CHRISTIE PITS Park
sunday, July 5, 2026

Arrival

With the short films Sub Terra, The Burden and The Visit

Canadian auteur Denis Villeneuve’s slow-burn sci-fi epic Arrival is a thought-provoking and moving interrogation of how humanity reacts when faced with the unknown. After an alien species lands on earth with a message for humanity, linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams, in a criminally under-recognized performance!) and physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) are brought in to translate for the American military. Unsure if the aliens, who Banks names heptapods, bring a message of peace or of war, their arrival sparks an intellectual journey across time and space unlike any Banks and Donnelly – or indeed, the audience – has seen before. 

Preceding Arrival are three short films by Toronto filmmakers that similarly ruminate on our own relationship with the unknown. In Jeffrey Zablotny’s Sub Terra, a routine tree inspection unexpectedly gives way to a journey into the deep. Exploring a hidden subterranean world, Sub Terra’s experimental imagery evokes Arrival’s journeys into the heptapod language. Iranian-Canadian Director-Animator Vahid Fazel’s The Burden tells a story of a stranded astronaut, struggling for survival on a mysterious desert planet, trying to find the home he longs for. Animated in pointalism, The Burden is a striking and ethereal journey into the unknown. Finally, Anishinaabe (Aamjiwnaang) filmmaker Lisa Jackson’s The Visit tells the true story of a Cree family's strange encounter one winter night, which results in a conversation beyond words. 

arrival

Directed by Denis Villeneuve, 2016

With short films Sub Terra, directed by Jeffrey Zablotny, 2022
The Burden, directed by Vahid Fazel, 2025
The Visit, directed by Lisa Jackson, 2009

Sunday, July 5, 2026
Venue: Christie Pits Park  

Admission: Free/PWYC (no ticket required to attend)
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Event details:
Eats & Treats for sale @ 6 pm / Showtime @ sundown (~ 9pm)
Programme runtime: 2hr 11min
BYOBlanket & Chairs
Films are screened with captioning
Please click to read about additional accessibility features
Content advisory: This programme contains mature themes, mild profanity, and scenes that may be frightening to some viewers (including scenes depicting military tension).