Fear, doubt, and loneliness give way to pleasure, empowerment, and reclamation—or, is it the other way around?
Q&A Oct 2 & Oct 4
This short film program includes the following films:
i see me watching
Sidney Gordon, BC (8 min)
Through formal experimentation based on the artist’s personal struggle with gender identity, a singular self has been split into two.
Scaring Women at Night
Karimah Zakia Issa, ON (11 min)
Two strangers walking alone at night in the same direction notice each other. While one becomes increasingly afraid, the other tries—unsuccessfully—to appear less threatening.
Blond Night
Gabrielle Demers, QC (17 min)
Worlds entwine when Victor, an autistic man who resides in a housing community, goes for a walk and meets Jessy, a sex worker ejected from a customer’s vehicle.
Adore
Beth Warrian, ON (11 min)
Luci, a queer Peruvian-Canadian woman, gives her beloved nephew the Christmas gift of his dreams: a beautiful sequined dress. But when he tries to show the rest of the family, Luci finds herself enacting the same restrictions and shaming she has experienced herself.
First Months of Freedom
Kriss Li, QC (10 min)
Cat, a transgender woman in Tennessee, has completed parole. Using phone videos, Skype calls, archival material, and footage shot by a friend, a portrait emerges of the challenges posed by her newfound freedom.
Tongue
Kaho Yoshida, BC (2 min)
Tired of her date’s racist and sexist comments, a woman decides to liberate his tongue.
Patty Vs. Patty
Chris Strikes, ON (19 min)
In 1985, Jamaican bakers went head-to-head with the Canadian government over the name of the beef patty, as recounted by Michael Davidson of Kensington Patty Palace.
Minus Twenty
Jack Parker, AB (7 min)
A day in the life of a cold storage facility worker.
Sikiitu
Gabriel Allard Gagnon, QC (21 min)
A coming-of-age story in the small Arctic village of Ivujivik, where teenage Ali would rather spend his time dreaming of being a hip-hop superstar instead of going hunting with his dad.
Supported by
Community Broadcast Partner
Community Partner
Various
Canada
2021-2022
Various with English subtitles
Sexual Violence, Racial Discrimination
Open to youth!
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Fairy Creek
Considered the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history, the Fairy Creek blockade led to more than 1200 arrests. What Jen Muranetz's film gives us is the story from the front line from the activists' point of view (often, from the treetops).
Super Happy Forever
This beguiling film depicts a man’s return to the Japanese seaside town where he met his now-deceased wife five years earlier. He tries to relive the past, and in the film's final section -- a flashback to 2018 -- the audience is afforded that privilege.
Inedia
Liz Cairns makes a mesmerizing feature debut that sees a young woman suffering from mysterious food allergies join a remote island community practicing alternative healing methods. She soon realizes that not everything is as it seems.
Drop Dead City
New York, 1975. The city is minutes away from bankruptcy and President Gerald Ford wants no part of it. Sanitation workers are on strike and cops are telling tourists it's not safe to visit. The town is going up in flames and they can't pay the firemen.
Boxcutter
The first feature from former Toronto Flow OTA Live host and producer Reza Dahya is a boisterous, sometimes bruising day-in-the-life of wannabe rapper Rome (Ashton James), set on meeting megastar Richie Hill (Rich Kidd).