The 24th RENDEZVOUS WITH MADNESS Film Festival returns November 4-12, 2016 with its boldest, most eclectic and provocative programming yet. Canada’s original festival devoted to movies about mental health and recovery will venture onto the new frontier of public awareness toward the mysteries of the human mind – offering audiences an opportunity to watch films inspired by recovery and engage in dialogue with filmmakers, professionals and people with lived experience. Literally, the mind reels. Themes, Subjects, Issues examined in feature and short films include: LGBTQ, Gender, Human Rights, Advocacy, Alienation, Sexuality, Recovery, Trauma, Depression, Family, Gaming, True Crime, Institutional Life, Treatment, Child and Youth, Anxiety, Dementia, Autism, Relationships, Intergenerational Trauma, Filmmaking, Art, Artists, Psychotherapy, Psychiatry, Alcoholism and oh-so many more!!!

For LGBT viewers, this year’s Rendezvous sees no less than three films (The Battle With Satan, I, Olga Hepnarova and Sick) which feature subjects and characters who are institutionalized, exorcised or treated as “ill” because of their sexualities.

Feature Film Highlights Include: • The Toronto Premiere of Joey Klein’s first feature SXSW hit The Other Half is with Tatiana (Orphan Black) Maslany and Tom (Downton Abbey) Cullen, slugging it out against the backdrop of those all-too-familiar love-couple Walpurgisnachts of baggage purging. • The Toronto Premiere of I, Olga Hepnarova, the sexy, scary and heartbreaking dramatic depiction (in gorgeous monochrome and astonishing period detail, no less) of Czechoslovakia’s last recipient of capital punishment during the repression of the post-Dubcek thaw and her slow-burn descent into murderous madness: gunning a big ole’ semi down a crowded Prague sidewalk. • The World Premiere of Steve Sanguedolce’s Land of Not Knowing, the courageous experimental documentary focusing on how the role suicide (and recurring thoughts thereof) has played into the lives and creative work of artists. • The North American Premiere of Konrad Szolajski’s The Battle With Satan, a documentary focusing on the winning combination of the Polish Roman Catholic Church addressing extreme mental health issues amongst teenage girls via – you guessed it – exorcism. • The Canadian Premiere of Wild by Nicollete Krebitz which offers the perverse dramatic equation of Babe Office Drone (Lilith Stangenberg) + Wolf (we kid you not) = Sparks-a-flying like they’ve seldom flown before. A staggering portrait of social disenfranchisement leading to something darker and more disturbing.

“Cool” is the operative word in this 24th edition of RENDEZVOUS WITH MADNESS! Other Cooler than-cool MADNESS features include: • Wizard Mode (pinball meets autism) • 4 Kings (a Christmas Story in psychiatric juvie) • A Family Affair (a nonagenarian granny’s deepest, darkest secrets plumbed) • Ken Foster (schizophrenic crack addict creates art on Vancouver’s mean streets) • The Spiderweb House (childhood fantasies morph into the decidedly sinister) • The Business of Recovery (when profits are at stake, why eliminate addiction?) • My Name is Emily (normal is relative and relatives are never normal) • Krisha (Thanksgiving forgiveness proves elusive) • Liberation: The User’s Guide (Siberian asylum impedes orphans’ mental health) • The World on a Couch (unorthodox psychiatric practices offer healing) • A Very Ordinary Citizen (selective dementia evolves into the deeply sinister) • Sick (to be young and gay in Croatia is to be deemed mentally ill) • Screenagers (the sinister domination of smartphones in the lives of teens)

VENUES: Revue Cinema, Art Gallery of Ontario, Workman Arts Theatre TICKETS: NOW ON SALE PRICES For Film Programs: $12/general (limited pay what you can tickets at the door only for those on fixed incomes) $15 opening night film / $35 with pre-film reception

FULL DAY-BY-DAY SCHEDULE of films/events.

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About the Author

Bryen Dunn is a freelance journalist with a focus on travel, lifestyle, entertainment, and hospitality. He has an extensive portfolio of celebrity interviews with musicians, actors, and other public personalities. He enjoys discovering delicious eats, tasting spirited treats, and being mesmerized by musical beats. Reach out - bryen@thebuzzmag.ca