Shorts X was part of a wider reimagining of how CIFF might honour the brilliance of short works: programming them intentionally & intuitively with one another, appreciating shorts as true visions from true artists. Each program was intended as a vibrant entangled ecosystem of ideas and images, summoning a whole that was more than the sum of its parts. Experimental here could be synonymous with exploration without destination.

In 2019 all the CIFF shorts programs were named for tarot cards. This program evokes The Hermit — as he walks his path, his lantern illuminates only his next steps, not the full journey. The Hermit steps forward to see where to go next: these shorts are all about introspection, intuition, revelations, and exploration without destination.

These films also eerily delineate a time pre-2020 when the future’s great darknesses were yet to be uncovered. Hermit is a teacher that shows up when we are in a profoundly important chrysalis moment of transformation into the unknown. Watching these films again now, they invoke wisdom and spirits that might humbly help light our way through these times of calamity, inhumanity, and subterfuge. The Hermit asks: how do we maintain our integrity and intuition while the ground beneath us is moving? (Samara Chadwick, CIFF Senior Programmer, 2017-19)