Co-Presentation with Rendezvous with Madness Festival

The following program contains discussion of child sexual abuse, assault, and trauma. Please read and view with care.

Images Festival is pleased to co-present M (2018) by Yolande Zauberman, followed by a discussion, at the 27th annual Rendezvous with Madness Festival.

Friday, October 17, 7pm 

Art Gallery of Ontario 

317 Dundas St W 

Toronto, ON 

M5T 1G4

Menahem Lang is an Israeli actor with a tragic past. He was raped as a child by several older men from his own community. Lang grew up in the Haredi sect, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community known for its theological conservatism. After confronting one of his abusers, Lang left his hometown of Bnei Brak and hasn’t been back until now. In M, Lang returns to face his community, his trauma and to seek justice. But more than anything, Lang ends up finding other survivors. Shooting her film entirely at night, director Yolande Zauberman follows Lang as he runs into multiple strangers on the streets of his old neighborhood where they all confess the same thing – they were also sexually abused as children by older men in the community. Through many candid interviews in M we learn that child molestation is rampant in their community, turning the abused into abusers in a vicious circle of sexual violence.

The screening is followed by an extended discussion on childhood sexual abuse and recovery by specialists who work in trauma-informed care, childhood sexual abuse, and sexuality studies. The participants will sensitively discuss the realities and impacts of (early) sexual abuse, the complexities of finding treatment and the journey of recovery in the context of observant communities as well as in more secular contexts.

Buy tickets here. For more details on the screening, visit the official program page here.

Image: Yolande Zauberman, M, 2018.