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Image: Blue Road – The Edna O’Brien Story

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The Lives of Others

Dir. Florian Henkel von Donnesmarck
137 min

This month's Talking Pictures film is a masterly Cold War thriller set in East Berlin. An agent of the secret police, conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover, finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives...

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other

Dir. Manon Ouimet & Jacob Perlmutter
100 min

This intimate and candid film by a younger husband and wife artist team is a delicate and immensely moving dual portrait of two artists, husband and wife, together and apart, at that point in life when the end casts a shadow over even the sunniest day.

Image: © Manon et Jacob and Final Cut For Real

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Blue Road - The Edna O'Brien Story

Dir. Sinéad O'Shea
99 min

Judging by this candid, funny, passionate biographical documentary, it would have been a wild ride to have been Irish novelist Edna O'Brien, or even to have been in her circle of friends and lovers. Well, for an hour and a half we can pretend we were.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Erupcja

Dir. Pete Ohs
72 min

Charli xcx headlines this indie gem about a young English couple coming unmoored over a few days in Warsaw. Will means to propose. Beth has cold feet -- and an escape hatch she has barely admitted to herself... Think Before Sunrise 2025.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Palestine '36

Dir. Annemarie Jacir
118 min

An epic historical drama from director Annemarie Jacir that follows an ensemble of rural villagers who face off against British colonial forces during the 1936 Palestinian revolt.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Lingua Franca

Dir. Isabel Sandoval
95 min

Lingua Franca is a tender portrait of intimacy shaped by migration, vulnerability, and the quiet negotiations of belonging. Centered on an undocumented Filipina trans woman living in New York, the film moves with delicate restraint.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Queering Cinema

Apr 1 – 29 | Curated by Fay Nass

This year’s Queering Cinema brings together films that inhabit the space where desire collides with displacement, fantasy, power, migration, and risk.

Talking Pictures

Created for film lovers 55+ (but open to anyone), the Talking Pictures series offers films, refreshments and an open invitation to chat about our shared experience of the movie.

Film Studies: Motivated Lighting

Thursdays, 11:00 am | May 7 – 28 | Presented by Devan Scott

Examining the evolution of lighting in cinema, from the early 1900s to present day.

The Doll
The Doll film image; woman leaning against a seated man

The Doll

Dir. Ernst Lubitsch
130 min

In our new Film Studies series on Thursdays, Devan Scott guides us through the evolution of lighting techniques from the silent era to the present day. Each presentation will include a classic film screening; this week, The Doll (1919).

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The Grapes of Wrath

Dir. John Ford
189 min

In this Film Studies workshop, Devan Scott explores the purposes of three-point lighting and the influence of German Expressionism on Hollywood studio filmmaking. Followed by a screening of The Grapes of Wrath, photographed by Gregg Toland.

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The Music Room

Dir. Satyajit Ray
159 min

Devan Scott continues his journey through the history of lighting. This week, he credits Indian director of photography Subrata Mitra for profound innovations that laid the foundation for ideas of motivated lighting + screening of The Music Room.

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Black Bag

Dir. Steven Soderbergh
153 min

In the last of his studies in the evolution of cinematography, Devan Scott surveys the modern era of digital photography and LED lighting, focusing in particular on the radical work of Steven Soderbergh, who regularly serves as his own cinematographer.

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