CASTRATION MOVIE
ANTHOLOGY II.
THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

a film by Louise Weard

FEATURE PRESENTATION

NORTH AMERICAN FESTIVAL PREMIERE

MAY 30, 2026 • 7 PM
@ THE BUS STOP THEATRE
(2203 GOTTINGEN STREET, HALIFAX)

2025 / CANADA / 300 mins

Less than a couple months after HIFF 2025’s sold-out screening of Louise Weard’s Castration Movie Anthology i., Weard headed to New York to film the next instalment, another five-hour feat of searing performances and visionary, operatic storytelling, written in Excel spreadsheets and shot on a Sony Digital8 Handycam.

A relentless horror and formidable comedy, Anthology ii: The Best of Both Worlds explores a trans separatist cult operating in a New York basement, running on meticulously portioned hot dogs and ketamine and guilt. The story follows our hero Circle as she attempts to escape, evoking Scorsese’s After Hours if it was about a homeless trans woman seeking refuge, inundated with well-wishers trying to either brainwash, abuse, or date and detransition her. 

Weard and her incredible cast of actors refuse to minimize their characters’ capacity for cruelty and harm, while never denying their humanity. The film’s generous runtime provides space to explore characters conventionally relegated to providing only one-liners or antagonism. Weard has described it as “a movie that directly engages with the horror and the humor of having to exist in this modern world.” It’s by virtue of engaging so directly with both the pain and absurdity of today that the Castration Movie Anthology becomes an antidote to it. —Rebecca Falvey

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