Join us for live performances that push the boundaries of traditional film programming, intersecting cinema culture with music, comedy, podcasting, and performance in unique, cinema-infused live shows.
VIFF Live: Festival 2024
For the VIFF Live series this year, I’ve been guided and inspired by artists working at the outer edges of sound and image; artists that experiment with form, blur boundaries between disciplines, and explore deep relationships between storytelling, memory, time, and presence. I hope you will join us to share and witness these extraordinary live performances.
The series reflects an intergenerational spectrum of voices and premieres of compelling new work:
The Vancouver premiere of Eno, the world’s first generative documentary, celebrating the iconic artist and musician Brian Eno. Director Gary Hustwit developed custom generative software to create the film and he will be in attendance to create a special version of the film live in real time, that will never be seen again; Elisapie‘s Uvattini explores and reflects on her home community and childhood through story song and image filmed in collaboration with Émilie Monnet; the renowned filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin offers a unique and rare live performance of music alongside rising, next generation voice Jeremy Dutcher; acclaimed experimental electronic musician William Basinski invokes the power of his own archive and memory in a new work Arcadia Archives that manipulates the experience of time through sound and image—40-year-old tape loops transformed in a cinematic conversation with new video created by his longstanding personal and creative partner, artist-filmmaker James Elaine; and Eiko Ishibashi offers GIFT, her latest live and evolving collaboration with acclaimed filmmaker Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, which refracts and reframes visual storytelling through a new sonic lens.
Jarrett Martineau, VIFF Live Curator
Each artist considers and responds to similar questions: What can the past tell us about our present? How do collaborations shape creative imaginings and give new form to their expression across disciplines? How do archives of story, song, and image—both personal, communal—live beyond us? What is carried forward, and what is left behind?
Elisapie - Uvattini
JUNO award-winning Inuk artist Elisapie presents the West Coast Premiere of her new multimedia show, Uvattini.
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William Basinski: Arcadia Archive
Acclaimed ambient and experimental composer William Basinski presents the Canadian Premiere of Arcadia Archive—an immersive, transcendent live performance.
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Image: © Jose Ramón Caamaño
Eno | A live performance screening and Q&A with Director Gary Hustwit
Join us for the Vancouver Premiere of Eno, the world’s first generative documentary, celebrating the visionary artist and musician Brian Eno. For this special event, the film will be created live in real time, and this version will never be seen again. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Gary Hustwit and special guests.
This event has passed.
Jeremy Dutcher & Alanis Obomsawin
Two of the most compelling voices in Indigenous music and cinema meet for an intimate, unique, and unforgettable evening of intergenerational story and song featuring award-winning Wolastoqiyik tenor and composer Jeremy Dutcher and renowned Abenaki filmmaker and musician Alanis Obomsawin.
This event has passed.
GIFT: A Film by Ryusuke Hamaguchi X Live Score by Eiko Ishibashi
Multi-instrumentalist and composer Eiko Ishibashi, presents the Canadian Premiere of GIFT—a new silent film directed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, and accompanied by a dynamic, live soundtrack performed by Ishibashi.
This event has passed.
Image: © Jim O’Rourke
VIFF Live: Year-Round at the VIFF Centre
The Etiquette of Dying: Film + Ron Samworth Concert
Guitarist Ron Samworth's brush with cancer a few years ago inspired a suite, which in turn inspired Melissa Hubert's contemplative 51-minute animated film. After the screening Ron will lead a 4-piece band in an improvised performance.
Vampyr
This Halloween, experimental music duo Magazinist will perform a live score to 1932 classic Vampyr using an array of supernatural contraptions, including a homemade tagelharpa, dulcimers, zithers, synthesizers, and ethereal vocal drones.
A Page of Madness: Live Score by Anju Singh / The Nausea
Experimental artist Anju Singh uses her project The Nausea to explore Teinsuke Kinugasa's expressionist horror masterpiece. An asylum janitor wants to help his beloved wife escape, but she doesn't want to leave...
Past VIFF Live Events
Beverly Glenn-Copeland, online performance, VIFF 2020
Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin Plays Deep Red Live, VIFF 2019
On Cinema at the Cinema Live!, VIFF 2019
This is Spinal Tap: Anniversary Live Score, VIFF 2019
Song Exploder Live with Chuck D, VIFF 2019
Feminist Live Reads Some Like It Hot, VIFF 2019