EVERGREEN BRICK WORKS
THURSDAY, August 31, 2023

the Truman Show

With the short films 7A and The Pink

Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, The Truman Show is the ultimate reality TV series, featuring a whole town full of people elaborately staged for the benefit of one protagonist: Truman Burbank (Jim Carrey, also featured this August at TOPS in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). An affable fellow who is everyone’s good friend or neighbour, Truman doesn’t know his world is fake, captured by hidden cameras for a rapt audience that has been watching him his whole life. Truman’s seemingly idyllic suburban existence is shaken by a series of unscripted disruptions that lead him to question the very nature of the only world he has ever known. The film’s speculative take on the mediation of everyday life resonates even more today as 1990s anxieties about reality TV and consumer culture have given way to new extremes of hypermediation, surveillance, and commodification on social media.

Always-on webcam surveillance gives us a voyeuristic perspective on a disturbing domestic scene in Toronto filmmaker Zack Russell’s sci-fi short 7A. In an unsettlingly prescient near future world, a deadly aerosol virus leads to a desperate fight for survival. Lighter in tone but just as impactful, Ingrid Haas’ horror-comedy The Pink follows expectant mom Riley as she navigates the cult-like world of an exclusive women-only co-working space. The bright pink decor masks the true costs of access in this biting (and timely) satire of faux-feminist “girlboss” capitalism, toxic positivity, and commodified wellness schemes. If the fictional Truman Show was still on the air, it might look something like these brilliant shorts.

This screening will be presented with optional pre-recorded Audio Description available for blind, low vision, or visually impaired audience members. More information about this accessibility feature is available at TOpictureshow.com/audio. Other accessibility features available at TOPS events, including open captioning, are outlined at TOpictureshow.com/accessibility.