
