Exovede in the Darkroom

The first collection celebrating the work of celebrated experimental filmmaker Rhayne Vermette, Exovede in the Darkroom is a series of responses, critical and poetic, to Vermette’s visually explosive, materially distinct, and conceptually singular practice. Exploring Vermette’s shorts that engage a number of 16mm collage practices, as well as her feature film Ste. Anne, a film that mesmerized festival circuit critics and audiences alike with a metered and visually resplendent story of a return to a Métis community, in which sequences of images dominate the narrative. Contributors include Jennifer Smith, Gwynne Fulton, Lawrene Bird, Mónica Savirón, Joshua Minsoo Kim, Sky Hopinka, Stephen Broomer, Claudia Sicondolfo, Inney Prakash, José Sarmiento Hinojosa, Irene Bindi, and Janet Blatter.

Rhayne Vermette was born in Notre Dame de Lourdes, Manitoba. It was while studying architecture at the University of Manitoba, that she fell into the practices of image making and storytelling. Primarily self taught, Rhayne’s films are opulent collages of fiction, animation, documentary, reenactments and divine interruption. Her work has screened internationally and highlights screenings at the Berlinale, Toronto International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, Mar Del Plata IFF, Viennale, Jeonju IFF, Valdivia International FIlm Festival and DocumentaMadrid. Her first feature narrative, Ste. Anne, exploded into the world and was awarded TIFF’s Amplify Voices Award for Best Canadian Feature Film in 2021.