Canada
2022
In English and Spanish with English subtitles
Violence
Featured in:
VIFF Short Forum: Program 1
What kind of alchemy occurs to transform hardship into fortune? Here, the extraordinary burn brightly.
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Hockney
An engaging, insightful and inspiring film portrait of the late great British and California artist. He’s one of the most accessible figurative painters of the last half century, but look closer, there’s much more to David Hockney than meets the eye.
Peter Asher: Everywhere Man
A chart topping pop star as one half of Peter and Gordon, Peter Asher was brother to Jane, brother in law to Paul McCartney, ran the Beatles' Apple, produced and managed James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, and 10,000 Maniacs, to name just a few. He did it all.
The Crying Game
Notwithstanding its famous twist, Neil Jordan's moody thriller works differently on a second viewing, and hits different in 2026, with its rich and "problematic" stew of identity politics, love, violence and desire.
Romería
An orphan from a young age, 18-year-old Marina intends to pursue a university scholarship. The application, however, requires the signatures of her paternal grandparents, compelling her to embark on a pilgrimage and seek out the family she has never met.
Credits
Producer
Sarah Shamash, Sonia Medel
Screenwriter
Sarah Shamash, Sonia Medel
Cinematography
Angie Rico
Editor
Sarah Shamash
Directors
Sonia Medel
Sonia Medel is currently a PhD Candidate in Education at the University of British Columbia and working as a lead on diverse curatorial and publishing projects. She has been promoting decolonial and intersectional feminist engagement with arts, culture, and education across the Americas for over a decade. A visibly racialized Indigenous-Afro-European descendant, Chilean-Peruvian Latina, Medel is grateful to the Coast Salish peoples and lands on which she was born and primarily develops her practices.
Sarah Shamash
Sarah Shamash is an artist, educator, and media scholar living and raising her son on unsurrendered Indigenous lands in Vancouver. Her works have been shown in curated exhibitions and film festivals internationally. She currently teaches film studies and studio-based practices at the University of British Columbia and Emily Carr University of Art + Design.



