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.
Various
Various
2021-2022
Various with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Tokyo Taxi
An overworked taxi driver takes 85-year-old Madame Sumire on a final journey through Tokyo, revisiting the places that shaped her life. Yoji Yamada’s 91st film is a moving, heartwarming love letter to Tokyo, nominated for nine Japanese Academy Awards.
KAKU KAKU SHIKA JIKA fka Blank Canvas: My So-Called Artist's Journey
Adapted from acclaimed manga artist Akiko Higashimura’s autobiographical manga is a funny and sharply observed coming-of-age story about the creative awakening of a master of manga.
A Sad and Beautiful World
This Lebanese love story chronicles the romance between a level-headed businesswoman and a romantic restauranteur across several decades in wartorn Beirut. It's funny, charming, melancholy and you'll feel it all.
Blue Boy Trial
Transgender filmmaker Kasho Iizuka revisits 1960s Japan and the sensational “Blue Boy Trial,” sparked by the arrest of a doctor performing sex reassignment surgeries. With trans actors in central roles, the film powerfully illuminates buried history, identity, dignity, and resilience.
Aruku - I Walk
This meditative documentary, captures the stories of four contemporary pilgrims on the Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage as they follow in the footsteps of master Kūkai, the monk who shaped Japanese Buddhism. Each is burdened, in different ways, by exhaustion, solitude, or quiet disillusionment.