Kiawentiio, Emilie Bierre, Isla Grant, Aiden Howard, Riley Davis
Canada
2021
English
Coarse language
Featured in:
VIFF Short Forum: Program 6
Cinematic form is given to life’s big mysteries: luck and fate, love and loss, and the spiritual supernatural.
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
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.
Seeds
Shot over nine years, Brittany Shyne’s Sundance-winning documentary is a tender portrait of Black farming families in the American South. A moving meditation on land, legacy, and the strength it takes to hold on.
Mr. Nobody Against Putin
Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary, and Special Jury Prize Winner, Sundance, 2025, this exposé shot by a Russian primary teacher shows how the Putin propaganda machine works to militarize children.
Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story
Harlem-based photographer, freedom fighter and activist Kwame Brathwaite took 500,000 photos across his 70-year career, always devoted to celebrating the joy and beauty of African American life. Brathwaite pioneered the idea that Black is Beautiful.
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.
A Poet
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.
Credits
Producer
Mike Johnston
Screenwriter
Asia Youngman
Cinematography
Alfonso Chin
Editor
Sarah Hedar
Production Design
Amanda Christmas
Asia Youngman
Asia Youngman is a director and screenwriter based in Vancouver. Asia wrote and directed the short film Hatha (2021) and her short documentary This Ink Runs Deep (2019) had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Most recently, she was the recipient of the Directors Guild of Canada BC Emerging Greenlight with her latest short film N’xaxaitkw (2022), which was nominated for five Leo Awards. Asia’s television credits include Odd Squad Mobile Unit (PBS, TVO) and Amplify (APTN). She is currently in post-production on a feature documentary with ESPN.



