Skip to main content
The Flying Sailor film image, co-directors Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby

The Flying Sailor

Based on the true events of the Halifax Explosion in 1917, a sailor soars above the blast towards the great unknown.

 

Supported by

Community Broadcast Partner

Community Partner

Directors
Credits
Country of Origin

Canada

Year

2022

Language

No Dialogue

Film Contact
Content Warning

Violence

PG
8 min

Featured in:

N'xaxaitkw film image

VIFF Short Forum: Program 6

Cinematic form is given to life’s big mysteries: luck and fate, love and loss, and the spiritual supernatural.

 

More Info

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

No Other Land

Dir. Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham & Rachel Szor
96 min

Deemed by many critics one of the essential films of 2024, a multiple festival award winner and Academy Award winner for Best Documentary, No Other Land is a reminder that mass expulsion is by no means a new reality for Palestinians.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Way, My Way

Dir. Bill Bennett
93 min

All manner of pilgrims flock to France and Spain to walk the 800 km Camino de Santiago. One such is Bill, a stroppy sexagenarian Australian filmmaker who's determined to do the Camino with minimal prep, a dickey leg, and no firm idea why.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
Heart of Gold
Heart of Gold film image; woman crouching by a burning miniature house

Heart of Gold

Dir. Patricia Gruben
80 min

Writer-director Patricia Gruben explores the history of an American deserter in 1969 who escapes to BC and finds shelter with a Russian dissident community.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Resident Orca

Dir. Sarah Sharkey Pearce & Simon Schneider
97 min

Captured in Puget Sound in 1970, killer whale Lolita spent the next half century in a cramped tank in Seaquarium, Miami. The film follows a coalition of Lummi elders, animal lovers and philanthropists on a rescue mission to return her to the ocean.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Misericordia

Dir. Alain Guiraudie
103 min

Edgy, eccentric, and unapologetically queer, this film goes from drama to comedy without putting a foot wrong. Sex and murder are the subjects, and writer-director Alain Guiraudie (Stranger by the Lake) mines them for suspense and outrageous laughs.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Stand

Dir. Christopher Auchter
95 min

This rousing doc explores a 1985 dispute over logging in the Haida Gwaii. Taking us from canny retrospective commentary to the thick of the action, director Chris Auchter employs animation and a wealth of archival footage to riveting effect.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Credits

Executive Producer

David Christensen

Producer

David Christensen

Screenwriter

Amanda Forbis, Wendy Tilby

ANIM

Amanda Forbis, Wendy Tilby, William J Dyer

Editor

Serge Verreault

Original Music

Luigi Allemano

Directors

Amanda Forbis headshot, The Flying Sailor co-director

Amanda Forbis

Amanda Forbis studied film, video, and animation at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver. In 1995, Wendy Tilby invited her to Montreal to co-direct When the Day Breaks (1999). It received numerous honours, including the Short Film Palme d’Or at Cannes, an Academy Award nomination, and the Grand Prix at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, Zagreb World Festival of Animated Films, and the Hiroshima International Animation Festival. In 2011, they followed up with Wild Life, which was also nominated for an Academy Award.

Wendy Tilby headshot, The Flying Sailor co-director

Wendy Tilby

Wendy Tilby’s first film, Strings (1991), won many international awards, including a Genie Award and first prize at the Hiroshima International Animation Festival, in addition to being nominated for an Academy Award. Tilby then joined forces with Amanda Forbis to direct When the Day Breaks (1999). It received numerous honours, including the Short Film Palme d’Or at Cannes, an Academy Award nomination, and the Grand Prix at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, Zagreb World Festival of Animated Films, and the Hiroshima International Animation Festival. In 2011, they followed up with Wild Life, which was also nominated for an Academy Award.