Skip to main content
The Hands of Ida film image; text on blue screen

The Hands of Ida

This event has passed

Join us for an exclusive screening of The Hands of Ida, the only known copy of a repudiated TV movie written by Gerry Atwel and directed by the visionary Guy Maddin. Rumoured to have been destroyed in a black magic ceremony, this film aired only once on CKND TV in Winnipeg in 1995. Thanks to Paul Anthony, one of the film’s actors, who taped it off television, we can present it to you in all of its degraded glory.

What can you expect (but not possibly be prepared for)?
A woman named Ida endures a brutal assault where her hands are removed, sparking the rise of a female vigilante group targeting male assailants by cutting off their penises. Portraying a reality where men must be escorted by women to ensure their safety after dark.
“I am the anger of women,
You are the instruments of justice.
We are the hands of Ida.”

Preceded by:
Hollywood (North) Babylon: Paul Anthony Tells All!
Winner of nine Outstanding Actor Awards, Paul Anthony is probably best known for playing The Rainbow Raider on the television series The Flash. He will open the evening with a series of showbiz stories while screening various never-before-seen clips from his diverse career. Highlights include: his awkward first role on James Cameron’s Dark Angel; a challenging death scene in Larry Clark’s Masters of Horror; an embarrassing misunderstanding with Keenen Ivory Wayans that cost him a part in White Chicks; and a deleted (never aired) sex scene with Alan Cumming and Pam Grier on The L Word.

Presenter
Director
Country of Origin

Canada

Year

1995

Language

English

18+
60 min

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Presenter

Paul Anthony headshot

Paul Anthony

Paul Anthony, a recipient of the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame Award, has performed in over 60 film and television projects including iZombie, Riverdale, Blade: Trinity, SUCK, A Gun to the Head, Stargate, the Emmy Award-winning Traffic and, of course, Guy Maddin’s The Hands of Ida. He is also the creator and host of the critically acclaimed Paul Anthony’s Talent Time, a live comedy/variety/talk show and public access TV program. The Globe & Mail’s Mathew Hays hailed it as “the most innovative…and inspired show” he has seen in years. An edited version of Paul Anthony’s Talent Time is available for binge-watching on TalentTime.biz.

Director

Guy Maddin headshot; Rumours director

Guy Maddin

Guy Maddin has directed thirteen feature-length movies in a career spanning over thirty years. For the past decade, he has worked exclusively in directorial partnership with Evan and Galen Johnson, creating The Forbidden Room (2015), The Green Fog (2017), and the internet interactive Seances (2016). During his solo helming years, Maddin mounted around the world over seventy performances of his films, Cowards Bend The Knee (2002), Brand Upon The Brain (2006), and My Winnipeg (2007) in productions featuring live elements – orchestra, sound effects, song and narration. His screenplay and film-story collaborators include Nobel Laureate Kazuo Ishiguro and poet John Ashbery. In America, his movies Archangel (1990) and The Heart Of The World (2000) won National Society of Film Critics Awards for Best Experimental Film.

Filmography: The Saddest Music in the World (2003); Brand Upon the Brain! (2006); My Winnipeg (2007); The Forbidden Room (2015)

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

Palestine '36

Dir. Annemarie Jacir
118 min

An epic historical drama from director Annemarie Jacir that follows an ensemble of rural villagers who face off against British colonial forces during the 1936 Palestinian revolt.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
More info

Sold Out

The Wizard of the Kremlin

Dir. Olivier Assayas
156 min

This sleekly speculative political drama traces the inexorable rise to power of Vladimir Putin (Jude Law) through his unerring grasp of modern propaganda tech.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Blue Heron

Dir. Sophy Romvari
90 min

In the late 1990s, eight-year-old Sasha and her Hungarian immigrant family relocate to a new home on Vancouver Island. Their fresh start is interrupted by increasingly dangerous behaviour from Jeremy, the family’s oldest child.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Amrum

Dir. Fatih Akin
93 min

Twelve-year-old Nanning (Jasper Billerbeck) sets himself a mission to secure bread and honey for his mother to snap her out of her depression. It is 1945. The war is all but lost, and such luxuries are not easy to find on the remote island of Amrum...

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Steal This Story, Please!

Dir. Carl Deal & Tia Lessin
101 min

Urgent, provocative and unexpectedly funny, Steal This Story, Please! is a portrait of Amy Goodman, the host of the long-running progressive news show, Democracy Now!

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music as Realized by Aram Bajakian, Stefan Maier and Anju Singh

156 min

Guitarist Aram Bajakian takes up the challenge issued to him by Lou Reed many years ago to perform the controversial noise album, Metal Machine Music. Plus Lou Reed performing Berlin from 2006.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema