North American Premiere
Simon Panay’s film takes us into the world of Opio, a boy of 13 who works at a gold mine in Burkina Faso. As you might imagine, it’s a harsh existence, with an oppressively narrow range of options. Even the most basic education costs money, and Opio’s family has precious little of that. The boy decides on a training program for welders, but to earn enough for tuition, he must take his current occupation one step further, moving from peripheral tasks to the dangerous work of going down into the pits.
Shot in eye-catching widescreen, If You Are a Man practically makes a character of its environment: the parched, rugged terrain and the glaring sun almost set the terms of Opio’s struggle. His lot is hard, dangerous work in pursuit of things that are practically taken for granted by most Westerners—an injustice that lends Panay’s film a heightened suspense and a special poignancy.
Supported by
Media Partner
France/Burkina Faso
2022
In Lyélé, Mooré and French with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Goldman Case
In 1976, Jewish radical Pierre Goldman was facing the death penalty, accused of committing a double murder during an armed robbery. Goldman admitted to a string of similar robberies, but denied murder. Instead, he put the cops on trial.
His Three Daughters
Three sisters -- Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olson, and Natasha Lyonne -- congregate to attend the final few days of their father's life. They bring with them years of barely-repressed jealousy and resentment, as well as wildly different personalities.
Filtration: Three Colours: Blue
Directly filtering the image that comes into a lens allows cinematographers to vastly alter how a scene looks and feels. We'll analyze the radical ways Kieslowski's closet collaborator, Slawomir Idziak, editorializes in such films as Three Colours: Blue.
Green Border
In her seventies Agnieszka Holland has made a ferocious, emotionally charged film about the brutal treatment of refugees arriving over the Polish land border from Belarus. This is a vehement denunciation of resurgent fascism and utterly compelling cinema.
Lyd
Lyd is the Arab name for 5000-year-old town that is now the Israeli city of Lod. Made by a Palestinian and a Jewish American, this creative non-fiction film excavates the history of this place leading to a detailed examination of the events of 1948.
Amadeus
In which the celebrated court composer Salieri welcomes a much ballyhooed young prodigy to Vienna. To his dismay, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is an impudent, callow upstart. Worse, he's a genius. Winner of 8 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Credits
Producer
Xavier Castano, Christie Molia
Screenwriter
Simon Panay
Cinematography
Simon Panay
Editor
Thomas Marchand, Simon Panay
Original Music
Philippe Fivet
Director
Simon Panay
Simon Panay has directed four short documentaries in West Africa. He received the ARP Young Talent of the Year Award in 2014 and the Documentary Grant from the Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation in 2018. His short film Nobody Dies Here (2016), shot in an illegal mine in Benin, has been screened in 71 countries and has won 133 festival awards.