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“..the festival showcases edgy, thought provoking…films that
explore mental health and addiction issues from a multitude of angles.”
Sherri Wood, Toronto Sun 2004
For Immediate Release: August 13, 2010
WORKMAN ARTS PRESENTS:
18TH ANNUAL RENDEZVOUS WITH MADNESS FILM FESTIVAL
The Film Festival With many personalities
Cinematic Perspectives of Mental Illness and Addiction
November 5 - 13, 2010
www.rendezvouswithmadness.com
Workman Arts presents the 18th Annual Rendezvous
with Madness Film Festival (RWM) set for November
5th - 13th, a 9-day festival presenting over 20 programs of feature
and short films. Each program includes a thematic, moderated post-screening panel
discussion with filmmakers, people living with experience of the issue explored,
a health care professional and a special interest person. RWM continues to revel
in the mysteries of the mind, exploring the facts and mythologies surrounding
mental illness and addiction. The festival opens at the TIFF Bell
Lightbox, Cinema 1, Reitman Square, 350 King Street West and continues
at Workman Hall, 651 Dufferin Street.
This year’s festival brings an added dimension: video conferencing. “For
the first time, RWM will be able to invite all filmmakers to their screenings
and to take part on their respective panels. Some will attend in person,
while others will participate via Skype,” says Lisa Brown, Rendezvous
with Madness Founder and Executive Artistic Director. “This technology allows
us to meet our objective of bringing filmmakers, people with professional and
personal experience with mental illness and audiences together to discuss the
facts and mythologies of these cinematic representations.”
This year, RWM marks the second anniversary of the Rendezvous in the
Classroom (RC) program. Building on last year’s successful pilot that
screened to over 2,000 students in the GTA, the RC will run from November
8th - 12th with two sessions daily at 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. This year’s
curriculum features some of the best films ever screened at the festival and
is anchored by the Academy Award winning Canadian film, Ryan,
directed by Chris Landreth. Post screening discussions will
include a health care professional, a young person who has experienced mental
health illness, a person of special interest and Landreth as
a panelist. As well as the mastery of his filmmaking technique, discussions will
focus on mental health illness, depression, addiction and alcoholism, among other
topics.
This year's festival line up — and tag line — platforms an expansive array of
personalities who identify with these conditions. “As awareness of mental illness
and addiction moves into the mainstream, the old normal/crazy divide
is breaking down,” says Matthew Hogue, Programming Manager of
RWM. “With more people talking openly about their mental
health, we’re beginning to understand how broadly mental illness manifests itself.
We’re seeing a difference of degrees between normal and mentally ill, one that
would have been unthinkable to most people a few years ago.”
To date, the Rendezvous with Madness Film Festival
has confirmed the following for its 2010 programming:
My Suicide
(USA 2009, 111 minutes)
Director – David Lee-Miller
Producers – Polly Anthony, Dr. Karen Dean Fritts, Alana Henry, Jimmy Iovine,
Michael McDonough, Julia Pistor, Karyn Rachtman, Harold Ramis, Steven Jay Rubin
Awards: Crystal Bear, Berlin International Film Festival; Golden Gryphon,
Giffoni Film Festival; Futurewave Youth Jury Award, Seattle International Film
Festival
Archie Williams (Gabriel Sunday) is a 17-year old media geek who has suddenly
found himself the most talked-about kid in school. He has announced that he's
going to kill himself - on camera - for a class project. His classmates, parents,
Sierra - the most beautiful girl in school (Brooke Nevin), and a "Shady
Bunch" of shrinks, doctors, pill-pushers, and counselors descend on Archie.
Some are hoping to save him, some want to imitate him, others try to push him
over the brink. Archie films every moment of his high school experience, hiding
nothing from his audience: realities of life, death, violence, sex, drugs, and
the intense media overload and hypocrisy that bombard all teenagers.
Mind of the Demon: The Larry Linkogle Story
(USA 2009, 62 minutes)
Director – Adam Barker
Producers – Adam Barker, Hans Molenkamp, Heather Santora
Canadian Premiere
Mind of the Demon, the Larry Linkogle Story is a brutally honest
look into the life and mind of one of the most out-spoken, forward thinking,
visionaries ever to come out of pro sports. Larry Linkogle is a world-record
holding dirt-bike legend whose off-the-cuff antics and aggressive “never sell
out” attitude was the spark that ignited the entire freestyle motocross revolution. But
as the new sport took off beyond expectations, so did Larry’s battle with his
inner demons.
Narrated by Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister and featuring interviews with every
top name in motocross, Mind of the Demon is a thrilling recreation of
the rise of freestyle motocross and a heart-wrenching account of the demise of
the sport’s most infamous legend. As the two stories intertwine the film
throttles towards one of only two possible conclusions: one of the most unlikely
comeback stories of all time, or a nose-dive into a black hole of self-destruction.
Crooked Beauty
(USA 2010, 34 minutes)
Director – Ken Paul Rosenthal
Producer – Angel Vasquez
Canadian Premiere
Crooked Beauty is a poetic documentary that chronicles artist-activist
Jacks MacNamara’s transformative journey from childhood abuse to psych ward patient
to pioneering mental health advocate. It is an intimate portrait of her intense
personal quest to live with courage and dignity, and a powerful critique of standard
psychiatric treatments. Poignant testimonials connect the fissures and
fault lines of human nature to the unstoppable topography and mercurial weather
patterns of the San Francisco Bay area. Crooked Beauty reshapes
mental health stigmas through a new healing culture and political model for living
with madness as a tool of creativity, inspiration and hope.
Ryan
(Canada 2004, 14 minutes)
Director – Chris Landreth
Producer – Jed Decory, Karyn Nolan, Noah Segal, David Verrall
Awards – Academy Award, Best Short Film Animated; Kodak Short Film Award,
Cannes Film Festival; Genie Award, Best Animated Short Film
One of the pioneers of Canadian Animation. Academy Award nominee. Poor
beggar. An artist unable to create. God observing the world. Fallen
angel. Arrogant. Shy. Broken. Not destroyed. In Ryan,
we hear the voice of Ryan Larkin and people who have known him, but these voices
speak through strange, twisted, broken and disembodied 3-D generated characters…
People whose appearances are bizarre, humourous and disturbing. These appearances
reflect director Chris Landreth’s personal world of “psychological realism.”
General admission tickets ($10) and festival passes are available at the door
and in advance online at www.rendezvouswithmadness.com. Tickets
for opening night, group sales, youth and children’s programs can be purchased
by calling 416.583.4339.
RWM is produced by Workman Arts (WA). Workman Arts facilitates
aspiring, emerging and established artists with mental illness and addiction
issues to develop and refine their art form through its arts training programs,
public performances/exhibit opportunities and partnering with other art organizations.
As well, Workman Arts promotes a greater understanding of mental illness and
addiction through the creation, presentation and discussion of artistic media.
About the Rendezvous with Madness Film Festival
The Rendezvous with Madness Film Festival explores cinematic representations
of mental health and addiction. Film and video programs are followed by
post-screening panel discussions with people who receive mental health and addiction
services, as well as writers, directors, actors, health care professionals and
academics.
Please add this information to your listings. Images are available upon
request. We are presently confirming interviews. For more information
please visit: www.rendezvouswithmadness.com |
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