Skip to main content
Sikiitu film image, director Gabriel Allard Gagnon

Sikiitu

A coming-of-age story in the small Arctic village of Ivujivik, where teenage Ali would rather spend his time dreaming of being a hip-hop superstar instead of going hunting with his dad.

Award: Festival Regard Canadian Grand Prize

 

Supported by

Community Broadcast Partner

Community Partner

Director
Cast

Jusi Sala, Pierre Savu-Massé

Credits
Country of Origin

Canada

Year

2021

Language

In Inuktitut with English subtitles

Film Contact
Links
Content Warning

Coarse language; nudity; violence

PG
21 min

Featured in:

Patty Vs. Patty film image

VIFF Short Forum: Program 2

Fear, doubt, and loneliness give way to pleasure, empowerment, and reclamation—or, is it the other way around?

 

MORE INFO

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

Credits

Producer

Sandrine Berger

Screenwriter

Jean-Sébastien Beaudoin-Gagnon, Éric K. Boulianne

Cinematography

Van Royko

Editor

Alain Loiselle

Original Music

Jean-Olivier Bégin

Director

Gabriel Allard Gagnon headshot, Sikiitu director

Gabriel Allard Gagnon

Gabriel Allard Gagnon has directed some 50 music videos and six documentary feature films. After doing a project in the Canadian far north during which he met Inuit Nation members, he created Sikiitu, his first work of fiction.

Filmography: T’es où, Youssef? (2017); Les Poussières de Daech (2020)