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
Various
Canada
2021-2022
Various with English subtitles
Graphic Violence, Racial Discrimination
Open to youth!
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Tree of Life
The Tree of Life follows Jack as he reflects on his 1950s Texas childhood and the death of his younger brother. Deeply spiritual and poetic, Malick’s film moves through grief, memory, time, and space. And there are dinosaurs.
Sometimes, I Imagine Them All at a Party
Fourteen years ago, Daniela Magnani Hüller survived an attempted femicide by a schoolmate. Now a filmmaker, she revisits the events surrounding that fateful incident, creating a moving collage of interviews, personal recollections, and archival material.
Image: © Bildersturm
Queen at Sea
An academic is pitted against her stepfather in a moral crisis over the care of her mother, who lives with dementia. Winner of the Silver Bear Jury Prize and Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance at the 2026 Berlinale.
Image: © Seafaring
The Story of Documentary Film – The 2000s
The Story of Documentary Film – The 2000s enters a decade shaped by 9/11, war, fear, and politics. Through films such as The Cove and Grizzly Man, these chapters trace the documentary medium's encounter with modernity as it begins to unravel.
Image: © Iraq in Fragments, 2006, dir. James Longley, USA, Daylight Factory Typecast-Pictures