Canadian Premiere
When her close friend Yolanda “Yo” Shea — a Swiss émigré 49 years her senior — passed away in 2013, filmmaker Anna Fitch wasn’t ready to say goodbye. To keep Yo’s memory alive, Fitch commissioned a puppet in her likeness and set to work crafting this delightful mixed-media documentary (with co-director Banker White) that would go on to win the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution at the 2026 Berlinale.
Using a series of intimate vérité-style interviews recorded with Yo during her final year, Fitch and White reimagine anecdotes from Yo’s fascinating life against a meticulously detailed one-third-scale replica of Yo’s apartment and diorama of Yo’s street in Pacific Grove, California. A splendid mélange of puppet, animal, and insect actors bring Yo (Love is a Rebellious Bird) to life, aided by collage art and timelapse nature photography. Deftly visualizing the ineffable substance of grief and mortality, Fitch and White’s film is a sublime tribute to a free-spirited woman who moved through life in exuberant defiance of societal and gender norms.
Content Considerations: Illness, death, insects
Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution, Berlinale 2026
Yolanda Shea, Anna Fitch, Banker White
USA
2026
In English and French with English subtitles
Indigenous & Community Access
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Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Douglas Choi, Martina Bassenger, Rick Rosenthal, Nancy Stephens, Dennis Masel, Gabriela Nadig, Jessamine Burgum, Kara Durrett, Maida Lynn, Sheri Sobrato, John Boccardo, Derek Esplin, Robina Riccitiello, Katy Barksdale
Producer
Banker White, Anna Fitch, Sara Dosa, Hannah Roodman
Cinematography
Banker White, Andy Mitchell
Editor
Banker White
Original Music
Tyler Strickland
Art Director
Anna Fitch, Banker White
Anna Fitch
Anna Fitch is an Emmy Award–winning director who works in independent documentary, broadcast television, performance, and visual art. She is best known for her creative approach to elevating unlikely protagonists in both the natural and human worlds. Her feature documentary Survivors (2018), which she co-directed, aired on the PBS series POV and was nominated for Emmy and Peabody awards. She also co-directed the feature documentary The Genius of Marian (2013), which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, won the Grand Jury Award at Camden, and aired on POV.
Filmography: The Genius of Marian (2014); Survivors (2018); Octopus in My House (2019)
Photo by Jens Koch
Banker White
Banker White is an interdisciplinary artist, award-winning filmmaker, and Executive Director of Mirabel Pictures. From war and disease to the complex dimensions that surround aging and death, Banker’s work is united by a compassionate humanism. Most recently, he co-directed and produced the Peabody- and Emmy Award–nominated Survivors (2018). He is also co-director and producer of the documentary The Genius of Marian (2013), which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was broadcast on PBS’s award-winning series POV.
Filmography: Refugee All Stars (2007); The Genius of Marian (2014); Survivors (2018)
Photo by Getty Images
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Image: © Mirabel Pictures
