Levers

2025 / 93 minutes / Canada
Director: Rhayne Vermette
Writer: Rhayne Vermette
Language: English, French
Subtitles: English

Content notes: brief violence

Métis filmmaker and Café Ex alum Rhayne Vermette returns with her second feature film, Levers. 

A film that can’t simply be described, it must be experienced. Amidst the tedium of unveiling a municipal statue in 1980s Manitoba, a cannon blast signals a descent into darkness, as the sun fails to rise on the following day. 

Shot on 16mm with broken Bolex cameras, Levers’s celluloid format captures a world shrouded in darkness with an almost uncanny tangibility, balancing light and dark in a way that digital formats simply can’t recreate. We are left to watch the fragmented experiences of the townsfolk: the civil servant, the sculptor, the security guard, and others as they try to navigate this new unknown.

Equal parts innovative, enigmatic, and surreal, Levers demonstrates why Rhayne Vermette is one of the most singular visionary talents working in film today, both in Canada and beyond.

BIO:

Primarily self-taught, Rhayne Vermette’s work emphasizes an interference of image through collage, photography and analog filmmaking. Themes of place, time and rhythm are expressed through opulent layers of fiction, animation, reenactments and divine interruption. Deeply rooted in Manitoba, Rhayne frequently enlists the talent of her loved ones and community in the making of her films. Ste. Anne (2021), Rhayne’s first feature narrative featuring some of her own family members from Ste. Anne, Manitoba, received critical acclaim and accrued a number of accolades including TIFF’s Amplify Voices Award for Best Canadian Feature Film.

In 2024, Rhayne was shortlisted for the Sobey Art Award, Canada’s preeminent prize for contemporary visual artists. Rhéanne (Rhayne) Vermette was born to parents Jacqueline Deroche and Roger Vermette in Notre Dame de Lourdes, Manitoba. Roger Vermette was born in St. Boniface and raised in Ste. Anne, Manitoba, a community historically settled by Métis and French-Canadians. His father, Joseph Vermette, was born in St. Norbert, Manitoba and died in Richer, Manitoba. His father before him, Jean Vermette, was also born in St. Norbert, a significant Red River Métis community, and passed in Richer, Manitoba.

AWARDS

Online Film Critics Society Awards (2026): Winner, OFCS Award for Non-U.S. Releases