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
No Other Land
Deemed by many critics one of the essential films of 2024, a multiple festival award winner and Academy Award winner for Best Documentary, No Other Land is a reminder that mass expulsion is by no means a new reality for Palestinians.
The Way, My Way
All manner of pilgrims flock to France and Spain to walk the 800 km Camino de Santiago. One such is Bill, a stroppy sexagenarian Australian filmmaker who's determined to do the Camino with minimal prep, a dickey leg, and no firm idea why.
Resident Orca
Captured in Puget Sound in 1970, killer whale Lolita spent the next half century in a cramped tank in Seaquarium, Miami. The film follows a coalition of Lummi elders, animal lovers and philanthropists on a rescue mission to return her to the ocean.
Misericordia
Edgy, eccentric, and unapologetically queer, this film goes from drama to comedy without putting a foot wrong. Sex and murder are the subjects, and writer-director Alain Guiraudie (Stranger by the Lake) mines them for suspense and outrageous laughs.
The Stand
This rousing doc explores a 1985 dispute over logging in the Haida Gwaii. Taking us from canny retrospective commentary to the thick of the action, director Chris Auchter employs animation and a wealth of archival footage to riveting effect.
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)