The challenges of relations with one’s family are the basis for the short films in this program.
October 3 & 5: Q&A with the film teams
This short film program includes the following films:
Basri and Salma in a Never-Ending Comedy
Khozy Rizal, Indonesia (15 min)
A husband and wife who run a carnival kids ride have been married for 5 years and are still childless, a fact that brings constant reminders of this from their family.
Southern Afternoon
Tian Lan, China (16 min)
A Uyghur father living in southern China accidentally finds an ornate letter to his teen daughter, he assumes it is from a boyfriend but he can’t read Mandarin.
The Family Circus
Andrew Fitzgerald, USA (18 min)
A Vietnamese-American family’s plan to cover up a drunk driving accident begins to unravel when their emotional baggage spills out in front of the police.
Where the Time Goes
Justin Tyler Close, USA/Canada (15 min)
Two young brothers navigate the challenges of their parents’ failed marriage, their deep bond helps them support each other and their mother.
Lovebugs
Teddy Alvarez-Nissen, USA (13 min)
“Would you like to hear a story?” From his cozy library inside the walls of a suburban home an intellectual snail tells of his life’s love, loss and change.
Just the Two of Us
Clara Lemaire Anspach, France (20 min)
A young woman’s mother, in the hospital seriously ill with cancer, asks her daughter to take her on a trip to the south of France. She reluctantly agrees.
In Too Deep
Chris Overton, UK (16 min)
A couple are deeply grieving the death of their young daughter in their own ways, but the father’s obsession with memories of her is becoming dangerous.
Community Partner
Various
Various
2022-2023
International Shorts
Various with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Kikuyu Land
Kikuyu Land follows Mr. Mungai’s struggle to reclaim family land taken during the colonial era. Through personal stories and archival research, the film explores the enduring impact of land dispossession in Kenya.
Nowhere to Lay My Eyes
VIFF mainstay Hong Sangsoo returns with the story of a daughter, her estranged mother, and the step-family she's never met. Hong's visual style is unadorned as ever — all the better to highlight the strangeness of human interaction.
MODES 3
Interior worlds reveal wisdom, intuitive connections, the esoteric, and death. Or is it liberation? A bid to commune with the feminine, other realms, and ghosts.
Ugly Cry
When her ugly cry costs an aspiring actor her dream role, she takes desperate measures in pursuit of perfection. A cheeky injection of dark humour and delirium, this genre-bending psychological thriller takes a clever jab at internet-age beauty standards.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney
Using era-appropriate visuals, ironically deployed music, and copious archival footage, Matthew Rankin tells the story of Brian Mulroney’s rise to power. This is Canadian history as you’ve never seen it before — amusing and dismaying in equal measure.