April brings us showers, flowers, and 18 Canadian films. Our Year-Round Programmer Tom Charity highlights a few of the most exciting upcoming films this month, including National Canadian Film Day and several Vancouver Premieres. Oh, and there’s an impressive Earth Day offering too. Enjoy!
Tom, what are you most excited for in April?
April brings us National Canadian Film Day, which is an annual celebration of homegrown cinema. The screenings on April 16 are free.
ScaredSacred is a documentary by Velcrow Ripper that was produced by Tracey Friesen, who sadly passed away in January. So, we’re doing that as a tribute to Tracey. It’s a documentary made in the wake of 9/11, where he took it upon himself to go visit ground zero in Manhattan and other war-torn sites around the world. Sadly, 20 years later, that film remains relevant.
We will also be showing My American Cousin, which is 40 years old this year and a coming-of-age film about a 13-year-old girl growing up in Penticton. Her 16-year-old American cousin shows up out of the blue in a red Chevrolet convertible and wows her and all her girlfriends. It’s an autobiographical film set in 1959 by Sandy Wilson. A nostalgic movie but it also has quite pointed things to say about the US-Canada relationship.
ScaredSacred
My American Cousin
What other Canadian films are coming to the VIFF Centre this month?
Obviously one of the big commitments of this organization is to support Canadian and Indigenous filmmakers. We have got an exciting lineup of new Canadian cinema with a few favourites coming back. We have Sweet Summer Pow Wow, which is the latest film by Darrell Dennis and Orca Media. It’s a very sweet love story about a young couple, and the filmmakers will be here for some screenings.
We’re showing Incandescence, which is another documentary by Velcrow Ripper. He made it in collaboration with his partner, Nova Ami, down in the Okanagan. It’s a film about the wildfires. It’s a remarkably cinematic, non-fiction film with stunning imagery of the wildfires and the aftermath. With the voices of evacuees, people who’ve lost everything in the fire, firefighters, rescue workers, almost quite a philosophical kind of tone to the film. I think people are going to be blown away by the aesthetic impact of this film. We’re all aware of the power and danger that wildfires represent these days, but this film really does justice to that on the big screen. Velcrow and Nova will be here for some of those shows too.
Incandescence
This month we have quite a few Canadian films screening for the first time in Vancouver, which is exciting. What are some must-see films having Vancouver Premieres in April?
The Players is a powerful film by Sarah Galea-Davis about a teenage girl who joins an avantgarde acting troupe and is challenged to confront her personal barriers in ways that are exciting but also dangerous. So, it’s exploring that slippery artistic environment where it’s cool and bohemian, but maybe not all that caring.
Field Sketches from Vancouver filmmaker Carl Bessai is another very personal film about an architect going through a midlife crisis, trying to get himself back on track, after losing everything he cares about. He goes back to the family farm in Saskatchewan and tries to tough out a Winter there in this sparsely equipped cabin and confront some ghosts from the past.
Are We Done Now? is the latest film by Ben Immanuel. This is a comedy shot during COVID here in Vancouver. It’s about a documentary filmmaker, charting the progress of a therapist and a handful of her patients. It really brings back that period very vividly.
Are any special films playing on Earth Day this year?
We’re showing a documentary called Our Blue World: A Water Odyssey by Ruán Magan, which is an impressive film about ancient wisdom around water management and how that can be applied can be applied to present day needs and marrying that with technology. We’ll have a panel with that screening on April 22.
Our Blue World
Thanks so much, Tom!
Tom Charity has been the year-round programmer at the VIFF Centre since 2009. He is the author of the critical biography John Cassavetes: Lifeworks, and has written or cowritten several other film books. A former film editor and critic for Time Out London magazine and CNN.com, he has also written for The Times and Sunday Times, the Vancouver Sun, and many other publications. He contributes to Cinema Scope and Sight & Sound Magazine on a regular basis.