February 8–March 1, 2022
Media City Film Festival (MCFF), Windsor-Detroit’s international festival for film and digital art, announces the full scope of its 25th anniversary virtual edition: February 8–March 1, 2022.
In an act of global solidarity, all 70+ films featuring some of cinema’s most ardent pioneers are available to view for free in full open access globally for the duration of this amazing virtual event at mediacityfilmfestival.com.
Audiences will gain unfettered access to incredible new works, world premieres, restorations, and historical masterpieces from legendary artists and filmmakers including Sergei Parajanov, Tracey Moffatt, Sky Hopinka, Ulysses Jenkins, Cecilia Vicuña, Carolee Schneemann, Tony Cokes, Karpo Godina, and dozens more. Highlights hail from Windsor-Detroit, Colombia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Armenia, Brazil, Sri Lanka, across Canada and around the world.
Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk/Pechanga) returns to the festival with his latest, Kicking the Clouds (2022), fresh from its Sundance world premiere. Rich in metaphor and highly poetic, the film is a moving portrait of the director’s family lineage, centered on the voices and experiences of its matriarchs. Hopinka beautifully interweaves poetic verse, family dialogue, and vivid renderings of Pacific Northwest landscapes to honour the lives of three remarkable women.
Dubbed “the magician of cinema,” and celebrated by the likes of Fellini, Buñuel, and Tarkovsky, Armenian director Sergei Parajanov makes an appearance with three recently restored films courtesy of the National Oleksandr Dovzhenko Film Center, National Cinema Center of Armenia, Georgian Film, and others. The virtual world premiere of a new digitization of Sodom (1989–1994) by late, great American filmmaker Luther Price is provided by Anthology Film Archives, created from their recent film restoration expressly for this event. Work by feminist icon Carolee Schneemann, Slovenian director Karpo Godina, Dame of the Order of Australia Tracey Moffatt, and L.Franklin Gilliam’s newly restored Now Pretend (1992) are also among the many international gems.
Closer to home, Daïchi Saïto’s 35mm masterpiece earthearthearth (2021) has been blazing a trail in recent months, garnering unanimous praise from critics worldwide during in-person release at TIFF, NYFF, and elsewhere. Funded and produced by MCFF as part of a commissioning project in the Atacama Desert and the Andean Mountains, its screening at MCFF represents the first opportunity for global audiences to see it online without restrictions.
MCFF 25th artists include: Sergei Parajanov, Carolee Schneemann, Cecilia Vicuña, Kevin Jerome Everson, Ulysses Jenkins, Sky Hopinka, Tracey Moffatt, Morgan Quaintance, Peter Tscherkassky, Onyeka Igwe, Malena Szlam, Pablo Álvarez Mesa, Chris Kennedy, Ana Vaz, Mary Helena Clark, Ute Aurand, Michael Robinson, Ben Russell, Rajee Samarasinghe, Suneil Sanzgiri, Ben Rivers, Eva Giolo, Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, John Price, Lindsay McIntyre, Jayne Parker, Ross Meckfessel, Friedl vom Gröller (Kubelka), Zachary Epcar, Parastoo Anoushahpour, Faraz Anoushahpour, Ryan Ferko, Alexandra Cuesta, Pablo Mazzolo, Riar Rizaldi, Shireen Seno, Rhea Storr, Simon Liu, Sílvia das Fadas, Thirza Cuthand, Luther Price, L.Franklin Gilliam, Tony Cokes, Ximena Cuevas, Tânia Dinis, Daïchi Saïto, Karpo Godina, and many more.
Artistic Director & International Curator: Oona Mosna
Spotlight Curators: Almudena Escobar López and Greg de Cuir Jr
Regional Curator: Brandon Walley
The festival’s new site construction was expertly developed, designed, and managed by Spellerberg Associates, Hour Studio, and CineSend for your screening pleasure.
MCFF is made possible with generous support from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Trillium Foundation, Ontario Arts Council, and Knight Arts Foundation.