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VIFF Short Forum: Program 4

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Bouncing through nostalgic aesthetics and genre storytelling, a contemporary point of view comes into focus.

 

Q&A Oct 4 & Oct 6

 

This short film program includes the following films:

Red House
Barry Doupé, BC (3 min)

Created using the Amiga computer console and Deluxe Paint IV software, hand-drawn sequences undergo a continual metamorphosis of images, characters, and forms.

 


My Thoughts Exactly
Mike Archibald, BC (18 min)

Two strangers bring their love, frustration, and desire to the cruising trails within Stanley Park.

 


Tibi
Jarret Twoyoungmen, AB (14 min)

Using archival and self-shot footage, the teaching of Îethka culture is documented through the making of a tipi under supervision of knowledge keepers.

 


Framing the Self
Andrea Cristini, BC (12 min)

A heady but emphatic experiment whereby an animated character improvises in a cinematic vacuum through the direction of their creator.

 


Sexy Highland Stream
Nathan Adler, BC (5 min)

In appreciation of the eponymous stream, this poem is a love letter to the beauty found in nature. Written and spoken in English and Anishinaabemowin.

 


Late Summer
Ryan Steel, MB (12 min)

A young loner grows attached to his camp counsellor at a haunted summer camp.

 


The Ballad of Gus
Brian Barnhart, MB (16 min)

Encouraged by two father figures—one a drug dealer, the other an artist—Gus faces a pivotal moment in his life.

 


Rose
Roxann Whitebean, QC (25 min)

Set in the 1960s, Rose is an Indigenous teen in her last weeks of pregnancy. Pressured by a government agent to give up her baby for Canadian adoption upon delivery, Rose’s family do all they can to intervene—with the help of an unlikely ally.

 

Supported by

Community Broadcast Partner

Community Partner

Director

Various

Country of Origin

Canada

Year

2021-2022

Language

Various with English subtitles

Content Warning

Graphic Violence, Racial Discrimination

Open to youth!

105 min
Shorts

Book Tickets

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Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

The Secret Agent

Dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho
158 min

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.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
Seeds
Seeds film image; man carrying a baby

Seeds

Dir. Brittany Shyne
123 min

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.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Mr. Nobody Against Putin

Dir. David Borenstein & Pavel Talankin
90 min

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.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story
Black is Beautiful film image; close on man taking a photograph

Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story

Dir. Yemi Bamiro
98 min

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.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Cutting Through Rocks

Dir. Sara Khaki & Mohammadreza Eyni
95 min

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.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

A Poet

Dir. Simón Mesa Soto
120 min

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.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre