Cinematic form is given to life’s big mysteries: luck and fate, love and loss, and the spiritual supernatural.
Q&A Oct 6 & Oct 9
This short film program includes the following films:
The Flying Sailor
Amanda Forbis, Wendy Tilby, AB (8 min)
Based on the true events of the Halifax Explosion in 1917, a sailor soars above the blast towards the great unknown.
Meeting With Robert Dole
François Harvey, QC (16 min)
Dialectical in form and content, this documentary explores the connection between schizophrenia and theology through the life of Robert Dole.
N’xaxaitkw
Asia Youngman, BC (17 min)
New to town, Zaraya befriends her next-door neighbour, who invites her to go on a search for the legendary lake monster, N’xaxaitkw—known to settlers as Ogopogo.
I, Sun
Julien Falardeau, QC (12 min)
A sun worshipper’s commitment grows desperate when he catches a sunflower turning towards him.
Baba
Meran Ismailsoy, Anya Chirkova, ON (14 min)
All hell breaks loose when a depressed father calls in his son to help mediate an argument with the landlord.
Grown in Darkness
Devin Shears, NL (17 min)
Emmanuel pays his longtime friend, Henry, a visit on his rhubarb farm during harvest. Through the next few days, the two examine the nature of their relationship.
La Plage aux êtres
Kendra McLaughlin, ON (20 min)
Time, memory, and grief are explored in this close look at the preservation of an unidentified creature.
Supported by
Community Broadcast Partner
Community Partner
Various
Canada
2021-2022
Various with English subtitles
Open to youth!
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Turner & Constable
Filmed as a supplement to a blockbuster exhibition at Tate Britain happening right now, this doc in the popular Exhibition on Screen series allows us to view these competitive, complementary English landscape artists side by side.
Mr. Nobody Against Putin
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.
One Battle After Another
PT Anderson's breathless satire is the best political action movie of 2025, a defiantly anti-MAGA rallying cry featuring a six pack of crackerjack performances. They'll still be talking about this one 50 years from now.
The Painted Life of E.J. Hughes
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.
The President's Cake
Nine year old Lamia and her friend Saeed venture into the city to scrounge ingredients for a cake to celebrate Sadaam Hussein's birthday — a quest fraught with real peril in precarious times. Winner, Camera d'Or, Cannes.
Sentimental Value
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.