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Ponto Final film image, director Miguel López Beraza

International Shorts: Personal Journeys

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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

Director

Various

Country of Origin

Various

Year

2021-2022

Language

Various with English subtitles

18+
105 min
Shorts

Book Tickets

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

Romería

Dir. Carla Simón
112 min

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.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Crying Game

Dir. Neil Jordan
112 min

Notwithstanding its famous twist, Neil Jordan's moody thriller works differently on a second viewing, and hits different in 2026, with its rich and "problematic" stew of identity politics, love, violence and desire.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Orlando

Dir. Sally Potter
94 min

Sally Potter's 1992 playful and swoon-worthy masterpiece Orlando, the filmmaker's inspired take on Virginia Woolf's novel, stars Tilda Swinton as the Elizabethan nobleman who lives for centuries, first as a man, and latterly as a woman...

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

One False Move

Dir. Carl Franklin
105 min

Billy Bob Thornton and his partners in crime (Michael Beach, and Cynda Williams) hightail it out of Los Angeles with a trunk-ful of dope, but drive into a world of trouble. This unjustly forgotten thriller will keep you on your toes.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Basic Instinct

Dir. Paul Verhoeven
127 min

Sharon Stone became a big star on the back of Paul Verhoeven's slippery erotic thriller, a twisted murder mystery in which the homicide detective (Michael Douglas) can be read as the real villain — and the fall guy.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Ask E. Jean

Dir. Ivy Meeropol
91 min

An inspiring and engaging portrait of E. Jean Carroll, the trailblazing journalist, author and advice columnist who stood up to power and beat Donald Trump in court, twice.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre