Yo (Love is a Rebellious Bird)

Yo (Love is a Rebellious Bird)
Anna Fitch / 2026 / English & French with English subtitles / United States / 78 min / Toronto Premiere

With short film Rag Dolls by Amy Adler

With Yo (Love is a Rebellious Bird), Filmmakers Anna Fitch and Banker White deliver one of the decade’s most original documentaries. After the passing of the former’s close friend Yolanda “Yo” Shea, Fitch had a puppet made in Yo’s likeness as a way of keeping the memory of the Swiss senior–49 years older than Fitch herself–alive.
Mixing intimate interviews from Yo’s final year with stories of her amazing life, the filmmaker tells her friend’s story through a puppet and a meticulously recreated, small-scale replica of her apartment and street in Pacific Grove, California. The mixed-media film, interspersed with curated collages and nature photography, is a tender tribute to friendship, grief, mortality, and the short time we’re given with the ones we love. Yo was a singular woman with a defiant spirit who forged her own path through life, regardless of society’s expectations.
This ode to her life is equally unique and will stick with you long after the credits roll. Yo (Love is a Rebellious Bird) won the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution at the 2026 Berlinale.
— Emma Badame, Rendezvous with Madness 2026 Film Programmer
Keywords: friendship, aging, grief, memory
---#GETMAD #COMPLEXITIESOFCARE
Complexities of Care. Care is often messy, and, like Love, both good and harm are done in its name. Our experiences as care givers and care recipients are intimately connected to our social location. Who can consent? Whose care is compensated? How is it valued? What type of care is offered? Is it sustainable? The various levels of care and its disparities are linked to gender, race, ability, and class amongst many other identities.
ABOUT RENDEZVOUS WITH MADNESS & WORKMAN ARTSRendezvous With Madness is both the first and the longest running Mental Health & Addictions based film & multi-arts festival in North America. With its roots in raising awareness through film, it has since expanded into bringing in other mediums such as theatre, dance, music and visual art. All programming, artwork, administration, and operations is created by and run by those who have lived and living experience. Follow us on Instagram: @workmanartsto
TICKETING & SEATINGTickets are general Admission with limited seating available! To avoid being turned away or standing in a rush line, please book your ticket in advance if possible. Please arrive to the venue no later than 15 minutes before the event in order to avoid your ticket being given to the rush line should an event be sold out.
RUSH TICKETS & INFORMATIONIf a program is off sale, you can come to the venue starting one hour before the event begins to place your name on our Rush list. Rush tickets are sold at the start of the event and patrons are seated just after introductions while trailers are playing. To avoid having your seat given to a Rush patron, please plan to arrive at the venue at least 15 minutes before the program begins.
ACCESS INFORMATIONAll of our venues are fully accessible. Live captioning provided for most spoken events and Q&A's. Open Captions for the vast majority of films. Films in other languages are always presented with English subtitles.