Depth of Field: Excerpts from Recent York MFA Thesis Films

DEPTH OF FIELD
Excerpts from recent York MFA Thesis Films
Red Bicyle (Fiction)
Fazila Amiri
Mahal, a young Afghan woman is arrested on the charge of a “moral crime”, losing her virginity before marriage. After she finds a red bicycle, she plots out a daring escape from women’s prison.

El Mundo o Nada (Documentary)
Ingrid Veninger
A portrait of 29-year-old Cuban twin brothers, Rubert and Rubildo, after their recent migration to Barcelona; this documentary explores the emotional cost of big ambitions, the intimate bonds of sibling love, and the challenges of building a new life.

Our House (Fiction)
Susan Bayani
A socio-political drama about Anahita, an Iranian refugee in Toronto, who runs into the man who brutally murdered her parents in Tehran years ago.

Revolution Moosehide (Documentary)
Lesley Johnson
In Dene culture, the newly created earth was made beautiful by a moosehide. Revolution Moosehide follows Melaw Nakehk’o’s journey of cultural resurgence by learning the practice of moosehide tanning, inspiring a revitalization movement across Denendeh and beyond.

End of the Rope (Fiction)
Sibel Guvenic
After being crippled by a car accident, a former dancer enters a power struggle with an exploitative scientist who promises her creative freedom in an altered reality with his invention.

Aqui y Alla (Documentary)
Lina Rodriguez
A poetic reflection on family as an emotional system that operates across generations, Aquí y allá juxtaposes colour 16mm, B&W mini-DV footage, and photos from my family’s archive to meditate on the passing of time, the possibilities of remembering, and the construction of space as an ongoing historical and subjective process.

Of Sand and Gold (Documentary)
Raghed Charabaty
A mother and her children live in a small house in Mount Lebanon. One day, a terrifying sandstorm called the Khamseen arrives and destroys the house and all of its inhabitants, children and visitors alike. ‘Of Sand & Gold’ weaves together a timeless myth in parallel with real interviews with Syrian, Iraqi, and Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon today, alongside displaced Lebanese families.

Birthday (Fiction)
Atefeh Khademolreza
‘Birthday’ concerns three new immigrants to Toronto (a Serbian divorcee, a Syrian boy, and an Afghani dishwasher), connected only through a series of soft-wipe split-screens. At first, they appear to form a single family as they prepare for a birthday celebration. As the story unfolds, we realize that the only thing connecting them together is the thread of loneliness.

December 3, 2019
7.30PM (doors open 7.00PM)
Art Gallery of Ontario: Jackman Hall
317 Dundas Street. Entrance at McCaul Street.
Free admission