Play Dead!

Genre: Documentary, body horror Cast: Matthew Lancit Synopsis: Matthew Lancit grew up in Canada, where teenagers of his generation were marked by the “body horror” film genre. Following that lead, PLAY DEAD! is drawn from his family's everyday diary, filmed over five years. It presents ‘diabetes’ as a strange, hidden presence that haunts his apartment and the deepest parts of his body. Using performative and burlesque codes, form and content feed off each other as the filmmaker's body gradually transforms into a haunted shell. Mixed with comedy, irony, and tenderness, PLAY DEAD! mediates the complexity of living with the disease, living with someone who suffers from it, and how relationships oscillate between care, listening, and impatience, anger, or fear. (Rasha Salti)

Synopsis: Matthew Lancit grew up in Canada, where teenagers of his generation were marked by the “body horror” film genre. Taking cue from that, PLAY DEAD! is culled from his diary of his family’s quotidian, filmed over five years. He stages the ‘diabetes’ as a hidden, alien presence that haunts his apartment and the very depths of his body. Using performative and burlesque codes, form and content feed off each other as the filmmaker’s body transforms gradually into a haunted shell. Laced with comedy, irony and tenderness, PLAY DEAD! mediates the complexity of living with the disease, living with someone afflicted with it, and how relationships oscillate between caring, listening, and impatience, anger, or fear. (Rasha Salti)

Selection: DOK Leipzig, DocPoint Helsinki, Festival Internactional Jean Rouch, Riga Pasuales Film Festival, Ethnocineca, MIDBO. Mexican Premiere