re:assemblage collective

― DIFFUSION 4: Cats in the Cracks, 48' ―

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Indoor Screening
Saturday 09 August 2025 · 3:00pm screening
CineCycle; 129 Spadina Avenue, Tkaronto

Entrance by donation at the door

Wheelchair accessible venue

Step into a world where plants push through city cracks, history comes alive through stories and stone, and childhood dreams sparkle on the beach. This program brings together short films about nature’s resilience, childhood wonder, moving animals, and the many ways people and places connect across time and space. These stories help us ask big questions about history, nature, and how people connect to the places they live.

This is a kids program.

I'm Not You Will - Los Jaguares de la Bahía · Elena Duque A Beaten Path · Toby Gillies and Natalie Baird Canada in the 12th Century · Jack Parker Six · Kelly O’Brien Animal Movie · Grant Munro & Ron Tunis Walk-in-the-forest · Diane Obomsawin Linea ver (Spring Line) · Francisca Duran Tropical Cats · Astria Suparak August Song · Jodie Mack and Emily Kuehn

A Beaten Path

Directed by Toby Gillies and Natalie Baird
Canada · 2025 · 3'00

A Beaten Path is a film about tough little plants—thistles, burdock, and plantain—that grow in cracks between buildings, on old parking lots and in places people have left behind. It follows how these plants live, grow, and sometimes disappear, all in one summer. As time unravels, nature finds ways to survive and return, even in places that seem empty or forgotten.

Toby Gillies is a multidisciplinary artist, the third generation in his family of art makers, enjoyers, facilitators and educators living in Winnipeg. Toby’s practice is rooted in a playful exploration of materials and ideas, and experiments in collaboration. Recent projects have taken an interest in filmmaking and animation, drawing, installation, mural, ceramic, cardboard, parties, collaborative art experiences and art for social change. For a decade, he has facilitated art experiences within 2 km of his home, where he served as Studio Programs Manager at Art City (2013-2022) and as an Artist in Residence at Misericordia Health Centre (2012-present) [↗]

Natalie Baird is a visual artist, filmmaker, and community-based researcher based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Natalie completed a bachelor of environmental science from the University of Manitoba in 2014, where she explored film-making as a tool for environmental action. Her documentary, animation, and video-installation work has been screened and exhibited across Canada. She has an embedded community practice, working as an arts facilitator and artist-in-residence in drop-in art centres and personal care homes. In 2016 Natalie returned to the University of Manitoba for a master of environment, leading arts-based research projects about the social dimensions of climate change in Nunavut.