The camera eye knows no bounds in these stories that push the limits of gravity and grace.
Q&A Oct 3 & Oct 5
This short film program includes the following films:
Tidal
Chloe Van Landschoot, NS (10 min)
Examining the cyclical nature of workplace trauma and the relentlessness of health care work, the daily grind of a bedside nurse is embodied through movement, rhythm, and dance.
Chasing Birds
Una Lorenzen, QC/Iceland (8 min)
A hand-drawn animation of parallel universes in which strangers, unaware of each other’s presence, share the use of a long table as their worlds gradually merge.
Paco
Kent Donguines, BC (15 min)
While keeping a secret from his family overseas, Paco struggles to uphold his responsibilities and aspirations.
Hills and Mountains
Salar Pashtoonyar, ON (8 min)
Filmed on location in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, an Afghan woman recalls how the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan led to her forced displacement and marriage.
Dhulpa
Kunsang Kyirong, BC (18 min)
Narrative and documentary elements are woven together to tell the stories of a Tibetan immigrant community working at a local laundry facility.
Square Peg
Christian Bunea, ON (8 min)
The countdown is on as a freshman international student tries to print their essay before heading in to an exam.
Horse Brothers
Milos Mitrovic, Fabian Velasco, MB (8 min)
A tale of sibling betrayal and revenge as told by a ranch horse (voiced by Guy Maddin).
Terror/Forming
Rylan Friday, BC (24 min)
Parker and his boyfriend Darren make a disturbing discovery on their way to Parker’s late kokum’s cabin, setting the stage for how the night will unfold.
Supported by
Community Broadcast Partner
Community Partner
Various
Canada
2021-2022
Various with English subtitles
Animal Cruelty, Gender or Sexual Discrimination
Open to youth!
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Take Me Home
Liz Sargent’s film stars her sister Anna, who plays a woman quite like her real self: thirty something, cognitively disabled, and utterly vivacious. Exploring one unique family and the hardships it faces, this is a film of deep empathy and subtle beauty.
Image: © Farhad Ahmed Dehlvi
Fireflies in the Dark
Three interwoven stories explore survival, resilience, and the human cost of civil conflict against the ethnic violence that erupted in 2023 in Manipur, Northeast India. Yogesh Lohan offers an intimate portrait of lives caught in the strife.
Dear Future Self
Prompting their students to write a letter to their future selves, two friends find themselves questioning the intertwined trajectory of their own lives. Dear Future Self is a sharply tender story about friendship, dreams, and the desire for agency.
A Place of Absence
A Place of Absence follows the Caravan of Mothers of Missing Migrants along migration routes through Mexico and toward the United States, while tracing the disappearance that shaped the filmmaker’s own family history.
The Diary of a Chambermaid
Radu Jude adapts Octave Mirbeau’s classic (and much-filmed) novel in a uniquely Jude fashion, with our oppressed chambermaid prodded by her smug employers to star in a production of... Diary of a Chambermaid. This is a sly and subversive satire.


