Rendezvous With madness Film Festival

18TH ANNUAL RENDEZVOUS WITH MADNESS FILM FESTIVAL
Cinematic Perspectives of Mental Illness and Addiction
The Film Festival With PERSONALITY*
November 5 - 13, 2010
http://www.rendezvouswithmadness.com

ANNOUNCING
Workman Arts Presents: Focus On Canadian Artists

When:  Thursday, November 11th
Time:  Doors open at 6:00 p.m.
What:  The Evolution of Inanimate Objects, $5, 6:30 p.m.
+
À l’origine d’un cri (Crying Out), $10, 8:45 p.m. 

The 18th Annual Rendezvous with Madness Film Festival (RWM) presented by Workman Arts announces Focus on Canadian Artists Thursday, November 11th beginning at 6:00 p.m. The evening will commence with The Evolution of Inanimate Objects, a multimedia literary event, from 6:30 p.m. The event will feature a daring dialogue about science, psychiatry and the family between authors Dr. Harry Karlinsky and Guy Gavriel Kay set against stunning archival imagery. Following the talk, the Canadian film À L’origine d’un cri (Crying Out) by Robin Aubert will be screened at 8:45 p.m.

The Evolution of Inanimate Objects:
In association with This Is Not a Reading Series and Friends of the Archives, RWM presents authors Karlinsky and Kay in a surreal setting of moving and static images projected on walls, scrims and screens from historic psychiatric institutions. There, they will discuss sly and ironic questions around science, academia and fathers and sons engendered from Karlinsky’s widely acclaimed novel The Evolution of Inanimate Objects: The Life and Collected Works of Thomas Darwin (1857-1879).

Did Charles Darwin’s youngest son Thomas end his days in a London, Ontario asylum? If so, did his evolutionary theories around knives, forks and spoons die with him? Hailed as “an incredible work of the imagination,” by Man Game author Lee Henderson, and called “a radical novel” by literary legend George Fetherling, Dr. Karlinsky’s work has been dubbed “compelling” by historian Dr. Keith Benson, “satirical” by Dr. Paul Potter (University of Western Ontario) and “wonderfully imagined… a romp, a mine of information and a refined pleasure,” by Dr. Vivian Rakoff,(Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto).

Harry Karlinsky is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at University of British Columbia. He is the founding and on-going Director of the award-winning Frames of Mind Mental Health Film Series and writes film reviews, many for the Canadian Psychiatric Association’s publication Canadian Psychiatry Aujourd’hui. He has written extensively on Alzheimer’s disease, psychiatry and information technology and educational applications of films in mental health. He obtained his MD from University of Manitoba, his specialty degree in Geriatric Psychiatry from University of Toronto and his Masters in Neuroscience degree from University of London, England.

Multi-award winning author Guy Gavriel Kay has published eleven novels and a book of poetry. He has written social and political commentary for the UK Guardian and the Globe and Mail. China’s Tang Dynasty inspired Under Heaven, his latest novel.

À l’origine d’un cri (Crying Out)
Robin Aubert, Canada, 2010, 115 Minutes, French w. English subtitles

Crying Out revolves around three generations of men in a highly dysfunctional family where pain, loathing, trauma and alcohol abuse dovetail with demons and ghosts in Quebecer Robin Aubert’s compelling but disturbing family drama spiced with twisted black humour. When a distraught widower Le Pere (Michel Barrette), in a fit of booze-fueled madness, can’t release his young second wife, he digs up her corpse from the cemetery for one last road trip together in his old car. The family sends his troubled son Le Fils (Patrick Hivon) and wily curmudgeonly father Le Grand-Pere (amazing veteran actor Jean Lapointe) to find and retrieve him. All three men have serious issues personally and with each other and all three drink to ludicrous excess to avoid dealing with them. It takes a while to cut through some macabre antics and care about these extreme characters but when you do, they truly have their redemption. Crying Out has creepy moments but also touching ones. Taut performances from the three male actors keep the melodrama from going over a horrific edge. Aubert has infused his lead characters with a melange of attractive and irritating traits. Like real human beings they are deeply flawed, but also deeply lovable.

TINARS
This Is Not A Reading Series (TINARS) investigates the creative process behind literary works. Employing music, comedy, psychodrama, dance, multimedia performance, lectures, dialogue—everything but reading—TINARS offers a ground-breaking theatrical dimension to the appreciation of fine writing. http://www.tinars.ca

CAMH Friends of the Archives
The “Friends of the Archives” is a separately incorporated volunteer organization, linked to CAMH’s Volunteer Services Department as well as to the Archives. It was formed two decades ago (originally called the Museum of Mental Health Services Inc.) to support the emerging archival and heritage programs at the Queen Street Site. Since the 1998 merger, the Friends have broadened their focus to support archival and historical activities for both mental health and addiction services, encompassing all four CAMH sites. http://www.camh.net/About_CAMH/Guide_to_CAMH/Information_Services/guide_friend_archives.html

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.

General admission tickets ($10) and festival passes are available at the door and in advance online at http://www.rendezvouswithmadness.com. Tickets for opening night, group sales, youth and children’s programs can be purchased by calling 416.583.4339.