Skip to main content
Something in the Dirt film image, co-directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead

Something in the Dirt

This event has passed

Determined to escape perpetually post-apocalyptic Los Angeles, Levi (Justin Benson) instead falls in with John (Aaron Moorhead), a kindred conspiracy theorist. After witnessing an inexplicable event in Levi’s apartment, the neighbours become intent on monetizing the paranormal activity by shooting a Netflix-style docuseries. Convincing themselves that they’re piecing together a grand puzzle consisting of (but hardly limited to) numerology, symbology, energy fields, and mass simulations, they plunge through the looking glass and tumble down a succession of rabbit holes.

Serving as directors, producers, editors, stars, writer (Benson) and cinematographer (Moorhead), this dynamic duo, last seen at VIFF with 2017’s The Endless, remain the standard bearers for DIY speculative cinema. Their on-screen chemistry and adroitness with cinematic sleights of hand anchor their latest film even as Levi and John spiral further into delusion. Ultimately, it’s Benson and Moorhead’s infectious enthusiasm for mining mystery and endless possibility from the mundane that makes this lo-fi sci-fi spectacle so captivating.

 

Media Partner

Directors

Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead

Cast

Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead

Credits
Country of Origin

USA

Year

2022

Language

English

19+
116 min

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

Short Forum 1: The Scarier One
Object of Riddle film image; a disproportionate metal face

Short Forum 1: The Scarier One

93 min

The return of scary: fear in all its chilling, suspenseful, and unsettling shades.

International Village 8

That Shadow Fading

Dir. Samuel Urbina
76 min

Samuel Urbina's feature debut is a quiet, deeply affecting mother and son drama following Sol, a single mother about to become an empty nester as her son Junior prepares to move to Lima upon graduating college.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
The Only Living Pickpocket in New York
The Only Living Pickpocket in New York film image; man walking down a city street

The Only Living Pickpocket in New York

Dir. Noah Segan
88 min

A career thief’s circumstances grow desperate when he fences valuable merchandise stolen from a vengeful crime family. John Turturro is exquisite as a wiseacre who is typically one step ahead of everyone but now finds himself behind the eight ball.

Vancouver Playhouse The Rio Theatre

Gabin

Dir. Maxence Voiseux
105 min

Filmed over 10 years, Gabin follows Gabin Jourdel from age 8 to 18 and the animals, schoolwork, chores, and imagined futures that define his youth. As he grows, his adolescence becomes a question of inheritance and choosing one’s own future.

International Village 10

Frank & Louis

Dir. Petra Volpe
95 min

In a bid to increase his changes at parole, Frank joins an initiative where long-term inmates care for aging prisoners suffering from dementia. But when he meets the elderly Louis, it puts his own predicament into perspective.

Fifth Avenue Cinema - 19+ only
Iron Boy
Iron Boy film image; 2D animated boy looking at clouds

Iron Boy

Dir. Louis Clichy
90 min

Iron Boy, a hand-painted animated feature, follows a hardworking preteen farm boy and his sublime flights of fancy as he faces the earthshaking upheavals of growing up in an iron back brace. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes 2026.

Image: © Eddy Cinema, Beside Productions, Regular Production, France 3 Cinema, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Cinéma, RTBF

Lindsay Family Stage at Granville Island

Credits

Producer

David Lawson, Aaron Moorhead, Justin Benson

Screenwriter

Justin Benson

Editor

Michael Felker, Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead

Production Design

Ariel Vida

Original Music

Jimmy LaValle

Art Director

Catherine Simon