Friday, March 14 / 4:00 pm / Ottawa Art Gallery

Program: One Day, Memories of a Burning Body

Feature presentation \

Growing up in a repressive, patriarchal era when female sexuality was the ultimate taboo subject, 68-year-old Ana, 69-year-old Patricia and 71-year-old Mayela developed their understanding of what it means to be a woman based on unspoken rules and vague expectations. Now, later in life, they dare to talk about it openly: their coming of age, their love of orgasms and masturbation, and the changes to one’s sexual identity with age. In a brilliant narrative conceit, their brave stories are told by a single 65-year-old character (an amazing performance by Sol Carballo) who both enacts their lives and interweaves their memories, secrets, and incendiary desires. In this arresting, original blending of actual testimonies with dramatic re-enactments of moments from all three women’s lives, Memories of A Burning Body explores female sexuality in all its complexity, profundity, and beauty. This second feature film by Antonella Sudasassi Furniss captured the Panorama section Audience Award at the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival.

- Tom McSorley

Short film \

One Day

2024 / 16 minutes / Ontario
Director: Yazmeen Kanji
Language: English

One Day is a coming of age dramedy about an Indo-Caribbean Muslim teenager who daydreams to seek her inner confidence.