VTIFF Program-Guide 2023 - Flipbook - Page 20
FILMS A TO Z
MAMI WATA
OMEN (AUGURE)
Directed by C.J. “Fiery” Obasi
Nigeria | 2023 | Fiction | 107 min | West African Pidgin w/
subtitles
Film Source: Dekanalog
Sponsored by: Lechelle-Antonia Gray
Directed by Balogi
Congo | 2023 | Fiction | 91 min | French, Swahili w/subtitles Directed by Paul Preciado
France | 2023 | Fiction | 98 min | French, English, Spanish
Film Source: Utopia Distribution
w/subtitles
Sponsored by: Alliance Française of the Lake Champlain
Region
Film Source: Sideshow
SHOWTIMES
THURSDAY, OCT 26 | 2 PM | FH
SHOWTIMES
SATURDAY, OCT 28 | 11:15 AM | FH
There’s unrest in the oceanside village of Iyi, where the
people are losing faith in the revered Mama Efe (Rita
Edochie), who acts as an intermediary for the all-powerful
water deity Mami Wata. When a mysterious rebel deserter
arrives, conflict brews, and then erupts, leaving Efe’s
daughter Zinwe (Uzoamaka Aniunoh) and cynical protégé
Prisca (Evelyne Ily Juhen) to restore the faith. Based on a
Nigerian folktale, director C.J. “Fiery” Obasi’s film benefits
immensely from the glorious B&W cinematography of Lilis
Soares; her work earned a special prize at this year’s
Sundance, and contains some of the most striking imagery
on display at VTIFF this year. This story of opportunistic
men using violence to overthrow a matriarchy in harmony
with nature also boasts a whopper of a surprise ending.
~SM
Congolese rapper-turned-filmmaker Baloji creates a
mind-melting tale of displacement and belonging, told
through the interconnecting stories of four people in
modern-day Kinshasa accused of witchcraft. Seamlessly
weaving multiple narrative threads through a magicalrealist lens, the film uses a wildly eclectic musical score,
elaborate and offbeat costuming (a gang of street kids in
pink tutus, for instance), and careening camera movement
to create a constantly vibrating energy that hums
throughout. Given the internecine strife that has riven the
Democratic Republic of Congo for so long, Kinshasa has
not even had an active movie theater for most of the past
25 years, let alone a film industry, so hopefully this vibrant
Belgian/Dutch/Congolese co-production points to better
days ahead. ~SM
VENUES
20
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
ORLANDO, MY POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY
(ORLANDO, MA BIOGRAPHIE POLITIQUE)
Sponsored by: Arnie Malina and Alliance Française of the
Lake Champlain Region
SHOWTIMES
MONDAY, OCT 23 | 7:15 PM | BB
FRIDAY, OCT 27 | 2:15 PM | BB
Winner, Teddy Award for Best Documentary, 2023 Berlin
International Film Festival
Writer, philosopher, and now filmmaker Paul B. Preciado’s
newest work is poetic in form and function. Hybridizing
literary adaptation with modes of fiction and nonfiction
filmmaking, Preciado uses Virginia Woolf’s 1928 centuryspanning, gender-bending romance, Orlando: A Biography,
as a template for the modern trans experience. Interlacing
passages from the novel with contemporary testimonies,
including the filmmaker’s own, the film fashions its focus
on “gender poets,” those whose lives transcend the
bounds of binary expression. Preciado’s cast of
contemporary Orlandos offers intimate access and playful
insight into their experiences with hormones, genderaffirming care, institutional erasure, and the political
positioning of trans-people subjected to a normative
regime. No two stories are the same, and, yet, somehow
Woolf’s fantastical biography contains them all. ~TW
THE ESSEX RESORT & SPA
70 Essex Way
Essex
VTIFF.ORG | VERMONT INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2023
