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International Shorts: Family Ties

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The bonds of family form the basis of this program of short films. Bonds with history and responsibility—sometimes close, sometimes strained—now and for the future.

 

Q&A Oct 1 & Oct 3

 

This short film program includes the following films:

Killing Ourselves
Maya Yadlin, Israel (15 min)

A film student and her family drive to the desert to shoot a scene for her latest film, but things quickly deteriorate and nothing goes as planned.

 


Mumu
Mo Sha, China (25 min)

The six-year-old daughter of a deaf-mute couple frustrates her father, who believes she can hear and speak.

 


Baby
Cristina Sánchez Salamanca, Colombia (15 min)

The daughter from a man’s first marriage feels left out and misunderstood at a birthday celebration for her younger stepsister.

 


Ellie
Fernando Bonelli, Spain (20 min)

An emergency room nurse arrives late for work after being involved in a serious car accident and soon has to make life or death choices involving a loved one.

 


Nest
James Hunter, Australia (9 min)

An isolated father haunted by his child’s cries of hunger takes up work as a timber feller, only to find operations halted by a mysterious alarm coming from deep in the woods.

 


Further and Further Away
Polen Ly, Cambodia (24 min)

A young Bunong woman and her older brother spend one last day in their rural Cambodian village before a move to the city in search of a more prosperous life.

 

Community Partner

Director

Various

Country of Origin

Various

Year

2021-2022

Language

Various with English subtitles

18+
108 min
Shorts

Book Tickets

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

Agatha's Almanac

Dir. Amalie Atkins
86 min

Shot over six years on vibrant 16mm film, Agatha’s Almanac is an artful documentary portrait of filmmaker Amalie Atkin’s octogenarian aunt, who has fashioned herself an endearingly simple and self-sustaining lifestyle on her Manitoba farm.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
Modern Whore
Modern Whore film image; woman sitting at the foot of a bed

Modern Whore

Dir. Nicole Bazuin
80 min

In director Nicole Bazuin's cheeky, stylized documentary, Modern Whore-memoirist Andrea Werhun (Paying for It) recounts her experiences as an escort and stripper in Toronto, debunking misconceptions about the world’s oldest profession.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Art of Adventure

Dir. Alison Reid
90 min

The unbelievable adventure story of how painter Robert Bateman and ecologist Bristol Foster drove a Land Rover from Africa to Australia in 1957, developing a love of nature to last a lifetime. An inspirational love letter to the adventure of life itself.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Starwalker

Dir. Corey Payette
116 min

Corey Payette's musical Starwalker blends drag spectacle, Indigenous storytelling, and soaring emotion in a film that celebrates chosen family and the liberating magic of performance.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
4 or 5 Things I Want You to Know About Me (An Essay)
close on a woman

4 or 5 Things I Want You to Know About Me (An Essay)

Dir. Carl Bessai
71 min

Carl Bessai's playful Godardian riff on actors and acting gives us a portfolio of dramatic portraits and monologues focused on half a dozen female performers at different points in their journey. It's a grab-bag of a film, sparky and specific.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Heartbeats

Dir. Xavier Dolan
97 min

With Heartbeats, Xavier Dolan captures the beautiful absurdity of unrequited love: a friendship unravels when both sides fall in love with the same enigmatic stranger.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema