The Body Undone Film Screening: “The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open”

The Body Undone: In Conversation with Loss is a programme of film screenings and discussions organised by Sana Rizvi for Oyoun's EMBODIED ARTS FESTIVAL. The selected films look at various kinds of loss held by different bodies - with a focus on storytelling from new voices. Using film, an embodied memory in itself, an invitation is made to reflect on the question: can we discover new possibilities in the workings of loss and grief by allowing spaces for these feelings to be held and acknowledged in an embodied way?

Each film is available for a selected timeframe during Oyoun's EMBODIED ARTS FESTIVAL. 

Contact us at hallo@oyoun.de to get sent the link and password to view the film. (This is limited to people in Germany) 

There is a Q&A event happening with the film's directors on 13th April at 19:00, see here for details.

The Body Remembers When The World Broke Open

Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Kathleen Hepburn
105” | Canada/Norway | 2019 | English

Two Indigenous women from vastly different backgrounds find their worlds colliding as one of them, Rosie, is fleeing a violent domestic attack. What begins as an urgent and terrifying escape tentatively expands as the women weave a fragile bond in their short time together while navigating the complexities of motherhood, class, race, and the ongoing legacy of colonialism.

Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers is a filmmaker, writer, and actor based in Vancouver, British Columbia. She is Blackfoot from the Kainai First Nation (Blood Reserve) as well as Sámi from northern Norway. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of British Columbia in Indigenous Studies with a Minor in Women's and Gender Studies. Tailfeathers was the 2018 Sundance Institute Merata Mita Film Fellow and is an alumni of the Berlinale Talent Lab, the Hot Docs Accelerator Lab, the CFC/NFB/Ford Foundation Open Immersion Virtual Reality Lab, the Whistler Film Festival Aboriginal Film Fellowship, and the International Sámi Film Institute Indigenous Film Fellowship. The Body Remembers When The World Broke Open is her debut narrative feature.

Kathleen Hepburn is a Vancouver born writer and director whose debut feature, Never Stead Never Still, which Variety Magazine calls a "stoically broken-hearted debut," premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2017 and was awarded Best Canadian Film and Best Director by the Vancouver Film Critics Circle, as well as Special Jury Prize at the Dublin International Film Festival.She holds an MFA in Creative Writing, and a BFA in Film Production from the Universities of Guelph and Simon Fraser respectively.

Directors/ Writers: Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Kathleen Hepburn
Produced by: Tyler Hagan, Lori Lozinski
Producer: Alan R. Milligan
Co-Producer: Dyveke Graver
Cinematographer: Norm Li
Editor: Christian Siebenherz
Sound Design: Håkon Lammetun
Original Score: Øystein Braut
Cast: Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, Violet Nelson

EMBODIED ARTS FESTIVAL

Curators, artists and cultural practitioners have been exploring identities, belonging and embodied memories through diasporic, decolonial and queer perspectives as part of Oyoun’s first curatorial focus: EMBODIED TEMPORALITIES. The outcomes, encounters and queries will be presented and celebrated during the EMBODIED ARTS FESTIVAL from 8th - 18th April. View all events here.