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Island of Freedom film image, director Petr Januschka

International Shorts: Connect/Disconnect/Reconnect

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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.

 

Q&A Oct 2 & Oct 4

 

This short film program includes the following films:

Bye Bye
Amélie Bonnin, France (25 min)

A man who left his native Normandy to build a bigger life for himself in Paris returns to his hometown, where he runs into an old flame.

 


A Different Place
Sophie Black, UK (14 min)

On a clandestine date, a 40-something woman battling with her identity embarks on a journey of rediscovery that she cannot ignore nor fully encompass.

 


Island of Freedom
Petr Januschka, Czech Republic (27 min)

It’s 1981 in Czechoslovakia, and a young man surprisingly reunites with his teen love on board a charter flight to Cuba.

 


The Ceremony
Lisle Turner, UK (10 min)

Written by Iman Qureshi, The Ceremony is a searingly honest take on non-binary marriage, with a twist.

 


The Cormorant
Lubna Playoust, France (23 min)

A mother and son live in a secluded house on an isolated island, where memory merges with the present, intertwining two moments of their lives—youth and maturity.

 


Magnified City
Isaku Kaneko, Japan (12 min)

In a ruined city, a wandering Magnifying Glass Human encounters a secret society of Projector Humans with grand plans to reconnect to the past in a surviving mountaintop theatre.

 

Community Partner

Director

Various

Country of Origin

Various

Year

2021-2022

Language

Various with English subtitles

18+
111 min
Shorts

Book Tickets

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

The Teacher

Dir. Farah Nabulsi
118 min

In this potent thriller, English teacher Basem witnesses the murder of a teenager by a Israeli settler. While the subsequent investigation rolls slowly towards a foregone conclusion, the teacher is caught up in a parallel kidnapping case...

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Bob Trevino Likes It

Dir. Tracie Laymon
102 min

When her toxic, narcissistic dad cuts her out of his life, Lily Trevino looks him up on Facebook and happens across his namesake, Bob (John Leguizamo), a gentle, genial contractor who lives nearby, and who proves an altogether better dad...

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Encampments

Dir. Michael T. Workman & Kei Pritsker
82 min

When pro-Palestine protests took hold of Columbia last year, the filmmakers were there from the beginning. This documentary charts the mounting tensions between students and the administration, as the protests were picked up across North America.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Shepherds

Dir. Sophie Deraspe
113 min

Mathyas quits his marketing job in Montreal and goes to France with the romantic notion of becoming a shepherd. He's in for a rude awakening... Based on a true story, Deraspe's stirring film plays spiritual uplift off against some 3000 sheep and a donkey.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Our Lady of the Nile

Dir. Atiq Rahimi
106 min

Veronica and Virginia are inseparable friends at an elite Catholic boarding school, Our Lady of the Nile, but what binds them together is the very thing that separates them forever. We are in Rwanda, 1973, and tribal tensions are simmering ominously.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Faces

Dir. John Cassavetes
130 min

Ten years after his landmark debut, Shadows, John Cassavetes returned to the indie model, self-financing this wrenching portrait of the sexual mores and miseries of American middle class. Gena Rowlands is luminous as Jeannie, the film's emotional barometer.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema