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
Palimpsest: The Story of a Name
Drawing on home movies and diaries from the 1930s, 40s, 50s and 60s, Canadian filmmaker Mary Stephen (Eric Rohmer's editor for many years) investigates the origins of her surname. After all, she was born in Hong Kong to Chinese parents. Or were they... ?
Buffalo '66
Vincent Gallo's directorial debut is an eccentric, provocative comedy which laces a poignant love story with both a sombre, washed-out naturalism and surreal musical vignettes. This one is something different...
Run Lola Run
In the hyper intense world of pre-millennial Berlin, Lola has just 20 minutes to come up with a 100,000 Deutchmarks or her boyfriend cops it. He's asking the right woman: Lola won't stop til she's saved the day... It's Speed, in the multiverse...
Saving Private Ryan
Steven Spielberg's gripping war movie was hailed as an instant classic in 1998, and he won his second Academy Award in five years for Best Director. Matt Damon takes the title role, Tom Hanks is charged with bringing him home from the front.
Searching for Satyrus
Award-winning filmmaker and photographer Rena Effendi embarks on a quest to track down the very rare Satyrus Effendi, a butterfly discovered by her father in the mountains of Aberbaijain. But what she finds is altogether more personal, and more upsetting.


