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It's Raining Frogs Outside film image, director Maria Estela Paiso

MODES 1

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Visions of dark impulses are given the spotlight and invite an opportunity to reflect on the personal in relation to the political, examining structural inequity and its impact on the individual, as well as individual acts and their impacts on our structures. From Congo to China, and the Philippines to Poland, the end is nigh.

 

This short film program includes the following films:

Lake of Fire
NEOZOON, Germany (11 min)

Fear of death and interpretations of hell filter through online social bubbles to distill a singular divine message.

 


The Stopover
Collectif Faire-part, Belgium/DR Congo (14 min)

Travelling from Kinshasa to Frankfurt, filmmakers Paul Shemisi and Nizar Saleh find themselves unjustly relegated to airport purgatory.


Very, Very, Tremendously
Guangli Liu, China/France (12 min)

Virtual currency and digital junk, along with virtual acts of production and consumption, interact with systems in our lived reality, highlighting their coexistence in geopolitical conflicts.

 


It’s Raining Frogs Outside
Maria Estela Paiso, Philippines (14 min)

Forced to return to the Philippines as the world abruptly closes, Maya recedes into a terrorizing solitude and a fever dream of mixed animation ensues.

 


The Earth Will Swallow it All
Dominik Ritszel, Poland (9 min)

A period of rapid modernization in Poland in the 1990s brought with it anxiety and fears inflicted by hegemonic order and a complete disregard for the social costs or traumatic after-effects.

 


Watch the Fire or Burn Inside it
Caroline Poggi, Jonathan Vinel, France (19 min)

In Corsica, a woman chooses to care for the earth by burning it.

Director

Various

Country of Origin

Various

Year

2021-2022

Language

Various with English subtitles

18+
79 min
Shorts

Book Tickets

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

Prosecution

Dir. Faraz Shariat
113 min

When a young German prosecutor of Korean origin is attacked, she suspects a racist conspiracy and pursues the truth in defiance of her superiors. Prosecution is a film for our moment: a thriller that confronts the far-right head-on.

International Village 8
Rebecca Horn – the Secret Life of Things
Rebecca Horn film image; woman in a empty room holding out her arms with makeshift scissorhands

Rebecca Horn – the Secret Life of Things

Dir. Claudia Müller
90 min

Rebecca Horn's extraordinary biography is interwoven with her surreal oeuvre. An essential document of one of the 20th century's most influential artists, Rebecca Horn – The Secret Life of Things celebrates the unsung legacy of a pioneering visionary.

Image: © Rebecca Horn

International Village 10
What Remains
What Remains film image; woman looking out at the water

What Remains

Dir. Yeşim Ustaoğlu
126 min

Stuck in a big city in a mind-numbing domestic routine, a young poetess finds herself at crossroads when her role as a mother and wife starts to overshadow her identity as an artist.

International Village 9
School for Defectors
School for Defectors film image; person standing by a desk speaking

School for Defectors

Dir. Jeremy Workman
92 min

School for Defectors is an intimate and quietly uplifting documentary that follows a group of 20 teenagers, children of North Korean defectors, as they adjust to life and education at Jangdaehyun School in Busan, South Korea.

Fifth Avenue Cinema - 19+ only

Fruit Gathering

Dir. Aung Phyoe
97 min

Achingly sensual and graced with fine performances, Fruit Gathering depicts embattled desire in a conservative society. Two working-class women fall into a romantic relationship in contemporary Myanmar — but is their love real, or borne of desperation?

International Village 10
Short Forum 7: War at Home
Rotation film image; upside down image of woman sitting in a field

Short Forum 7: War at Home

107 min

Truly, no one is safe until everyone is safe.

International Village 8