October 2022: Dreams Come True

For years, Paolo dreamed of being in Winnipeg.

I mean, while sleeping he had recurring dreams of walking the streets of Winnipeg, to the point where he felt like he had actually been there…had memories of being there…but he hadn’t. Except in his dreams, of course.

What was the magnetic pull? The city’s location at the centre of the North America? Guy Madden’s surrealist cinema? Portage & Main as rocked up by Neil Young? Métis Culture? The Royal Art Lodge? Its proud standing as Slurpee Capital of the World? The nickname “Winterpeg” – ie: where “temperatures have been as cold as the surface of Mars”? Who knows… but when shimby said, “We gotta get you two to WNDX for a Sound We See: Treaty 1” that was the beginning of a dream come most magnificently true!

Thanks to our fierce, freaky and fabulously talented filmmakers Allison Kolynchuk Amanda Kindzierski, Ed Ackerman, Evan, Heidi Phillips, Hunter, Jasper, Leigh Anne Parry, Mikhail Kolybaba, Myra, Omid Moterassed, Rhayne Vermette, shimby, and Vauxvon.

Gratitude to B.P. for the incredible live score.

High fives to shimby, Heidi and the whole WNDX 2022 team for a kick ass festival that makes space for truly radical experimental cinema in a joyful, loving context. Appreciation to Winnipeg Film Group, The Winnipeg Cinematheque, Winnipeg Arts Council, Platform Centre for Photographic & Digital Arts, Manitoba Arts Council, and Canada Council for the Arts for supporting the Festival and The Sound We See: A Treaty 1 Community Symphony.

Shout out to Plain Bicycle Project for making it possible to pedal our way all around your wild, wacky, wonderful town. And to Leigh Anne & Fam, Adrian Alphonso & the Decolonize Thanksgiving Bike Jam, and Rayne & Fam for the best-ever second Monday in October.

Giant hugs to community cinema superstar, Hagere Selam “shimby” Zegeye-Gebrehiwot… “It takes one to know one!”

We love you, Winnipeg!!!