Izaiah Dockery, Kavita Musty, Dashawn Blackwood
Canada
2022
English
Sexual Violence; coarse language
Featured in:
VIFF Short Forum: Program 2
Fear, doubt, and loneliness give way to pleasure, empowerment, and reclamation—or, is it the other way around?
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
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.
How Dare You?
A bug-loving boy, a passionate classmate, and a troublemaker launch playful eco-protests against their town’s careless habits. As their missions escalate, they face real consequences in Director O’s witty, bittersweet Grand Jury Prize winner from the Toronto Japanese Film Festival.
Credits
Executive Producer
Shant Joshi
Producer
Lindsay Blair Goeldner, Rosalind Goodwin
Screenwriter
Ace Clamber
Cinematography
Ashley Iris Gill
Editor
Nicole Sison
Production Design
Chelsy Althea
Art Director
Krista Barleta
Director
Karimah Zakia Issa
Karimah Zakia Issa is a Montreal native and London and Toronto-based filmmaker whose work is centred around crafting stories that dive into themes of overcoming and succumbing to social expectations, how self-worth is built and broken, and the dark truths that live within us all. Her project Lanes (2020) is an educational narrative dance piece that explores responsibility and participation in present-day social justice movements. Alongside her co-writer Ace Clamber, she’s developing a feature that explores a son’s journey of reconnecting with his estranged father online.


