The films in this shorts program are all about discovery. Beautiful and thought-provoking voyages of internal and external discovery that honour relations and history, while encountering stimuli that promote a new understanding of self.
Q&A Oct 4 & Oct 6
This short film program includes the following films:
Before Birth
Álex Mena, Carmen Jiménez, Spain (20 min)
A documentary/diary film that focuses on one of the directors, Álex Mena, who journeys to her grandmother’s village looking for a closure never realized after she died.
Firecracker Bullets
Chad Charlie, USA (14 min)
In this personal documentary, Indigenous comedian Chad Charlie goes to participate in the Standing Rock occupation and has a transformative experience.
Ponto Final
Miguel López Beraza, Spain/Portugal (23 min)
The director returns to his parents’ home and talks them into playing roles in a film he is making, addressing delicate personal and familial subjects in the process.
Will You Look at Me
Shuli Huang, China (20 min)
A 25-year-old gay man returns to his hometown in China after film school, and reflects how his coming out as gay affected (and continues to affect) his mother.
For You Today the Light of the Sun Will Not Shine
Andrea Bordoli, Switzerland (19 min)
Two construction workers wander through a hybrid natural-industrial zone by day and night, exploring and discovering seemingly insignificant details.
Empire of My Melodious Mind
Jeannette Louie, USA (9 min)
The odds and ends within a single cabinet spark an interior rumination of the self, family, and culture that form the identity of an American-born Asian woman.
Community Partner
Various
Various
2021-2022
Various with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Delicatessen
Amelie director Jean-Pierre Jeunet collaborated with Marc Caro on their first film, a breathlessly inventive and unexpectedly charming comedy about two young lovers evading a cannibal butcher in a post-apocalyptic France.
Democracy Under Siege
As the USA turns 250, Oscar-nominated director Laura Nix considers the roots of the current political crisis with commentary from historian Heather Cox Richardson, progressive politician Jamie Raskin, and cartoonist Ann Telnaes, among others.
Everybody to Kenmure Street
This rousing documentary (100% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) never puts a foot wrong as it recreates a tense, prolonged stand-off between the police and the citizens of Glasgow when an Immigration Enforcement squad attempt to arrest two men from their homes.
Boyz n the Hood
Twenty-three-year-old writer-director John Singleton's groundbreaking portrait of three young men growing up in South Central is a film of integrity and compassion. It's a far richer portrait of Black lives than Hollywood's gangsta exploitation pics.
Romería
An orphan from a young age, 18-year-old Marina intends to pursue a university scholarship. The application, however, requires the signatures of her paternal grandparents, compelling her to embark on a pilgrimage and seek out the family she has never met.