Gush

Viewer Advice: Contains stroboscopic imagery.

A maximalist, kaleidoscopic visual essay of hurt and healing, and a one-of-a-kind statement of bodily sovereignty from award-winning wunderkind Fox Maxy.

The debut feature of Ipai Kumeyaay and Payómkawichum video artist Maxy builds on the energy, joy, passion and irreverence of previous shorts, such as Maat Means Land (MIFF 2021). Compiled from over a decade’s worth of personal video archives, Gush overflows with imagery, emotion and humour, sumptuously layered and structured in an almost musical fashion. The ‘tune’ it composes – unforgettable and at times unnerving – is one of transformational power, survival and celebration.

Though Maxy personally identifies the film as ‘horror’, it is defiantly unlike anything you might have previously seen in that genre – or in any genre. Indeed, it’s quite impossible to pin down, with whip-smart editing of home movies, found footage, archival TV clips, digital animation, audio and more transmuting into a mesmeric interrogation of sexual violence, trauma and recovery, and a deeply intimate exaltation of community, friendship and freedom. The effect is an invigorating sensory deluge from one of the most unique and exciting new filmmaking voices working today.

“Liberatory … Like its title, Gush is both exuberant and overwhelming, a rush of sounds and images that surges over us, at times even knocking us off our feet. But if we give ourselves over the current, we can float.” – In Review

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Please note: This film screens with the short F1ghting Looks Different 2 Me Now.