Year: 2022

Wednesday, December 14, 2022
Every year in France, close to 100,000 people are placed under psychiatric care without their consent. In an attempt to find a better balance between the protection of patient’s rights and the need for treatment, a new mental health law was enacted there in 2013 whereby all patients involuntarily admitted to a psychiatric hospital must appear before a judge within 12 days. Informed by medical records and a doctor’s recommendations, the judge conducts these interviews within the hospital itself, meeting face to face with patients who plead their cases with varying degrees of desperation and lucidity. Given full access to film these encounters for the first time, legendary filmmaker and photographer Raymond Depardon trains his empathetic lens on the place where psychiatry and justice meet, giving a voice to those who have gone unheard. Post-screening discussion with Dr. Ken Chow, Doug LePard, David Mossop, and Dale Pope.

Wednesday, November 16, 2022 7:00pm
The debut feature of Australian filmmaker Jessica M. Thompson, who now lives in Los Angeles, is a raw and revelatory film about the aftermath of a sexual assault, told entirely from the victim’s perspective. Bonnie (Stephanie Beatriz), a young architect in Brooklyn, is raped by a stranger while walking home alone one night. Post-screening discussion with Parisa Jahan and Ariana Barer.

Wednesday, October 19, 2022 7:00 pm
A box-office hit in Israel, this tender and humanistic film audaciously walks the finest of lines between comedy and tragedy. In a Jerusalem retirement home, 75-year-old amateur inventor Yehezkel (Ze’ev Revach) is building a machine for self-euthanasia at the request of his dear friend Max, who is suffering greatly from an incurable illness. Helping him are Max’s wife Yana and two other retirement-home residents: a former veterinarian (who supplies the drugs) and a retired police chief (who provides the intel to help them get away with this illegal task). Though Max gets his wish, word leaks out and soon the group is besieged with requests for similar help, engendering moral dilemmas that worsen when one of their own faces a health crisis. Post-screening discussion with Dr. Randall F. White and Dr. Boris Henriquez. Co-sponsored by The Vancouver Jewish Film Festival and the Western Canada District Branch of the American Psychiatric Association

Wednesday, September 21, 2022 – 7:00pm
Sweden/Denmark/USA/Germany 2018. Dir: Marcus Lindeen. 97 min. DCP
The top-prize winner at Copenhagen’s CPH:DOX in 2018, Marcus Lindeen’s engrossing documentary recounts the baffling 1973 Acali Experiment, in which 11 perfect strangers drifted across the Atlantic on a cramped, motorless raft as part of a ​“scientific” study on the origins of violence and aggression. Post-screening discussion with Dr. Jennifer Gibson and Dr. William H. McKellin.

Along with a year-long retrospective of our best films of the last ten years (currently playing at The Cinematheque), we’ve organized this special Sunday August 14^th celebration to mark our twentieth year – all offered completely free of charge. We hope you can join us. Complimentary reception and live entertainment! – Performers will include Sarah Jickling and Her Good Bad Luck

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest – Sunday, August 14^th, 3:00 pm
Since its release almost 50 years, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest has gone on to reach iconic significance in the American film canon and consistently rates a place on both critical and audience “Best of” lists. It also remains one of the most influential and impactful films ever made about psychiatry….

Completely Cuckoo – Sunday, August 14^th, 7:00 pm
A fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the making of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Post-screening discussion with Dr. Bill MacEwan, Jonathan Morris, Tamar Hanstke and others TBC

Wednesday, July 13, 2022 7:00pm
USA 2020 Director Patrick Sammon, Bennett Singer Duration 80min DCP

This provocative documentary highlights a previously underappreciated activist campaign in the struggle to achieve normality for the LGBTQ community. For years, the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (or DSM) listed homosexuality as a mental illness.

Wednesday, June 15, 7:00pm
USA 2016 Director: Bill Hurst 65min DCP

An engrossing look behind the scenes at Headquarters, a 24–7 suicide prevention crisis centre in Lawrence, Kansas, where more than twenty-thousand calls a year are answered by trained volunteers. ​“We all learn how to talk—we don’t learn how to listen,” says one of the interview subjects in this affecting documentary, as we follow 11 young trainees working their way through a rigorous 11-week training session which incorporates intense role-play scenarios covering just about every imaginable crisis. Co-sponsored by the BC Crisis Centre.

Wednesday, May 18  7:00pm
USA2016. Director Matt Fuller. 75 DCP

Wednesday, April 27, 2022 7:00pm
Frames of Mind Returns to In-person screenings at The Cinematheque! 
Having weathered a lengthy episode of depression, Toronto author Ray Robertson was inspired to write a book that explored two of life’s most central and enduring questions: ​“What makes human beings happy?” and ​“What makes life worth living?” Post-screening discussion with Dr. Rene Weideman and Alan Zweig.