"What do you have to say for posterity?" Faced with such a question, a young Anita refuses to answer. Decades later, camera in hand, her brother Oscar grapples with the silence she leaves behind.

Having recently settled in Montreal after leaving his native Colombia, the filmmaker captures the snow-covered streets of his neighbourhood, assembles voice messages left by his sister and snippets of home movies shot during their youth. The void, here, is not a hole to be filled, but rather a transitional space to be honoured; a sidewalk, an alley, a railway track like so many others – places we pass through every day.

There is something about these snow-blanketed landscapes that stirs a deep sense of peace in me. Rarely are the streets of Montreal as quiet as in the aftermath of a snowstorm. A fresh blanket of snow, as we know, absorbs sound waves; its acoustic properties are remarkable, enough to hush the daily hum of our city to a murmur, if only for a few hours. It may be no coincidence that Oscar chose our city, this climate, to come to terms with his sister's absence. Here, the snow does not bury the silence : it mirrors it.

Jason Todd
Short Film Programmer
Rendez-vous Québec Cinéma