True Chronicles of the Blida Joinville Psychiatric Hospital in the Last Century, when Dr Frantz Fanon Was Head of the Fifth Ward between 1953 and 1956
Wednesday, December 17, 2025 7:00PM
Algeria/France 2024 Director Abdenour Zahzah
Frantz Fanon, one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century, is most celebrated for his postcolonial philosophy. But Fanon was also a trained psychiatrist, an experience that deeply informed his worldview. Set in the 1950s, when Algeria was under French rule, Abdenour Zahzah’s film depicts a young Fanon (Alexandre Desane) recently appointed head physician at the Blida-Joinville Hospital. Witnessing racism and cruelty towards patients, particularly Muslims, Fanon advocates for more humane treatment…
Fremont, California, known for having the largest Afghan diaspora in the US, is home to Donya (Anaita Wali Zada), a young woman and former translator for the U.S. Army. Every morning she commutes to San Francisco’s Chinatown where she works at a fortune cookie factory. Despite friendly coworkers and an unusually supportive boss, her discontent is palpable. While seeing an earnest psychiatrist (Gregg Turkington) for insomnia, whose “bibliotherapy” approach wavers in helping Donya make sense of her trauma, she sets off on a road trip that results in an awkward yet sweet encounter with a mechanic (Jeremy Allen White). The film’s saturnine atmosphere, intensified by stoic black-and-white cinematography, is softened by deadpan humour, earning comparisons to Jim Jarmusch, Aki Kaurismäki, and Paweł Pawlikowski. Challenging American dream platitudes, Fremont presents an unsensational depiction of PTSD and survivor’s guilt that is complicated by longing for companionship and a less monotonous life. Welcoming remarks by Dr. Lakshmi N. Yatham and Dr. Catherine Hickey. Post-screening discussion with Dr. Martina Scholtens. Co-sponsored by the Canadian Psychiatric Association
While straining to emotionally connect with those around her, a young woman named Cora experiences debilitating and painful allergic reactions to food. Looking for answers to her medical mystery, Cora discovers Sun Haven, an isolated community practicing breatharianism—the pseudoscientific belief that humans can survive solely on light and air.
Recently nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, Adam Elliot’s tragicomedy recounts the misfortunes of a misfit named Grace who becomes obsessed with snails. After she is separated from her twin brother Gilbert, traumatic events and failed relationships compound and lead to a myriad of mental health conditions including hoarding, kleptomania, and depression. To cope, a melancholic Grace becomes an ardent collector of romance novels and guinea pigs.
Just two years after his magnum opus Titicut Follies and decades before hospitals became a popular site of procedural and reality television, Wiseman turned his panoramic lens onto one of society’s greatest collective institutions. Set in the bustling Metropolitan Hospital in East Harlem, Hospital documents numerous emergency encounters of patients suffering from a range of medical and psychological ailments, including states of extreme intoxication.
Wednesday February 19, 2025, 7:00pm