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.
Community Partner
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Guest
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
The Graduate
In The Graduate Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman, 30 playing 20 with masterly understatement) comes home from college and is surprised to be seduced by the wife of his father's business partner, Mrs Robinson (Anne Bancroft).
blur: To the End
Now in their late 50s, Britpopsters blur (of Song 2 fame) do a celebratory lap of Great Britain culminating in their first ever Wembley Stadium show in this appealing observational doc. A companion piece to the concert film Live at Wembley Stadium.
Midnight Cowboy
Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman are street hustlers on different ends of the innocence / experience spectrum who establish something more than a business partnership in the seedy world of late 60s New York City in John Schlesinger's New Hollywood classic.
Sinners
This year's unexpected box office sleeper is that rare beast, a genre movie full of bold invention and surprise. We are in Mississippi in the early 1930s, and the opening of a new blues joint on the edge of town is the signal for all hell to break out.
The Headless Woman
The pictures tell the story -- and you better not blink -- when Veronica (the superb Maria Onetto) hits something on the road home. But what? She is too traumatized, or panic-stricken, to go back and look, and her fears are too terrible to acknowledge.