
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
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
Our Lady of the Nile
Veronica and Virginia are inseparable friends at an elite Catholic boarding school, Our Lady of the Nile, but what binds them together is the very thing that separates them forever. We are in Rwanda, 1973, and tribal tensions are simmering ominously.
Night Moves: Street Photography, Poetry and Music with Rodney DeCroo
To mark the publication of Night Moves, his first book of street photography (shot in and around Commercial Drive), singer-songwriter, poet and playwright Rodney DeCroo shares his images, stories and music, along with his band The Wise Blood.
Secret Mall Apartment
The stranger-than-fiction true story of a group of artists who built and furnished a hidden apartment inside a mall, remaining undetected for years. This is an absurdly fun and surprisingly profound film about gentrification and art.
The Teacher
In this potent thriller, English teacher Basem witnesses the murder of a teenager by a Israeli settler. While the subsequent investigation rolls slowly towards a foregone conclusion, the teacher is caught up in a parallel kidnapping case...
Bob Trevino Likes It
When her toxic, narcissistic dad cuts her out of his life, Lily Trevino looks him up on Facebook and happens across his namesake, Bob (John Leguizamo), a gentle, genial contractor who lives nearby, and who proves an altogether better dad...
The Encampments
When pro-Palestine protests took hold of Columbia last year, the filmmakers were there from the beginning. This documentary charts the mounting tensions between students and the administration, as the protests were picked up across North America.