The Toronto International Film Festival has announced this year’s Wavelengths and Classics sidebars, the former section known for its politically charged, geographically diverse fare with a wide range of work drawn from the worlds of documentary, contemporary art, and international art-house cinema.
Wavelengths this year counts 12 feature films and 19 shorts, as well as a suite of four restored early films by the singular Chantal Akerman.
Of note in the Wavelengths short section, North American audiences will finally get to see Jean-Luc Godard‘s swan song short, Trailer of the Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars, which played Cannes this past spring.
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Another highlight in the Classics sidebar is the 4K uncut restoration of Chen Kaige’s Farewell My Concubine, the only movie from China to win the Palme d’Or. The original film had 20 minutes cut by then Miramax Boss Harvey Weinstein much to the chagrin of jury president Louis Malle who later criticized it. The pic runs 171-minutes and will be released by Film Movement Classics on Sept. 22 in NYC at the Film Forum. The extended version also has remastered sound.
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“Wavelengths is a testament to the range of cinema celebrated at TIFF,” stated Anita Lee, Chief Programming Officer, TIFF. “It is also evidence that artist-driven experimental films are thriving and growing a new generation of cinephiles.”
“The increasing necessity to support artists willing to take risks, break rules, and challenge the status quo especially in our over-saturated media landscape — bears repeating,” said Andréa Picard, Senior Curator, TIFF.
“Wavelengths continues to be a celebration of subversion, personal expression, and the vast, inexhaustible capabilities of cinema to enlighten, inspire, awe, resist, disrupt, and propose new ways of seeing and being in the world. With this lineup, we hope to demonstrate how Michael Snow’s legacy of mischief making and formal acumen clearly lives on.”
Highlights of the sidebar include the World Premiere of He Thought He Died, from Canadian artist and filmmaker Isiah Medina, who returns to the Festival with an experimental, deconstructed take on the heist film.
Also returning is luminary filmmaker Angela Schanelec with Music, a retelling of the Oedipus myth set between contemporary Greece and Germany; and Denis Côté with Mademoiselle Kenopsia, the latest in the filmmaker’s rich creative collaboration with the talented actor Larissa Corriveau.
Wavelengths also has many fiction debuts, including Rosine Mbakam’s Mambar Pierrette, a portrait of a Cameroonian seamstress that builds upon the filmmaker’s documentary background. Also featured is Phạm Thiên Ân’s contemplative Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell, winner of the Caméra d’Or at this year’s Cannes.
Non-fiction works include Youth (Spring), the latest from filmmaker Wang Bing, which was also at Cannes, shot over several years in a Zhili textile factory, to personal essay films from Miko Revereza (Nowhere Near) and Brazilian auteur Kleber Mendonça Filho (Pictures of Ghosts), as well as Paul B. Preciado’s award-winning Orlando, My Political Biography, a take on Virginia Woolf’s classic novel which is a celebration of trans life, past and present.
Short film highlights include World Premieres from filmmakers Jorge Jácome, Philipp Fleischmann, Joshua
Gen Solondz, Steve Reinke, Shambhavi Kaul, Simon Liu, Tomonari Nishikawa, and Erica Sheu, as well as
new works from Rose Lowder, Maryam Tafakory, Ja’Tovia Gary, Viktoria Schmid, Blake Williams, Pedro
Costa, and Jean-Luc Godard.
Wavelengths is curated by Senior TIFF curator Andréa Picard and Jesse Cumming, who this year is taking on the new role of Associate Curator. The programme also includes feature film contributions from members of TIFF’s international programming team — namely Giovanna Fulvi, June Kim, Dorota Lech, Jason Anderson, and Norm Wilner.
The Wavelengths programme is named after Michael Snow’s 1967 film Wavelength, and draws
continued inspiration from the artist’s boundless exploration, experimentation, and innovation across media.
TIFF honored and celebrated Snow earlier this year at TIFF Bell Lightbox, after his passing in January at the age of 94, and the 2023 Wavelengths programme is dedicated to his memory.
Canadian producer-director Brigitte Berman’s Oscar-winning feature documentary Artie Shaw: Time Is All
You’ve Got (1985) — portraying the life of the restless and gifted clarinettist and bandleader — returns to the screen in a World Premiere presentation. Confined to decades of oblivion and newly made available is Jacques Rivette’s legendary New Wave film, L’amour fou (1969), whose original celluloid elements were damaged in a fire. A special 50th anniversary screening of Touki Bouki (1973), from Sengalese luminary Djibril Diop Mambéty, will include a panel discussion moderated by Tambay A. Obenson, Akoroko Founder and CEO, with special guests. Rounding out the programme is Ousmane Sembène’s Xala (1975), presented in 4K, a satire of patriarchy and class in post-independence Senegal. Classics is curated by Robyn Citizen, Director of Programming and Platform Lead, with contributions from Andréa Picard.
2023 Wavelengths programme:
WAVELENGTHS FEATURES
Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World Radu Jude | Romania/Luxembourg/France/Croatia
North American Premiere
Here Bas Devos | Belgium
North American Premiere
The Human Surge 3 Eduardo Williams | Argentina/Portugal/Brazil/Netherlands/Taiwan/Hong Kong/Sri
Lanka/Peru
North American Premiere
Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell Phạm Thiên Ân | Vietnam/Singapore/France/Spain
North American Premiere
Mademoiselle Kenopsia Denis Côté | Canada
North American Premiere
Mambar Pierrette Rosine Mbakam | Belgium/Cameroon
North American Premiere
Music Angela Schanelec | Germany/France/Serbia
North American Premiere
Luminaries
Nowhere Near Miko Revereza | Philippines
North American Premiere
Orlando, My Political Biography Paul B. Preciado | France
Canadian Premiere
Pictures of Ghosts Kleber Mendonça Filho | Brazil
North American Premiere
Youth (Spring) Wang Bing | France/Luxembourg/Netherlands
North American Premiere
Luminaries
WAVELENGTHS PAIRINGS
He Thought He Died Isiah Medina | Canada
World Premiere
preceded by Laberint Sequences Blake Williams | Canada
North American Premiere
WAVELENGTHS SHORTS
Wavelengths 1: Quiet as It’s Kept Borrowing its title from Ja’Tovia Gary’s latest film, this programme invites and encourages alternate modes of seeing ― through queer abstraction, repurposed fragments, and imagined memories ― as well as new forms of listening: to others, to ourselves, and to the natural world.
Bouquets 31-40 Rose Lowder | France
Canadian Premiere
Film Sculpture (1) Philipp Fleischmann | Austria
World Premiere
Film Sculpture (2) Philipp Fleischmann | Austria
World Premiere
Film Sculpture (4) Philipp Fleischmann | Austria
World Premiere
Film Sculpture (3) Philipp Fleischmann | Austria
World Premiere
It follows It passes on Erica Sheu | Taiwan/USA
World Premiere
Mast-del Maryam Tafakory | United Kingdom/Iran
North American Premiere
Shrooms Jorge Jácome | Portugal
World Premiere
Quiet as It’s Kept Ja’Tovia Gary | USA
International Premiere
Wavelengths 2: Sundown
With sensory delights, overloads, and mysteries, this programme probes the hallucinatory underpinnings of the world around us and its layered, incongruous temporalities.
Let’s Talk Simon Liu | Hong Kong
World Premiere
Light, Noise, Smoke, and Light, Noise, Smoke Tomonari Nishikawa | Japan
World Premiere
NYC RGB Viktoria Schmid | Austria/USA
Canadian Premiere
Slow Shift Shambhavi Kaul | India/USA
World Premiere
Sundown Steve Reinke | USA/Canada/Austria
World Premiere
We Don’t Talk Like We Used To Joshua Gen Solondz | USA/Japan/Hong Kong
World Premiere
Wavelengths 3: Outlines – Akerman/Costa/Godard
Bookended by a recently discovered and restored suite of Chantal Akerman’s first cinema forays and the legendary Jean-Luc Godard’s final testament, alongside the latest mesmerizing film by Pedro Costa, this special programme pays tribute to a trio of iconic artists and their intoxicating, enticing approach to sketches and outlines as a means of expression.
Chantal Akerman: Her First Look Behind the Camera Chantal Akerman | Belgium
North American Premiere
The Daughters of Fire Pedro Costa | Portugal
North American Premiere
Trailer of the Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars Jean-Luc Godard | France/Switzerland
North American Premiere
2023 Classics programme:
TIFF Classics is cinematic legacy celebrating luminary auteurs, filmmakers, and cinematographers for the
novice filmgoer and cinephiles alike.
Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got Brigitte Berman | Canada
Farewell My Concubine Chen Kaige | China/Hong Kong
L’amour fou Jacques Rivette | France
Touki Bouki Djibril Diop Mambéty | Senegal
Xala Ousmane Sembène | Senegal