ะึรรยายื

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ะึรรยายื University
Film Festival

The ะึรรยายื University Film Festival, presented by TD Insurance and in partnership with the ะึรรยายื Alumni Association, is back for a third year to celebrate story-telling and filmmakers. Running from April 30 – May 2, 2024, the program includes three nights of screenings, showcasing documentary films by our alumni, an alumni panel, and a celebration films made by current ะึรรยายื students.ฬ

Purple circular design and text that reads ะึรรยายื University Film Festival

2024 Program

SHORTS

asinnajaq film fest

Three Thousand

asinnajaq weetaluktuk (BFA 2015)โ€ฏโ€ฏ,ฬ14 minutes.โ€ฏ

sam decoste film fest

Mary & Myself

Sam Decoste (MFA 2015)โ€ฏ,ฬ6 minutes.โ€ฏ

Flawed

Andrea Dorfman (BFA 1995)โ€ฏ, 12 minutes. โ€ฏ

Avenuers

Roberto Santaguida (MFA 2011)โ€ฏ, 27 minutes.โ€ฏ

feature

Spring and Arnaud still

Spring and Arnaud

Katherine Knight (BFA 1980) & Marcia Conolly (BFA 1995), 1ณ๓05ณพพฑฒิโ€ฏ

Art, love and mortality intertwine in this portrait of Canadian Artists Spring Hurlbut and Arnaud Maggs.

Arnaud Maggs, turning 85, embarks on a series of self- portraits that wryly depict his lifeโ€™s work. Spring Hurlbut, at 60 is creating haunting works that evoke mortality while harboring the certainty that Arnaudโ€™s time is limited. Together and alone, each grapples with the nature of an artistโ€™s creativity where the drive for invention and discovery resists lifeโ€™s finite reality.

Co-Director and Producer: Katherine Knight Co-Director, Cinematographer, Producer: Marcia Connolly Producer: David Craig Cinematographer, Visual Designer and Editor: Jared Raab Composers: Justin Small and Ohad Benchetrit

Funded by the Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts and the Toronto Arts Council

TOP TEN AUDIENCE FAVORITE, HOT DOCS 2013

GOLDEN HARE AWARD, FILMS ON ART PORTUGAL 2016

Screening follows with Q&A with Katherine Knight (BFA 1980) & Marcia Conolly (BFA 1995).ฬ

TOTAL RUNTIME: 2h4minโ€ฏฬ

SHORT

Annie Pootoogook

Annie Pootoogook

23:50 minutes, Colour

Producer:โ€ฏKatherine Knightฬ(BFA 1980)
Director:โ€ฏMarcia Connollyฬ(BFA 1995)
Producer:โ€ฏDavid Craig (BFA 1977)

Annie ฑสดวดวณูดวดวฒตดวดวฐ์โ€™s artwork and individual creative process of making and doing are the core of this intimate film. Images of her drawings anchor the film in her art. The transitions, challenges and risks of her life are reflected in her drawings. The shamans, myths and land-based adventures prevalent in the last generationโ€™s prints and drawings are less evident. Annie drawings depict today. Local and global collide in her images: a seal hunt on TV; a video play station dominates a sparsely furnished room, walrus meat is eaten on the floor with a modern kitchen visible in the background.

“Marcia Connolly has created an extraordinary documentary on Annie Pootoogook’s work and life. Her camera has found a beautiful way of implicating itself into Pootoogook’s community in Cape Dorset, creating an intimacy and sense of spiritual kinship which is profoundly touching and rare. This is one of the finest portraits of an artist I have ever seen.”Atom Egoyan

feature

The War Room

1h36min, Colour

Director: Chris Hegedus (BFA 1973)

The 1992 presidential election was a triumph not only for Bill Clinton but also for the new breed of strategists who guided him to the White Houseโ€”and changed the face of politics in the process. For this thrilling, behind-closed-doors account of that campaign, renowned cinema veritรฉ filmmakers Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebaker captured the brainstorming and bull sessions of Clintonโ€™s crack team of consultantsโ€”especially James Carville and George Stephanopoulos, who became media stars in their own right as they injected a savvy, youthful spirit and spontaneity into the process of campaigning. Fleet-footed and entertaining,ฬThe War Roomฬis a vivid document of a political moment whose truths (โ€œItโ€™s the economy, stupid!โ€) still ring in our ears.

TOTAL RUNTIME:ฬ1h59ฬ

Related events

Alumni Panels, May 1

1 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. – Talk with a special guest and Chris Hegedus (BFA 1973) moderated by Stephen Reynolds (BFA 1984).ฬฬ

3 p.m. – Alumni film panel moderated by Darrell Varga, with Katherine Knight (BFA 1980) Heather Young (BFA 2009), Marcia Connolly (BFA 1995).ฬฬ

Alumni panels

Bell Auditorium, Fountain Campus
ะึรรยายื, 5163 Duke St., Halifax NS

1 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. – Talk with a special guest and Chris Hegedus (BFA 1973) moderated by Stephen Reynolds (BFA 1984).ฬฬ

Chris Heegedus

Chris Hegedus (BFA 1973)

Chris Hegedus has been making films as a director, cinematographer, and editor for nearly 40 years. She and her husband, filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker, founded the company Pennebaker Hegedus Films. In 2001, she was awarded the prestigious Directors Guild of America Award for , an intimate buddy story filmed during the first Internet boom/bust. She was nominated for an Academy Award for , a behind-the-scenes look at Bill Clintonโ€™s 1992 presidential campaign. She taught filmmaking at Yale for eight years and received their Film Studies Award. In 2016 she directed the film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival was nominated for an Emmy Award. At ะึรรยายื Chris studied photography and experimental filmmaking.

3 p.m. – Alumni film panel moderated by Darrell Varga, with Katherine Knight (BFA 1980) Heather Young (BFA 2009), Marcia Connolly (BFA 1995).ฬฬ

Marcia Connolly
Marcia Connolly
Kathryn Knight
Kathryn Knight
Heather Young
Heather Young
solar somwhere real still

Somewhere real

Kate Solar

Anwar Anna Abi Daoud

Anwar

Anna Abi Daoud

Thirsty still Robicahud

Thirsty?ฬ

Myles Robichaud

Lost Thread

Jack Sanders

SYLAฬ

Arin Rains

lawrence pan syrinx

Pan & Syrinx

a. laurel lawrence

Cycles

Mitchell Webber

placeholder

Mika

Esly Tan

Grace Whiffen still film

Not My Children

Grace Whiffen

Eye piece

Kate Solar

Deirdre annie film still

Annie, Are You OK?ฬ

Deirdre Sokolowskaฬ

Curators

Liz Cowie

Liz Cowie (BFA 2000)

Liz Cowie was part of the inaugural VBT.tv team, which preceded vice.com,โ€ฏworking closely with Vice founders Suroosh Alvi and Shane Smith, along with Director Spike Jonze and DP Lance Bangs producing various television and digital documentary series, music videos, advertising campaigns, commercials, and larger, feature length projects. Cowie becameโ€ฏSenior Manager of Development & Alternative Programming at VICE TV. Sheโ€ฏdeveloped and oversaw a variety of original series for the network such asโ€ฏThe Devil You Know,โ€ฏBetraying the Badge,โ€ฏDevoured, and the Emmy-nominated series,โ€ฏFringe Nation.โ€ฏ She now works with NFB as a Producer, for the Quebec & Atlantic Studio.

Ray Charabaty (BFA 2016)

Raghed (Ray) Charabaty is a filmmaker based in Toronto. Rayโ€™s films have won at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival): Canadaโ€™s Top Ten, Festival du Nouveau Cinema and the Starfish Awards. Ray is an alumnus of the CFC Director's Lab 2023 (Canadian Film Centre). Ray holds an MFA in Film from York University (2019) and a BFA with a minor in Art History from ะึรรยายื U. Charabaty is a two-time fellow of the Netflix-Banff Pitch Program, as well as the BIPOC TV & Film x Warner Bros: Episodic Drama Writers Lab 2022.

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Producer
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John Kahrs is an Academy Awardยฎ-winning and . Originally from upstate New York, John began his professional career in animation as one of the first employees of . In 1997, he joined Pixar as an animator on , Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., , and , among others. In 2007, shortly after Disneyโ€™s acquisition of Pixar, John relocated to Southern California and became part of the revitalization of Disney Feature Animation. John supervised the animation on Disneyโ€™s 2013 hit Tangled. He went on to direct the technologically ground-breaking and acclaimed short film Paperman, which won the in 2013. He now independently develops and directs animated projects.