VTIFF Program-Guide 2023 - Flipbook - Page 12
FILMS A TO Z
ANIMALIA (PARMIS NOUS)
BETWEEN THE RAINS
CETTE MAISON
Directed by Sofia Alaoui
France/Morocco/Qatar | 2023 | Fiction | 90 min | French,
Arabic, Berber w/subtitles
Directed by Moses Thuranira and Andrew H. Brown
Kenya | 2023 | Documentary| 82 min | Swahili w/subtitles
Directed by Miryam Charles
Canada | 2023 | Docufiction | 75 min | Haitian and French
w/subtitles
Film Source: Journeyman
Sponsored by: Megan Epler Wood
Film Source: DarkStar
Sponsored by: Alliance Française of the Lake Champlain
Region
SHOWTIMES
WEDNESDAY, OCT 25 | 1:15 PM | BB
SHOWTIMES
SUNDAY, OCT 22 | 7:15 PM | BB
Itto (Oumaïma Barid) is pregnant and alone, and all the
money from her husband’s rich family can’t seem to save
her. In the rural countryside of Morocco an extraterrestrial
phenomenon is taking place, and the structures that have
governed society and protected the wealthy and privileged
matter little now. Winner of the World Cinema Dramatic
Special Jury Prize for Creative Vision at the 2023
Sundance Film Festival, this debut feature from FrenchMoroccan director Sofia Alaoui imagines grand themes
with modest means. Amongst sweeping desert vistas and
spectacular set pieces, the film locates the tense and
thrilling story of one resilient woman as things fall apart
and a new center must be found. ~TW
VENUES
12
Film Source: Oyster Films
Sponsored by: Alliance Française of the Lake Champlain
Region
Winner, Best Documentary, Tribeca Festival 2023
Winner, Best Cinematography in a Documentary Feature,
Tribeca Festival 2023
Documenting the Turkana-Ngaremara community as they
contend with prolonged drought, this visually stunning
coming-of-age story follows a young, orphaned man’s
journey to adapt to radically changing climate conditions in
Northern Kenya. Kolei, the film’s primary subject, must
grapple with personal tragedies alongside complex tribal
conflicts brought on by environmental catastrophes in his
pastoral region. With these mounting communal tensions
and rapidly shifting culture, the threat of climate change is
not just a looming notion but a present reality. By threading
interpersonal scenes with sweeping landscape
cinematography, this documentary provides an intimate
look at a vulnerable population fighting to bridge tradition
with new circumstances. The visceral, near-consuming
anxieties of the sensitive Kolei contextualize how global
crisis affects individuals. Through this lens, the film lays a
framework for a collective reckoning on how to strive with
the ecological perils shaping the world and eventually
facing us all. ~Shakira Refos, Tribeca FF
FH: FILM HOUSE
BB: BLACK BOX THEATER
UVM RECITAL HALL
AT REDSTONE CAMPUS
All at Main Street Landing
Performing Arts Center, Burlington
384 South Prospect Street
Burlington
SHOWTIMES
FRIDAY, OCT 27 | 7 PM | FH
Director Miryam Charles’ dreamlike, haunting first feature
begins with a real-life personal tragedy – the hanging of
her 14-year-old cousin, Tessa, in her bedroom, an act
originally ruled suicide but later determined to be
homicide, still unsolved – and uses that to explore events
real and unimagined, as well as futures unlived. Shot in
16mm, the film weaves between documentary and
hallucination, real locations and theatrical sets, and even
an imaginary landscape of Haiti, as she recounts her
family’s migration to Quebec. Tessa reappears, forever 14,
speaking with her mother in the present day, and this
astonishing film turns into its own kind of ghost story. With
this debut, Charles makes her mark as a filmmaker to
watch in the future. ~SM
*** Followed by in-person Q&A with the director ***
*
THE ESSEX RESORT & SPA
70 Essex Way
Essex
VTIFF.ORG | VERMONT INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2023
