Toronto unveils Wavelengths, Classics selections

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He Thought He Died

Source: Courtesy of TIFF

He Thought He Died

Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has announced selections in the Wavelengths and Classics programmes ahead of the festival (September 7-17).

The expanded Wavelengths section offers 11 features and 19 shorts including the world premiere of Canadian artist and filmmaker Isiah Medina’s deconstructed heist tale He Thought He Died (pictured), Denis Côté’s Mademoiselle Kenopsia, and Angela Schanelec’s retelling of the Oedipus myth, Music.

“Wavelengths is a testament to the range of cinema celebrated at TIFF,” said Anita Lee, TIFF’s chief programming officer. “It is also evidence that artist-driven experimental films are thriving and growing a new generation of cinephiles.”

“The increasing necessity to support artists willing to take risks, break rules, and challenge the status quo – especially in our over-saturated media landscape – bears repeating,” said senior curator Andréa Picard.

“Wavelengths continues to be a celebration of subversion, personal expression, and the vast, inexhaustible capabilities of cinema to enlighten, inspire, awe, resist, disrupt, and propose new ways of seeing and being in the world. With this lineup, we hope to demonstrate how Michael Snow’s legacy of mischief making and formal acumen clearly lives on.”

Classics includes a restored version of Canadian filmmaker Brigitte Berman’s Oscar-winning documentary Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got (1985), and Jacques Rivette’s New Wave film L’amour Fou (1969), among others.

All films are world premieres unless indicated otherwise.

WAVELENGTHS FEATURES

Do Not Expect Too Much From The End Of The World (Rom-Lux-Fr-Cro)
Dir. Radu Jude
North American premiere

Here (Bel)
Dir. Bas Devos
North American premiere

The Human Surge 3 (Arg-Port-Bra-Neth-Tai-HK-Sri-Pr)
Dir. Eduardo Williams
North American premiere

Inside The Yellow Cocoon (Viet-Sing-Fr-Sp)
Dir. Shell Phạm Thiên Ân
North American premiere

Mademoiselle Kenopsia (Can)
Dir. Denis Côté
North American premiere

Mambar Pierrette (Bel-Cam)
Dir. Rosine Mbakam
North American premiere

Music (Ger-Fr-Ser)
Dir. Angela Schanelec
North American premiere
Luminaries

Nowhere Near (Phil)
Dir. Miko Revereza
North American premiere

Orlando, My Political Biography (Fr)
Dir. Paul B. Preciado
Canadian premiere

Pictures Of Ghosts (Bra)
Kleber Mendonça Filho
North American ppemiere

Youth (Spring, Fr-Lux-Neth)
Dir. Wang Bing
North American premiere
Luminaries

WAVELENGTHS PAIRINGS

He Thought He Died (Can)
Dir. Isiah Medina

Preceded by

Laberint Sequences (Can)
Dir. Blake Williams
North American premiere

WAVELENGTHS SHORTS

Wavelengths 1: Quiet As It’s Kept
Borrowing its title from Ja’Tovia Gary’s latest film, this programme invites and encourages alternate modes of seeing – through queer abstraction, repurposed fragments, and imagined memories – as well as new forms of listening: to others, to ourselves, and to the natural world.

Bouquets 31-40 (Fr)
Dir. Rose Lowder
Canadian premiere

Film Sculpture (1, Aust)
Dir. Philipp Fleischmann

Film Sculpture (2, Aust)
Dir. Philipp Fleischmann

Film Sculpture (3, Aust)
Dir. Philipp Fleischmann

Film Sculpture (4, Aust)
Dir. Philipp Fleischmann

It follows It Passes On (Tai-USA)
Dir. Erica Sheu

Mast-del (UK-Iran)
Dir. Maryam Tafakory
North American premiere

Shrooms (Por)
Dir. Jorge Jácome

Quiet As It’s Kept (USA)
Dir. Ja’Tovia Gary
International premiere

Wavelengths 2: Sundown

With sensory delights, overloads, and mysteries, this programme probes the hallucinatory underpinnings of the world around us and its layered, incongruous temporalities.

Let’s Talk (HK)
Dir. Simon Liu

Light, Noise, Smoke, And Light, Noise, Smoke (Jap)
Dir. Tomonari Nishikawa

NYC RGB (Aust-USA)
Dir. Viktoria Schmid
Canadian premiere

Slow Shift (India-USA)
Dir. Shambhavi Kaul

Sundown (USA-Can-Aust)
Dir. Steve Reinke

We Don’t Talk Like We Used To (USA-Jap-HK)
Dir. Joshua Gen Solondz

Wavelengths 3: Outlines – Akerman/Costa/Godard

Bookended by a recently discovered and restored suite of Chantal Akerman’s first cinema forays and the legendary Jean-Luc Godard’s final testament, alongside the latest mesmerizing film by Pedro Costa, this special programme pays tribute to a trio of iconic artists and their intoxicating, enticing approach to sketches and outlines as a means of expression.

Chantal Akerman: Her First Look Behind The Camera (Bel)
Dir. Chantal Akerman
North American premiere

The Daughters Of Fire (Por)
Dir. Pedro Costa
North American premiere

Trailer Of The Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars (Fr-Swi)
Dir. Jean-Luc Godard
North American premiere