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VIFF Short Forum: Program 5

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Growing up is hard to do, often harder as we get older.

 

Q&A Oct 5 & Oct 9

 

This short film program includes the following films:

Reste
Ginger Le Pêcheur, QC (8 min)

Alone in a messy home, a young girl spends the day playing by herself.

 


Pro Pool
Alec Pronovost, QC (8 min)

Charles-Olivier, a recent graduate who had majored in Viking history, begins a new job at a pool shop.

 


Agony
Arnaud Beaudoux, QC (13 min)

Over the course of 15 days on a commercial trawler, a hyper-intimate portrayal of life and death on the high seas is documented.

 


The Faraway Place
Kenny Welsh, BC (14 min)

A young woman and her father, both of whom have horns, flee from a violent cult on a mission to eradicate their kind.

 


I Empower as a Mother
Inder Nirwan, Dani Barker, BC (11 min)

Patricia Massy, the founder and director of Massy Arts Society and co-founder of Indigenous Brilliance collective, shares aspects of her life, work, and business, Massy Books.

 


Brasier
Amélia Raposo, Tiago Freire Brosseau, QC (19 min)

After joining a high school soccer team made up of older girls, 11-year-old Pierre-Amelia is exposed to teenager sex talk. This precipitates her sexual awakening, and she develops an unexpected, taboo crush.

 


The Passing
Jackson Harvey, QC (6 min)

A dairy farmer searches for one of his cows that has wandered off in a blizzard.

 


Rocket Fuel
Jessie Posthumus, ON (12 min)

Three siblings decide to collect the cans and bottles left over from they backyard party their parents hosted the previous night. On their journey to the bottling depot, obstacles arise.

 


Heartbeat of a Nation
Eric Janvier, AB (21 min)

Honouring the Dene Drum, this documentary celebrates the healing of a community and nation through the reclamation and passing down of traditional teachings within a Dene family.

 

Supported by

Community Broadcast Partner

Community Partner

Director

Various

Country of Origin

Canada

Year

2021-2022

Language

Various with English subtitles

Content Warning

Incest

Open to youth!

112 min
Shorts

Book Tickets

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

Sentimental Value

Dir. Joachim Trier
135 min

A once-revered director crashes back into his family’s lives, eager to recruit his daughter for a film role. When she declines, he finds a new muse in an eager but unpolished Hollywood star, sending his botched reconciliation spiraling into chaos.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Painted Life of E.J. Hughes

Dir. Jenn Strom
82 min

A beautiful portrait of E.J. Hughes, who quietly helped reshape the artistic landscape of British Columbia in the 20th century. This extraordinary documentary explores Hughes’s legacy not only as an artist, but as a devoted, humble human being.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
Cutting Through Rocks
Cutting Through Rocks film image; person riding a motorcycle backlit by a sunset

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

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

Cousin Harley + Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

Dir. Jake Kasdan
180 min

Come join Local Hillbilly heroes Cousin Harley, for a night of traditional Rockabilly, Western Swing and early Rock n Roll before reveling in the rock n roll biopic excess of John C Reilly as the legendary Dewey Cox!

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema