For Viola: Centering BIPOC-led stories and filmmakers, named in honour of Canadian civil rights icon Viola Desmond.
In 2008 a Black teenager died under mysterious circumstances in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Cette maison—the stirring debut feature from Miryam Charles, an experimental Montreal filmmaker of Haitian descent—excavates this tragedy by way of a voyage through time and space. Less a true crime analysis of the past as much as a speculative version of the present and future, the film proposes dreamlike episodes of an impossible adulthood, with actors playing Tessa (Schelby Jean-Baptiste) and her bereaved mother (Florence Blain Mbaye). Shot on lush 16mm with an innovative and ambitious blend of documentary, essay and narrative, the film’s indelible flow moves between Haiti, Montreal and New England, as well as liminal non-spaces filmed on a soundstage, with an imagined present and future eventually blurring with the filmmaker’s personal memories. Enigmatic and exploratory, but never uncoupled from a very real emotional core, Charles’s film not only confronts grief and loss head-on, but actively travels through it. Jesse Cumming, Hot Docs
In Haitian and French, with English subtitles.
Join director Miryam Charles for a special post-screening discussion.
Miryam Charles is a Canadian director of Haitian origin. Her films have been showcased in festivals worldwide. In 2022, her first feature film, Cette maison premiered at the Berlinale and was named one of the best films of that year by Sight and Sound. She is working on her next feature film.
TICKETS
General: FREE
Members: FREE
While this screening is presented free of charge, please consider a donation of $10 in recognition of the value of the work presented, and in honour of Viola Desmond, featured on the $10 banknote, at checkout. Half the proceeds will be shared directly with the filmmakers, who also receive screening fees.
For Viola: Hot Docs' screening series centering Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC)-led stories and filmmakers, named in honour of Canadian civil rights icon Viola Desmond. This series seeks to affirm Hot Docs as a space of inclusion for BIPOC creators and audience members alike. In order to minimize barriers to audience participation, all screenings in this series are free of charge.
For Viola is supported by
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