Skip to main content
Crystal Pite: Angels' Atlas film image, director Chelsea McMullan

Crystal Pite: Angels' Atlas

This event has passed

World Premiere

In February 2020, Angels’ Atlas premiered onstage to rapturous reviews, but it soon became the National Ballet of Canada’s final show before the pandemic shutdown; fittingly, when the company returned in November 2021, this ballet was the first that was performed. Crystal Pite: Angels’ Atlas brilliantly captures crucial moments of the ballet’s rebirth, from tentative disbelief, to the joy of reunion, to intense rehearsal and refinement. The documentary is a remarkable record of the creative process; in the retrospective context of global loss, the project acquires a ghostly, prophetic quality. What occurs on stage is nothing short of extraordinary—the unearthly lighting, the evocative music, and especially the bodies of the dancers, straining and stricken in sorrow. In a bold decision, the performance of Angels’ Atlas is shown in its entirety in the second half of the film. Sublime, moving, cathartic in its pulsing grief and meditation on mortality and transience, this documentary is one of the most moving pieces of art to ever be captured on film.

 

 Q&A Oct 2

 

Community Partner

Director
Credits
Country of Origin

Canada

Year

2022

Language

English

18+
64 min
Documentary Women Directors

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

Short Forum 1: The Scarier One
Object of Riddle film image; a disproportionate metal face

Short Forum 1: The Scarier One

93 min

The return of scary: fear in all its chilling, suspenseful, and unsettling shades.

International Village 8

That Shadow Fading

Dir. Samuel Urbina
76 min

Samuel Urbina's feature debut is a quiet, deeply affecting mother and son drama following Sol, a single mother about to become an empty nester as her son Junior prepares to move to Lima upon graduating college.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
The Only Living Pickpocket in New York
The Only Living Pickpocket in New York film image; man walking down a city street

The Only Living Pickpocket in New York

Dir. Noah Segan
88 min

A career thief’s circumstances grow desperate when he fences valuable merchandise stolen from a vengeful crime family. John Turturro is exquisite as a wiseacre who is typically one step ahead of everyone but now finds himself behind the eight ball.

Vancouver Playhouse The Rio Theatre

Gabin

Dir. Maxence Voiseux
105 min

Filmed over 10 years, Gabin follows Gabin Jourdel from age 8 to 18 and the animals, schoolwork, chores, and imagined futures that define his youth. As he grows, his adolescence becomes a question of inheritance and choosing one’s own future.

International Village 10

Frank & Louis

Dir. Petra Volpe
95 min

In a bid to increase his changes at parole, Frank joins an initiative where long-term inmates care for aging prisoners suffering from dementia. But when he meets the elderly Louis, it puts his own predicament into perspective.

Fifth Avenue Cinema - 19+ only
Iron Boy
Iron Boy film image; 2D animated boy looking at clouds

Iron Boy

Dir. Louis Clichy
90 min

Iron Boy, a hand-painted animated feature, follows a hardworking preteen farm boy and his sublime flights of fancy as he faces the earthshaking upheavals of growing up in an iron back brace. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes 2026.

Image: © Eddy Cinema, Beside Productions, Regular Production, France 3 Cinema, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Cinéma, RTBF

Lindsay Family Stage at Granville Island

Credits

Executive Producer

Barry Hughson, Karen Kain, Hope Muir

Producer

Sean O’Neill

Cinematography

Maya Bankovic

Editor

Lindsay Allikas

Director

Chelsea McMullan headshot, Ever Deadly co-director

Photo by Luis Mora

Chelsea McMullan

Chelsea McMullan (they/their) is one of Canada’s leading filmmakers. They make documentary, experimental narrative, and hybrid films that explore the work of leading international artists. McMullan’s features, including My Prairie Home (2013), a musical documentary about the pioneering transgender musician Rae Spoon, have premiered at Sundance, Toronto, True/False, and other leading international festivals. They have directed episodes of the documentary series This is Pop (Netflix/Crave) and In the Making (CBC). McMullan has also made numerous short films about and in collaboration with international artists such as Eileen Myles, Zhang Huan, Isabelle Marant, and Ken Lum.

Filmography: My Prairie Home (2013); Michael Shannon Michael Shannon John (2015)