BUFS

The Canadian director Matthew Rankin is a product of Winnipeg and its wildly creative and remarkably prolific Winnipeg Film Group (WFG).  In fact, Rankin learned the basics of filmmaking when he participated in a series of workshops hosted by WFG as a teenager.  Though he left Manitoba to go to university in Quebec—first at McGill and then at Université Laval—his formative years as a filmmaker occurred back in Winnipeg, where Rankin reintegrated himself into the WFG scene and helped to found the idiosyncratic and proudly Québec-o-philic l’Atelier national du Manitoba.

Famously, l’Atelier expressed its perverse love/hate relationship with Winnipeg in dazzling fashion through Death By Popcorn:  The Tragedy of the Winnipeg Jets (2006), an epic (and sordid) account of the rise and fall of the Jets—and, by extension, the rise and fall of Winnipeg—told through a veritable blizzard of mixed-media montage.

Perhaps even more relevantly, Rankin made a short film during this period, Self-portrait:  M. Rankin (2008), that was attributed to the Winnipeg Ministry for the Intellectual Guidance of Children and Young People.  Self-portrait was a sharp, pithy riff on Abbas Kiarostami’s classic Close-Up (1990), which also deals with filmmakers and doppelgangers, and which was produced by Kanoon, the fabled Iranian filmmaking unit that is more formally known as the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults.  Oh, yeah:  Self-portrait, like Close-Up, was delivered entirely in Farsi—it seemed to be pondering what Winnipeg would look and sound like if it were captured by some of the masters of Iranian cinema.

Rankin eventually returned to Montreal where his mastery of experimental filmmaking techniques, montage aesthetics, and flamboyant mise-en-scène led to a series of historical fantasias:  Mynarski Death Plummet (2014); The Tesla World Light (2017), which dealt with the man, Nikola Tesla, not the cars; and The Twentieth Century (2019), an outrageous feature-length rumination on the life of W.L. Mackenzie King.

Universal Language, Rankin’s latest film, took the 2024 Cannes Film Festival by storm, winning the Audience Award in the Director’s Fortnight competition, and the film, and its production team, have never really looked back since, picking up major awards at the Toronto International Film Festival, the Vancouver International Film Festival, and the Melbourne International Film Festival, as well at the Best Canadian Film prize from the Toronto Film Critics Association.  Like Self-portrait:  M. Rankin, the film is attributed to the Winnipeg Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young People, it is delivered almost entirely in Farsi, and it stars Rankin himself.  It’s a film that is often described as an absurdist comedy, and there’s no question that it is, but it’s also so much more than that. “This film longs to hold you,” one of the posters for Universal Language reads.  It’s a film that is warm, and human, and compassionate.  It’s a film that we need right now.

Universal Language– screens Thursday, March 6, 2025 at 7 p.m. at the Film House in downtown St. Catharines. Tickets for all screenings are available at the Film House. General admission is $10 or $8 for Film House members, plus tax.

TICKETS

The Brock University Film Society (BUFS) has been bringing the best in independent and art house cinema to St. Catharines and the Niagara region for well over 40 years. The society is supported by the Department of Communication, Popular Culture and Film in the Faculty of Social Sciences at Brock.

BUFS screenings take place in the state-of-the-art facilities of the Film House inside the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre (250 Saint Paul Street). These screenings occur on Thursday nights at 7:00 p.m. throughout the school year, and they often feature introductions, short presentations, prize giveaways and other surprises.

“BUFS is a pillar of the Niagara cinephile scene, and it has been since 1975. BUFS screenings have a wonderful energy to them, one that comes from the combination of artful, thought-provoking films, eager, savvy audiences, and a premium theatre experience. This is film culture the way it was meant to be, with animated discussions continuing long after the credits roll, and spilling out onto the streets of St. Catharines.”

— Anthony Kinik, Film Professor

Tickets
Tickets are available at the Film House on the evening of screenings. General admission is $9.50 or $7.50 for Film House members / 13 and under.

Memberships are available through the Film House website.

Season
BUFS kicks off Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023. 

Prizes
Chance to win film-related prizes every BUFS screening.

Ratings
Ticket sales will be subject to enforcement of Ontario Film Review Board ratings. Please have photo identification ready.

Accessibility
BUFS is proud to be part of Brock’s university-wide commitment to provide facilities, programs, and services in a way that respects the dignity and independence of persons with disabilities. Learn more about accessibility at BUFS.

Contact
Anthony Kinik
Associate Professor
[email protected]

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