Rendezvous in the Classroom

November 9 – 13
Daily at 9.30am and 1.00pm

For three years, Rendezvous with Madness had programmed films for students with the help of educators and representatives from the Toronto District School Board.  As the program grew more successful the festival team sat down to see if we could make a great program even stronger.  After much research, discussion, and consultation with educators and festivals the idea for Rendezvous in the Classroom was born.

Fifty students, 25 from Ursula Franklin Academy in Toronto, and 25 from The New Mentality, a province wide agency that works with youth living with the experience, reviewed short films from the last decade of Rendezvous with Madness.  The students rated the films on a number of criteria, including level of engagement and relevance to a youth audience.  Once rated, the fifty students elected 5 of their peers to come together and curate an hour-long program to be taken directly into schools across the province.

As the program came together, two themes developed from the six chosen films.  How do people living with mental illness and those around them perceive the experience and how can those shared and sometimes divergent perceptions be used to facilitate healing?  Within these overarching themes, students will also be introduced to diverse issues not limited to; family impacts of mental illness, schizophrenia, anxiety, suicide, healing and recovery. 

Ahul (Eaten)

A film thatbrings everything from bugs to drugs to the table. Located in an isolated country-based setting, a lonely man is stuck on a lifelong decision to fall into the cold, hard grip of his illness or the equally treacherous pathway of medication and the resulting reality of a mind that is not his own.

Loonie

This Toronto-based film deals with Angel, a woman suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and a teenage boy, Dylan. There is something Dylan sees in Angel that she does not. Her disorder has left her blinded from her past even if it is staring her in the face. This close-to-home film leaves you with a sense of sympathy and a touch of sadness in the world of mental illness.

Tom Hits His Head

Tom Hits His Head is a comedic look at anxiety disorders and how easily they are able to take over all aspects of a person’s life. The film is narrated by the main character, Tom, a regular guy who, after having hit his head, experiences symptoms of severe anxiety that get progressively worse. The audience is able to understand the severity of what Tom is experiencing, but are able to laugh, at the same time, at how out of touch he has become from reality. By using interesting film effects and strong imagery to imitate symptoms, Tom Hits His Head allows the viewer to see what it is like to experience intense anxiety and the loss of control that often accompanies it.

Mon Nom est Victor Gazon (Victor Gazon)

Victor Gazon, a relatively happy child of no more than 10, is now facing a problem. He is trying to determine what makes someone want to end their own life. His uncle, and a fellow student have both committed suicide. Victor was told that his uncle had more things in his life that made him sad than things that made him happy. With this simple pro and con approach to the decision of life or death, Victor attempts to see whether he himself should commit suicide. Through the mind of a child the audience can see how difficult it is for an outsider to understand how and why choices of such magnitude are made.

Dune Runner

Dune Runner is a short film that profiles Vuyisile Funda, a man who lives on the Eastern Cape of South Africa. When the conditions are right, he puts on a red dress and runs across the sand dunes, making patterns in the sand. His artwork usually goes unseen by anyone else because the wind blows it away overnight. Dune Runner provides an uplifting glimpse into the life of a man who uses his art as a form of self expression, and embraces the fine line between madness and the artist.

La Lili a Gilles (Gilles’ Lily)

Gilles’ Lily is a film about a young girl named Lily who visits her grandfather Gilles with her father. But Gilles has memory problems, which is a source of frustration and confusion for her and her father. Lily, with her vivid imagination, becomes lost in a fantasy world, where her grandfather is a magician and his house a mystical castle full of antique treasures. Gilles’ Lily uses Gilles’ slowly loosening grip on reality and Lily’s imagination to bring to light the unique bond between grandfather and granddaughter.