Rites of Passage

As part of the Champ libre series, we invited Pablo Alvarez Mesa to create a program around his film Infinite Distances. He selected works by Parastoo Anoushahpour, Faraz Anoushahpour, Ryan Ferko, Melanie Shatzky and Brian M. Cassidy.

Animals Under Anaesthesia: Speculations on the Dreamlife of Beasts

Brian M. Cassidy, Melanie Shatzky | 2016 | Canada | 14 min | no dialogue

Part lyrical document, part farce, Animals Under Anaesthesia: Speculations On the Dreamlife of Beasts explores the imaginary unconscious minds of animals. Images of sex, death and the natural world are made manifest in the murky and disquieting dreams of a dog, a cat, a pig and a rabbit.

Infinite Distances

Pablo Alvarez Mesa | 2022 | Canada | 24 min | English

Found answering machine recordings bring voices longing for a receiver into the realm of the theater, offering hope for connection through a collective experience.

Surface Rites

Parastoo Anoushahpour, Faraz Anoushahpour, Ryan Ferko | 2021 | Canada | 24 min | English

A young Slovakian immigrant opens a uranium mine near Elliot Lake in northern Ontario, and later builds a massive replica of the modest church from his childhood village. Stranded amongst suburban streets named after prize-winning Holstein cows, now sits this monumental cathedral, unfinished and private. Teenage zombies emerge from lakes and rivers around Serpent River First Nation, once poisoned with uranium waste. There is talk of eugenics at a Holstein pageant, and a retired dairy farmer and his wife remember a recurring dream where their work is never done.