What's On
Tortoise Under the Earth
Centering on the story of a young couple trying to come to terms with the loss of their daughter, Tortoise Under the Earth positions an intimate story of loss against the backdrop of cultural and environmental devastation caused by uranium mining.
International Shorts: Connect/Disconnect/Reconnect
The films in this shorts program are all about connections. People connecting with one another, dealing with change, or rediscovering a part of themselves and their past.
Dancing Pina
Choreographer Pina Bausch's brilliance lives on as the Dresden Semperoper Ballet rehearses her Iphigenia in Tauris and dancers in Senegal breathe new life to The Rite of Spring. A fascinating insight into the lives of dancers and the power of movement.
Stonewalling
Lynn (Yao Honggui), a 20-something looking forward to a career as a flight attendant, has a pushy, patriarchal boyfriend and a mother deep in debt. When she finds herself pregnant, she decides to sell her unborn child to her mother's debtors.
VIFF Short Forum: Program 2
Fear, doubt, and loneliness give way to pleasure, empowerment, and reclamation—or, is it the other way around?
Plan 75
In a near future Japan, seniors aged 75-plus are encouraged to voluntarily euthanize themselves for the good of society. While the plan seems to solve the dilemma, everyone involved questions the morality of it.
Last Flight Home
In January 2021, filmmaker Ondi Timoner's father Eli told his family that he was ready to die—as soon as California law would allow. A vérité record of the patriarch's last few weeks on earth and a testament to a different measure of fulfillment.
Soviet Bus Stops
It may sound esoteric but this is a joyous film about the historical anomaly of whimsical, eccentric, aesthetically audacious bus stops that permeated the vast Soviet Bloc, lovingly, obsessively tracked down by Canadian photographer Chris Herwig.
Know Your Place
Running an important errand across south Seattle, two teenagers become aware that their rapidly gentrifying city is slowly forcing out people of colour like themselves. An Emerald City odyssey that investigates identity, responsibility, and community.
One Fine Morning
A single mother working to support her young daughter and her ailing father, navigates the labyrinthine system of care homes, with their financial and logistical burdens. Then, an encounter with an old friend blossoms into a passionate affair.