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Parasite Family film image, director Prapat Jiwarangsan

MODES 2

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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.

Director

Various

Country of Origin

Various

Year

2021-2022

Language

Various with English subtitles

18+
78 min
Shorts

Book Tickets

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

The Blue Trail
The Blue Trail film image; woman admiring a giant garden sculpture of a human face

The Blue Trail

Dir. Gabriel Mascaro
86 min

In a near-future Brazil, elderly citizens are forcibly relocated to live out their days in a senior housing colony. When 77-year-old Tereza learns that she will soon be taken away, she embarks on a fantastical odyssey into the Amazon.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema Granville Island Stage

Shifting Baselines

Dir. Julien Elie
100 min

Towering rockets rise as wetlands vanish in this sly black-and-white documentary about SpaceX’s conquest of Boca Chica, Texas. With sci-fi aesthetics and observational calm, the film exposes how cosmic dreams begin with the quiet erasure of Earth.

International Village 8
A Poet
A Poet film image; man shouting while running

A Poet

Dir. Simón Mesa Soto
120 min

When embittered poet Oscar Restrepo takes a job at a local high school, he meets Yurlady, a talented student from a poor background. Seeking to help her cultivate her art, he draws her into the poetry world — to disastrous and comedic results.

International Village 9

La Salsa Vive

Dir. Juan Carvajal
103 min

An exuberant celebration of salsa that traces the genre's evolution from New York City in the 1960s and 70s to Cali, Colombia — the salsa capital of the world. Carvajal’s documentary highlights the rich legacy of this musical form and the joy it inspires.

International Village 7
Memory of Princess Mumbi
Memory of Princess Mumbi film image; two people leaning on each other sitting in a falling-apart jungle city

Memory of Princess Mumbi

Dir. Damien Hauser
80 min

Can a filmmaker depict the future without AI? Damien Hauser crafts a genre-blending Afro-speculative fable about love, war, and the future of storytelling in a resurrected African kingdom. A micro-budget epic fueled by digital invention and heart.

Fifth Avenue Cinema - 19+ only International Village 9

Winter Light

Dir. Cho Hyun-suh
90 min

Da-bin has a broke mother, a runaway brother, and a sister who’s going deaf, but gets by thanks to his best friend and caring girlfriend. Poignant and poetic, this is a film that explores the pain of adolescence and the stress of competing loyalties.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema