Cockburn originally conceived of the project as a " lecture-performance , " like his '' All the Mistakes I 've Made '' films : As I worked on it I realized I 'd prefer to make it a short film , and to cast someone else in the speaking role . Because it is essentially two films back-to-back , I needed to give the first one time to develop , for the audience to sink into it ; then I needed the second half to be of a pretty similar duration.As the edit progressed , " get it under 20 " became Cockburn 's goal , " in the back of my mind — mainly psychological " : 19 minutes felt like a lot less than 20 minutes , " the way 99 cents feels way less than a dollar " ; he was also aware of " not wanting to scare off festival programmers . " '' The Argument ( with annotations ) '' premiered at the 42nd Toronto International Film Festival , as the first film in the Short Cuts Programme , on 8 September 2017 . Two months later , it was screened at a sold-out show at Depth of Field , a semi-annual event showcasing recent York University CMA graduate thesis films in November , at the Art Gallery of Ontario . The short was selected for the 2017 Canada 's Top Ten minifestival and screened on 14 January 2018 , along with a Canadian Open Vault free screening of Cockburn 's 2010 feature film , '' You Are Here ''
42nd Toronto International Film Festival
2017 Toronto International Film Festival
The Argument (with annotations)