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
Day of Wrath
Anna, the young second wife of a well-respected but much older pastor, falls in love with her stepson when he returns to their small seventeenth-century village. Stepping outside the bounds of the village's harsh moral code has disastrous results.
You Had to Be There
In a strange quirk of fate, the legendary Toronto '72 production of the musical comedy Jesus hit Godspell launched a constellation of comedy stars, all unknown at the time but now known to us as Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, Victor Garber, et al
Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie
Alex Gibney's doc relates the near-lethal attack on Salman Rushdie in 2022, the writer's painful rehab and recovery, and his reflections on life before, during and after the publication of The Satanic Verses.
House of Hope
"House of Hope" is the name of a Waldorf elementary school near Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank, founded by Manar and her husband Milad. This documentary follows their efforts to go about their lives before, during, and after the events of October 7.
A. Rimbaud
Patrick Wang (The Bread Factory) presents the life of French poet Arthur Rimbaud in this staggeringly adventurous and deeply considered movie, a three-hour, one-man show quite unlike anything we have seen before. "Poetic, audacious and singular."
Atonement
A former Marine suffering from PTSD seeks a meeting with the Iraqi family to which he did great wrong ten years earlier in the Gulf War. Atonement navigates challenging, politically-charged psychological territory with diligence and sensitivity.