Canadian Premiere
In 1870s Arizona, a pair of drifters (Kiowa Gordon and John Way) are on a quest to find a legendary musician (Howe Gelb) when they team up with an Indigenous woman (Lily Gladstone) intent on reclaiming her land. Sounds like the setup to a classic Western, right? Instead, it’s but the springboard for a deep dive into a multiverse in which a dozen different mediums—including 16mm, paper cutouts, rotoscoping, hand-drawn animation, oil paints, 8k video, collage, and digital animation—are employed to distinguish between the disparate realities navigated by an ensemble of rogues.
Cerebral, psychedelic, and just plain silly in turns, physics scholar-turned-filmmaker Geoff Marslett’s staggeringly ambitious Quantum Cowboys is overwhelming in the most exhilarating way possible: a deliriously entertaining maelstrom of metaphysical ruminations, gunplay, musical interludes (Neko Case and John Doe stop by to croon tunes), and folksy wisdom (“Planning just insults the future.”). Playing out like a peyote-fueled fever dream, it serves notice that there are still new filmmaking frontiers to be explored.
Best Original Music Award, Annecy 2022
Media Partner
Kiowa Gordon, Lily Gladstone, John Way, David Arquette, Frank Mosley, Gary Farmer
USA
2022
In English and Spanish with English subtitles
At The Cinematheque
At The Rio
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The American Friend
Wim Wenders' take on Patricia Highsmith's Ripley's Game is the real deal, an authentic mittel-European neo-noir, with Dennis Hopper as the original American psycho, Tom Ripley. This Film Studies screening is introduced by Patricia Gruben.
Turner & Constable
Filmed as a supplement to a blockbuster exhibition at Tate Britain happening right now, this doc in the popular Exhibition on Screen series allows us to view these competitive, complementary English landscape artists side by side.
The President's Cake
Nine year old Lamia and her friend Saeed venture into the city to scrounge ingredients for a cake to celebrate Sadaam Hussein's birthday — a quest fraught with real peril in precarious times. Winner, Camera d'Or, Cannes.
Credits
Executive Producer
David Arquette, Lily Gladstone, Kiowa Gordon
Producer
William Way, Melodie Sisk, Geoff Marslett
Screenwriter
Geoff Marslett
Cinematography
Jon Firestone, Adam J. Minnick
ANIM
Geoff Marslett
Editor
Matt Latham, Ian Holden, Tom Wilson
Original Music
Howe Gelb, The Colorist Orchestra, Maciej Zielinski, XIXA, Neko Case, John Doe
Director
Geoff Marslett
Geoff Marslett is a Texas-born animator, director, writer, producer, and actor. His work often revolves around the romance of connection and the way exploring your universe changes you and the place you explore. He grew up a cowboy with an interest in physics, and has worked in both construction and science before becoming a filmmaker. He adores feral cats and still genuinely loves making things. He splits his time between teaching at the University of Colorado and making his own films.
Filmography: Six in Austin: Out of Bounds (2002); Mars (2010); Loves Her Gun (2012)