Multihyphenate Sook-Yin Lee returns to her old stomping grounds to present DIY: Making Movies No Matter What, a series she’s curated specifically for our VIFF Canadian Film Showcase. Boasting eight features (including her own Paying for It) and six shorts, the series platforms filmmakers who’ve relied on resourcefulness rather than resources and mobilized their communities in order to create extraordinary independent cinema.
Thanks VIFF for inviting me to share some of my favourite movies for the Canadian Film Showcase. I’m presenting a program of both older and more recent films that are bold, personal, and fiercely independent — made with a D.I.Y. ethos that connects eras, aesthetics, genres, and communities across Canada. I’m grateful to have grown up in Vancouver in the 90s, before gentrification, where, on endless rainy days, while waiting for the bus, I talked to strangers and life was affordable with plenty of places to squat and get up to trouble. I was part of a vibrant lineage of anarcho-punk-poet-queer-art-freaks who valued unique expression and engaged in politics and play.
Nowadays, you’ve got to be kind of deranged to be an artist because you won’t make any money and you might offend someone and get censored or disappeared. Which is why it’s crucial to express yourself when things are so messed up. I’m inspired by these movies and the filmmakers who got down with friends and peers to make something happen and stir things up.
— Sook-Yin Lee
Sook-Yin Lee
Photo by Dylan Gamble
Paying for It
Talk about a hall of mirrors! Sook-Yin Lee wittily adapts the graphic novel of the same name by her ex-boyfriend, Canadian cartoonist Chester Brown, about the end of their relationship and Brown's subsequent decision to start paying for sex.
Dead Lover
A foul-smelling gravedigger's romance ends in tragedy, spurring her to attempt a resurrection through a madcap series of science experiments. Grace Glowicki and Ben Petrie’s film is a zany DIY horror that zaps fresh life into Mary Shelley's classic.
Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner
When Atanarjuat displaces Oki, the Chief's son, by winning the hand of the beautiful Atuat, his brother Amaqjuaq pays the ultimate price. This cautionary tale showcases the consequences of putting personal desires ahead of community needs.
Parsley Days
Kate is ambivalent about her relationship with Ollie. While he's undeniably a great guy, she's curious about what else the world might hold. But when she discovers she's pregnant, breaking up becomes a little more complicated. A magical realist delight!
Outrageous!
Two misfits find love and support in this cult classic and landmark for Canadian queer cinema. Determined to retain her freedom after being treated for schizophrenia, Liza grows equally committed to seeing Robin realize his potential as a drag performer.
Love & Independence
A program of shorts that introduces daring new voices in Canadian cinema. Personal, playful, provocative, and self-financed, these films offer the freedom to express boldly through practices rooted in filmmaking among friends.
Endless Cookie
Are you ready for the most Canadian comedy of recent years? It's a documentary about half-siblings sharing stories, but it's mostly about interruptions, digressions, diversions, and free pizza. It's also animated, but you probably already noticed that.