Juno nominated Cris Derksen is an internationally respected Indigenous cellist and composer. Originally from Treaty 8 in Northern Alberta, she comes from NorthTall Cree Reserve on her father’s side and Mennonite homesteaders on her mother’s.
Derksen will introduce audiences to the unforgettable virtuosity that has led to her break-out solo career, while also collaborating with some of Canada’s Finest; Tanya Tagaq, Buffy Sainte Marie, Naomi Klein, and Leanne Simpson to name just a few.
About the Ironworks Series
VIFF Live is giving four Resident Artists the opportunity to immerse themselves in the 2023 Festival and perform at The Ironworks.
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Cris Derksen
Cellist/Composer
Juno-nominated Cris Derksen is an Internationally respected Indigenous cellist and composer. Originally from Treaty 8 in Northern Alberta, she comes from NorthTall Cree Reserve on her father’s side and Mennonite homesteaders on her mother’s. Derksen’s composition strength lies in her diversity for all artistic fields including dance, theatre, film, television, animation, fashion, podcasts, symphonic, chamber, choral, and installations. She performs as soloist-composer for symphonies and chamber orchestras across Canada and has been commissioned by the Calgary Philharmonic, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Thunder Bay Symphony and Orchestre Metropolitan – Yannick Nézet-Séguin. In 2022 Derksen was the composer for the Canadian Pavilion for the World Expo in Dubai. Her work on the podcast Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s by Connie Walker and Gimlet Media won both a Pulitzer and a Peabody. Derksen is always up for the challenge of bringing an Indigenous perspective to all aspects of sonic storytelling.
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
All the Lovers in the Night
A lonely proofreader's isolated world begins to open through an unlikely friendship with a gentle physics teacher. Based on Mieko Kawakami's acclaimed novel, this luminous drama is a delicate meditation on loneliness, intimacy, and self-discovery.
Clarissa
Arie and Chuko Esiri’s Clarissa brings Mrs. Dalloway to present-day Lagos, with Sophie Okonedo playing the titular society hostess opposite David Oyelowo, Ayo Edebiri, and India Amarteifio in a Nigerian vision of class, privilege, and past lives.
Image: © Courtesy of Elevation Pictures
Opening Gala: The Debut
VIFF is honoured to open the festival with this special by-invitation screening of Jesse Eisenberg's The Debut. When meek Mona (Julianne Moore) lands a part in a musical, she fully inhabits her character, but grows increasingly untethered from reality.
Árru
Set against the mountains and fjords of northern Norway, Árru follows reindeer herder Maia as a proposed copper mine threatens her Sámi community, forcing her to fight to protect both her community and the land that sustains it.
The Beloved
When Esteban Martínez, an acclaimed director with violent tendences, invites his estranged daughter to star in his latest project, the stage is set for a familial reconnection. But as tensions flare, questions about his intentions rise to the surface.
MODES 1
Archive and the land reveal other ways of seeing, ensuring that what is meant to endure cannot be erased.