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Live

Unparalleled experiences that go beyond the screen

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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 Year-Round

VIFF Live Ticket Pack: See three VIFF Live events for $80!*  Buy Ticket Pack

*Only valid on VIFF Live Year-Round; not valid for VIFF 2025 Live events

Women in Blues: LJ Mounteney
Big Mama Thornton: I Can't Be Anyone But Me film image; woman singing into her hands

Women in Blues: LJ Mounteney

Dir. Robert Clem
180 min

Canadian blues vocalist pays LJ Mounteney pays tribute to the pioneering women of the blues and R&B (including Tina Turner and Irma Thomas). After LJ's set, enjoy the Canadian premiere of a new doc on Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Matt Grinke's Happiest Jazz Quintet Play Classic Disney Songs

Dir. Wolfgang Reitherman
160 min

Enjoy a set of beloved Disney movie tunes given the Matt Grinke treatment, and after the live music, groove to the original 1967 version of The Jungle Book, featuring songs like I Wanna Be Like You, The Bare Necessities and Trust In Me.

Image: © 1967, Disney

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
Cory Weeds Plays Sonny Rollins
Saxophone Colossus film image; jazz band playing on a stone ledge

Cory Weeds Plays Sonny Rollins

Dir. Robert Muge
150 min

Local sax legend Cory Weeds is joined by pianist Sharon Minemoto, bassist David Caballero and drummer Jesse Cahill to play music from Sonny Rollins' 1957 Riverside Records release The Sound Of Sonny, plus a screening of the acclaimed Saxophone Colossus doc.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Kit Eakle’s Jaz’n’theViolin String Band

Dir. Terry Zwigoff
150 min

Kit Eakle's 'Jaz'N'theViolin' String Band pay tribute to Louie Bluie, one of many fiddle players who gave birth to the new sounds of jazz and blues at the beginning of the twentieth century, followed by Terry Zwigoff's documentary portrait.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Blue Horse Opera

Dir. Sergio Sollima
180 min

Rick Maddocks' visionary song cycle fuses indie, folk, classical music and dance, drawing inspiration from the climate emergency and the cinematic landscapes of spaghetti westerns. Followed by Sergio Sollima's The Big Gundown, starring Lee van Cleef.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

George Garzone Live

Dir. Tom Surgal
180 min

Saxophone giant George Garzone celebrates free jazz with the help of the explosive Jerry Steinhilber Trio. Their set will be followed by a screening of Tom Surgal's documentary, Fire Music, featuring John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor.

Image: © Lee Tanner, The Jazz Image

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Past VIFF Live Events

Beverly Glenn Copeland performing

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