Wintopia

IDFA and Canadian filmmaker Peter Wintonick had a close relationship for decades. He was a hard worker and often far from home, visiting festivals around the world. In 2013, he died after a short illness. His daughter Mira was left behind with a whole lot of questions, and a box full of videotapes that Wintonick shot for his Utopia project. She resolved to investigate what sort of film he envisaged, and to complete it for him.

The result is a fascinating collage of footage from the Utopia collection, home movies from the family archive, scenes from earlier films, and telephone conversations with colleagues and family members. In voice-over, Mira takes us along on her journey. She molds all these elements into a story about the grieving process, a daughter’s attempt to understand the father she lost too soon, and a tribute to a restless and original spirit on a quest to find an ideal world.