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Music for Black Pigeons

Andreas Koefoed and Jørgen Leth, Denmark, 2022, 92 mins

Music and community make up the core of this deep cinematic dive into the creative process. Structured around the compositions of Danish musician Jakob Bro and supplemented with interviews, footage of studio sessions and a concert performed in the very memorable location of Sisimiut, Greenland, Music for Black Pigeons showcases the artistry and introspection of an array of free-jazz luminaries. Though all seem much more comfortable creating music than musing for the camera, each player brings a unique perspective to this open conversation around performance and inspiration. Through their words and art, a culture of ideas begins to take shape that feels both urgent and timeless. Koefoed and Leth’s film invites you to sit in with some of the best in their field, as they operate at the highest levels of jazz musicianship and share a look at the virtuosity of their craft across decades. -TA

Norita (Work in Progress)

Jayson McNamara, Argentina, 2023, 91 mins www.sfu.ca/davidlamcentre/news-events.html

Norita follows 90-year-old Nora Cortiñas as she takes up the fight for women’s reproductive rights in Argentina. Intercut with her present-day campaign is the story of her journey from conservative housewife to radical social activist, which began in 1977 with the kidnapping and disappearance of her son by Argentina’s dictatorship and her enrollment with the iconic Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo movement.

Featuring entirely women participants, Norita is a sweeping intergenerational story about the bonds of motherhood and the strength found in joining forces between young and old. It offers a deeply moving defence of the right to reproductive freedoms, while the backdrop of Argentina’s dictatorship reminds Western audiences about the fragility of our own democratic rights and systems.

Please note that Norita is still in post-production, and that this is a work-in-progress screening. See corresponding Industry event on page 14.

The David Lam Centre at SFU has been supporting events and outreach on the Asia Pacific diaspora since 1989. To join our mailing list and find out more please visit us online.

North Circular

Luke McManus, Ireland, 2022, 86 mins

McManus’s film is a visually striking journey across the northern side of Dublin that captures the historically working class neighbourhood along North Circular Road. Here, as in other urban centres, gentrification has disrupted patterns of habitation, work, architecture and culture, and the original residents and businesses are being pushed out.

Tackling issues of class, poverty, incarceration and colonization, the various strands of North Circular are harmonized through an emphasis on traditional Irish music and the residents’ fellowship through song. Music anchors the film and its community, who give melody to the neighbourhood both in celebration and protest, even as their homes and spaces are threatened with imminent redevelopment. Filmed in gorgeous black and white, North Circular explores a nuanced social geography using powerful images and musical performances that will linger long after the road runs out. -KR

Not Quite That

Ali Grant, Canada, 2022, 47 mins

After finding out that she carries a genetic mutation predisposing her to breast cancer, Sarah White is faced with a big decision: whether to wait and see what happens, or act fast and have a preventative double mastectomy. As she meets the rush of feelings associated with surgery and illness, questions of identity, inheritance and unresolved selfhood get caught in the flow. As a Jewish woman, a mother and a butch lesbian, Sarah is no stranger to the confused judgements of others. Would life without breasts make everything even more perplexing? With the support of her friends and family, Sarah grapples with what it means to be seen—by the world and by herself—as a person finding congruence amidst nuance and change. -SB

Notes on Displacement

Khalid Jarrar, Palestine/Germany/Qatar, 2022, 74 mins

Notes on Displacement opens with a quote from critic John Berger that reads: “Ours is the century of enforced travel … of people helplessly seeing others, who were close to them, disappear over the horizon.” For Nadira, who left Palestine in her girlhood and must migrate again in the twilight of her life, the horizon is constantly moving. She embarks on a grueling journey from Syria to Greece over water; along the highways of Bulgaria on foot and by bus; through Hungary, where conditions at refugee camps are horrendous; and further still towards the German border, where her family might finally find rest. Filmmaker Khalid Jarrar is Nadira’s constant companion, accompanying her and her adult children as they navigate relentless adversities alongside so many other migrants. Jarrar advocates for their safety, security and comfort with what little privilege his status as a working filmmaker affords him, but the dangers of language barriers, racism, aggressive authorities and precarious geography are incessant and unyielding. The mainstream media tends to flatten the experiences of refugees into one image of mass struggle, but here we see the nuances of fear and disorientation, as well as personal acts of support and care. -SB

Powerlands

Ivey-Camille Manybeads Tso, Navajo Nation, 2022, 75 mins

At age 19, Ivey-Camille Manybeads Tso began making a film about her home, Dinétah, and the Navajo Nation’s struggle against resource colonization at the hands of the mining, oil and gas industries. Along the way, she discovered that her people were not alone. From Dinétah to Colombia and Mexico to the Philippines, Indigenous resistance movements across the globe are combating the destructiveness of resource extraction and the environmental racism being perpetrated by multinational corporations like Glencore, Peabody and BHP. Both sweeping in scope and deeply personal, Powerlands offers a vision of hope in the face of corporate power. For local audiences, the film is a powerful reminder that assertions of Indigenous sovereignty like the Wet’suwet’en opposition to the Coastal GasLink pipeline are in solidarity with people around the world. Extraction industries are global, but so is Indigenous land stewardship and resistance. -JC foamcore+coroplast

Satan Wants You

Sean Horlor and Steve J. Adams, Canada, 2023, 90 mins

Forty years before QAnon and Pizzagate, Michelle Smith and Lawrence Pazder’s bestseller Michelle Remembers helped ignite the Satanic Panic of the 1980s. Supported by the Catholic Church and co-written by Michelle’s psychiatrist (who would become her husband), this shocking “true story” relied on adult Michelle’s recovered memories of her supposed enslavement by a Satanic cult as a 5-yearold in Victoria, BC. In Satan Wants You, we embark on a journey to unravel the many threads of this larger-than-life story, and in the process expose the damage done by doctors and therapists with personal agendas. Popular opinion would suggest that the internet and social media are the biggest contributors to the spread of misinformation, but Satan Wants You shows us that it only takes a few “experts” speaking with conviction, the wide reach of televised talk shows, and a public willing to accept the worst for dubious and implausible narratives to take hold. -lh

Silent House

Farnaz Jurabchian and Mohammadreza Jurabchian, Iran/France/Canada/Philippines/Qatar, 2022, 101 mins

The saga of three familial generations in Tehran is chronicled through a cinematic history of the house that shaped their lives. Siblings Farnaz and Mohammadreza Jurabchian reminisce and celebrate their family’s colourful dynamic, captured in their grandfather’s photographs, their mother’s Super 8 film strips and decades of their own footage.

The tale begins with their grandfather, who made his fortune as a trader in the bazaar and used his earnings to purchase a palatial mansion for the family home. The ensuing travails of each generation reflect the massive political and cultural upheavals of Iran’s modern history, including the Islamic Revolution and Iran–Iraq war. While the family and their home withstood seven decades of extraordinary events, no one survived unscathed. Now, the imposing house stands rugged and decaying, having seen better days and an aura of nostalgia hangs in the air. Silent House is a paean to the art of cinema and a gripping family story, as sibling filmmakers seek wisdom and redemption through footage held over from the past. -KR

Silvicola

Jean-Philippe Marquis, Canada, 2023, 80 mins

From seedling to towering leviathan, into the metal arms of machine harvesters and onto the mill floor: this is the course set for a tree, no matter how ancient it may be. The devastation can feel inevitable, as the cogs of industrial logging continue to turn at an increasingly rapid pace and deforestation practices persist, despite knowledge that forests have nurtured complex life since time immemorial. “The whole forest has sustained us, and that’s why we have to honour and behave ourselves in the forest.” If you wander between the bodies of old growth trees still standing, you may see ant highways winding through the underbrush, evidence of cultural practices dating back tens of generations carved into bark and new plantlife bursting from the decay of fallen tree trunks. Silvicola is an immense sensory contemplation of the entanglement of humans, machines and nature in the sprawling forests of the Canadian Pacific Northwest. -SB

Twice Colonized

Lin Alluna, Canada/Denmark/Greenland, 2023, 92 mins

Inuit lawyer Aaju Peter is determined to bring Indigenous voices to the European Union through the creation of a permanent Indigenous Peoples’ forum. Twice Colonized, also the title of Aaju’s forthcoming book, follows her journey to make this happen and the events that inspired it.

Filmed over seven years, director Lin Alluna documents Aaju in different stages of reckoning: as she grieves the death of her son; as she confronts the multi-layered impacts of colonization and the forced assimilation of Indigenous youth; and her ultimate attempts to understand how to change the world by decolonizing one’s mind. In the face of personal tragedy and wider colonial violence, Aaju becomes even more determined to bring opportunities to Arctic Indigenous peoples and secure a better future for her granddaughters. -lh

Veranada

Dominique Chaumont, Canada/Argentina, 2022, 75 mins

At summer’s end, in the uplands of the Argentinian Andes, a lone herder shears his sheep with a pair of scissors as he migrates his flock in search of greener pastures. It’s the fifth consecutive year of drought in the Malargüe Department, yet Don Arturo—a local gaucho, or nomadic horseman—is determined to find more verdant land for his livestock, even as local radio forecasts predict sustained drought in the months ahead.

Dominique Chaumont’s debut feature is a precious glimpse into a small community and a serene portrait of the daily rhythms of camp on the rugged Andean plains. The herdsman’s everyday chores and casual conversations portend a wider climate emergency. -BS

We Will Not Fade Away

Alisa Kovalenko, Ukraine/Poland/France, 2023, 100 mins

Donbas, Ukraine, 2019. As shells strike the region bordering Russia, five teenagers attempt to cobble together a version of normalcy—creating music, taking photographs and fixing motorbikes—amidst the destruction wrought by war. The houses and park fences of their village are peppered with bullet holes, and the not-so-distant sounds of gunfire and explosions ring out in the distance. “It’s a ruined place that will never be rebuilt,” says one of the youths, putting words to their collective cynicism. When an opportunity to join an expedition to Mount Everest emerges, all five teens take the leap, yearning to escape their reality. Alisa Kovalenko’s tenacious film portrays a generation that, as of this writing, now faces a fully fledged war.

You Were My First Boyfriend

Cecilia Aldarondo and Sarah Enid Hagey, USA, 2023, 97 mins

What if you could rewrite your adolescence? In this high school reunion movie turned inside out, filmmaker Cecilia Aldarondo embarks on a fantastical quest to reconcile her tortured teen years. She “goes back” in more ways than one, tracking down old foes and friends while also reenacting visceral memories of youth’s humiliation and desire.

Oscillating between present and past, hallucination and reality, You Were My First Boyfriend is a hybrid documentary that explores the power of adolescent fantasy, the subtle violence of cultural assimilation and the fun house mirror of time’s passage. Perhaps we can all learn something about growing older and making peace with what haunts us.