Looking closer at archival images and stories from the past, these artists re-examine and re-create to establish history anew. A daring mix of approaches that excavate new ways of seeing old perspectives.
Q&A Oct 1, Oct 4 & Oct 8
This short film program includes the following films:
Prelude Op. 28 No.2
Jenni Toikka, Finland (9 min)
Two distinct interpretations of Chopin’s notable repertory prelude, immortalized in Ingmar Bergman’s Autumn Sonata, now receive an updated treatment, with a shifting focal gaze and staging that implicates the performer as the listener and listener as the performer.
Laika
Deborah Stratman, USA (5 min)
Some forms we can only know by their shadow. Laika is an homage to the spirits of space test dogs, or any being we use in the name of progress.
Parasite Family
Prapat Jiwarangsan, Thailand (6 min)
Re-discovered film negatives represent families of affluence who absorbed Thailand’s wealth, like parasites. The journey from analog to digital, and finally to AI-generated images, gradually evolves these captured faces into a new species of monster.
The Fruit Tree
Isabelle Tollenaere, Belgium (15 min)
For Sharleece, looking out of the window of a house for rent in a desert town where she lives evokes unexpected memories of her childhood home in Los Angeles. The passing of time is ever-present.
Saving Some Random Insignificant Stories
Anna Vasof, Austria/Greece (14 min)
As a point of departure for Anna Vasof, a survey of the damage left by a flood in her parents’ house reveals a simple yet multilayered work about memory, loss, and how we deal with the past.
Neighbour Abdi
Douwe Dijkstra, The Netherlands (29 min)
How can you understand a violent history? Abdi reenacts his life in Somalia, marked by war and criminality, with the help of his neighbour and filmmaker Douwe Dijkstra (Green Screen Gringo, MODES 2016). Through playful reconstructions in a special effects studio, they embark on a candid and investigative journey through Abdi’s painful past, focusing on the creative process.
Various
Various
2021-2022
Various with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Baltimorons
An early Xmas present and the rom-com of the year: a dental emergency on Christmas Eve brings together flailing comedian Chris and cynical divorcee Didi for a series of low-key urban misadventures.
You Got Gold: A Celebration of John Prine
A remarkable line up of artists come together to share their love for the great American singer-songwriter John Prine, including Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Bonnie Raitt, Brandi Carlile, Jason Isbell, Kurt Vile and Kasey Musgraves.
The Secret Agent
Having run afoul of an influential bureaucrat in Brazil’s military dictatorship circa 1977, Marcelo decamps to Recife to live under an assumed name — but he’ll soon come to understand precisely how rampant the country’s corruption has become.
Cutting Through Rocks
Winner of Sundance's World Cinema Documentary Grand Jury Prize, Cutting Through Rocks follows Sara Shahverdi — motorcyclist, midwife, and first-ever councilwoman elected in her Iranian village. A vérité triumph by Sara Khaki & Mohammadreza Eyni.
