WFG Short Films 2000-2025
Curated by writer, literary director and counterculture enthusiast Ralph Elawani, with the support of Leslie Supnet, filmmaker and executive director of the Winnipeg Film Group, this program aims to celebrate a local film scene of national importance. Around the Winnipeg Film Group, a cinematic way of life has crystallized, not only illustrated by the achievements of a certain Guy Maddin, but also by an exceptional Dave Barber who has long been the soul of the WPG. We will pay tribute to him at the program’s opening, before inviting you to discover films rarely screened together, works that are wild, radical, playful, wacky, absurd, surreal, sometimes extraordinary, and often extravagant. Between animation, experimental film, documentary, and artisanal fiction, this heritage program is also radically oriented towards the future of cinema. It is a question to the viewer, like a plea from out of nowhere, or rather from Winnipeg.
In the presence of Leslie Supnet and Clint Enns
This second series of short films reflects the transition of the WFG toward a sometimes abrasive modernity, where film becomes a battlefield in the hands of Sol Nagler, Matthew Rankin and Rhayne Vermette. The “Prairie post-modern” aesthetic is regenerated here through collage and appropriation, while leaving room for the powerful narratives of Caroline Monnet and Darryl Nepinak—the latter as sardonic as it is hilarious. Whether we think of the surrealist homage to Marcel Dzama or the audacity of the other films, these works confirm that the Winnipeg Film Group remains an epicenter of formal resistance that continues to challenge the flatness of the horizon with the density of its proposals.
FILM(dzama) by Deco Dawson
[Can., 2001, 23 min, 16 mm, English]
Embowered by Danishka Esterhazy
[Can., 2002, 2 min, digital, no dialogue]
Untitled 3 by Solomon Nagler
[Can., 2006, 6 min, digital, no dialogue]
Best of Good Morning Native America by Darryl Nepinak
[Can., 2007, 10 min, digital, English]
Ikwé by Caroline Monnet
[Qué., 2009, 5 min, digital, Cree, French with English subtitles]
Sun Moon Stars Rain by Leslie Supnet
[Can., 2009, 3 min, digital, no dialogue]
Goths! On the Bus! by Jaimz Asmundson, Karen Asmundson
[Can., 2010, 4 min, digital, English]
I for NDN by Darryl Nepinak, Clint Enns
[Can., 2011, 2 min, digital, English]
The Story of Thomas Edison by Aaron Zeghers
[Can., 2011, 5 min, digital, English]
Mynarski chute mortelle (Mynarski Death Plummet) by Matthew Rankin
[Qué., 2014, 8 min, digital, no dialogue]
Domus by Rhayne Vermette
[Can., 2017, 15 min, digital, English]
Fifth Metacarpal by Scott Fitzpatrick
[Can., 2018, 6 min, digital, English]
La Colle Falls by Mike Rollo
[Can., 2025, 11 min, 16 mm, no dialogue]
Winnipeg Film Group
The Winnipeg Film Group (WFG) is an artist-run film education, production, distribution, and exhibition centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, committed to promoting the art of Canadian cinema, especially independent cinema. While specializing in short films, WFG's collection ranges from works one-second shorts to full-length features, with films spanning various genres including narrative drama and comedy, animation, documentary and experimental, as well as hybrids of genres. The organization has been noted for spearheading and playing a key role in the development of a distinctly Winnipeg-based style of filmmaking, which often draws on unconventional, experimental and avant-garde styles of filmmaking — such as Guy Maddin's frequent use of the visual language of old silent films — to tell surreal and anti-authoritarian stories.
Presented in collaboration with
