Directed by renowned theatre artist and film director Marie Clements, Lay Down Your Heart is a touching tribute to Niall McNeil, a multi-talented artist in theatre and various other mediums, who happens to be a person living with Down Syndrome. From having grown up in Caravan Farm Theatre, and co-writing plays like King Arthur’s Night, McNeil has established himself as an integral part of the Vancouver theatre scene. We are introduced to the artist’s rich inner world and meet his ‘family members’—who may not be blood relations, but are surely heart relations. Very much a labour of love, this documentary features well-known figures and collaborators from the theatre and artistic community, all voicing praise and affection for McNeil. Shot mostly in front of an all-white backdrop with McNeil’s drawings animated on-screen, the film has a distinctly playful visual style. Colourful, full of joy, and possessing an imaginative spirit, Lay Down Your Heart is a heartwarming celebration of a local artist who has succeeded on his own terms.
Q&A Oct 6 & Oct 9
Media Partner
Canada
2022
English
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Flow
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Obsessed with Light
Nearly a century after her death Loie Fuller is still inspiring artists like Taylor Swift, Shakira, Bill T Jones and William Kentridge. She became world famous as an innovative dancer, combining fabric, lighting effects and movement in revolutionary ways.
Food Bank Benefit Screening: Hundreds of Beavers
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Babylon
Damien Chazelle's second Hollywood on Hollywood movie (after La La Land) follows Margot Robbie as a starlet on the make at the tail end of the silent film era in the late 1920s, and a couple of friends she makes along the way.
Ernest Cole: Lost and Found
Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro) tells the story of South African photographer Ernest Cole, who captured some of the most vivid and compelling images of the apartheid regime in the 1960s but died in near obscurity in the USA just as Mandela was released.
Credits
Executive Producer
Shirley Vercruysse
Producer
Shirley Vercruysse
Screenwriter
Marie Clements, Niall McNeill
Cinematography
Mike McKinlay
Editor
Sarah Hedar
Production Design
James Boatman
Original Music
Wayne Lavallee
Director
Marie Clements
A writer, director, and producer whose career has spanned film, TV, radio, and live performance, Marie Clements is a Dene/Métis filmmaker and the founder of Marie Clements Media, a production company specializing in the creation and production of media works that ignite an Indigenous and intercultural reality. Her dramatic feature debut Red Snow (2019) received numerous awards including Most Popular Canadian Feature at VIFF and Best Director at the American Indian Film Festival. Clements’ 2017 documentary The Road Forward opened the DOXA Documentary Film Festival, received multiple awards, and has screened at more than 300 venues in North America.
Filmography: The Road Forward (2017); Red Snow (2019)