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Big Day film image

International Shorts: Relational Baggage

Image: Big Day, VIFF 2023

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The short films in this program illustrate some of the barriers or difficulties people run into with their personal relationships.

 

October 1 & 3: Q&A with the film teams

 

This short film program includes the following films:

Hedgehog
D. Mitry, USA (17 min)

As the war starts in Ukraine a young girl is taken to stay with her grandmother. In the shack outside, she discovers a badly wounded Russian soldier.

 


Nowhere
Garin Hovannisian, Armenia/USA (12 min)

A teacher and a young barista are too prudent to say anything about their mutual attraction, but after dark a world emerges where their shadows come alive.

 


Hide Your Crazy
Austin Kase, USA (14 min)

A young man’s surprise birthday dinner for his girlfriend is not met with the response he was expecting, which leads to the most frightful night of their lives.

 


Big Day
Chung Chieh Chiang, Taiwan (23 min)

An older couple take a walk to file their divorce papers and on the way reflect on how their lives came to this.

 


Snif & Snüf
Michael J Ruocco, USA (5 min)

Two characters discover an interesting new object that teaches them a lot about themselves and what it means to share.

 


Sushi
Iván Morales, Spain (22 min)

A young man goes out for sushi dinner with a community policeman who has never had sushi before, but the mystery of their connection takes a while to be revealed.

 


Pisko the Crab Child Is in Love
Makoto Nagahisa, Japan (17 min)

A young woman whose father was a crab takes us on a whirlwind tour of her struggle to find love and acceptance.

 

Community Partner

Director

Various

Country of Origin

Various

Year

2022-2023

Series

International Shorts

Language

Various with English subtitles

18+
110 min
Shorts

Book Tickets

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

Prosecution

Dir. Faraz Shariat
113 min

When a young German prosecutor of Korean origin is attacked, she suspects a racist conspiracy and pursues the truth in defiance of her superiors. Prosecution is a film for our moment: a thriller that confronts the far-right head-on.

International Village 8
Rebecca Horn – the Secret Life of Things
Rebecca Horn film image; woman in a empty room holding out her arms with makeshift scissorhands

Rebecca Horn – the Secret Life of Things

Dir. Claudia Müller
90 min

Rebecca Horn's extraordinary biography is interwoven with her surreal oeuvre. An essential document of one of the 20th century's most influential artists, Rebecca Horn – The Secret Life of Things celebrates the unsung legacy of a pioneering visionary.

Image: © Rebecca Horn

International Village 10
What Remains
What Remains film image; woman looking out at the water

What Remains

Dir. Yeşim Ustaoğlu
126 min

Stuck in a big city in a mind-numbing domestic routine, a young poetess finds herself at crossroads when her role as a mother and wife starts to overshadow her identity as an artist.

International Village 9
School for Defectors
School for Defectors film image; person standing by a desk speaking

School for Defectors

Dir. Jeremy Workman
92 min

School for Defectors is an intimate and quietly uplifting documentary that follows a group of 20 teenagers, children of North Korean defectors, as they adjust to life and education at Jangdaehyun School in Busan, South Korea.

Fifth Avenue Cinema - 19+ only

Fruit Gathering

Dir. Aung Phyoe
97 min

Achingly sensual and graced with fine performances, Fruit Gathering depicts embattled desire in a conservative society. Two working-class women fall into a romantic relationship in contemporary Myanmar — but is their love real, or borne of desperation?

International Village 10
Short Forum 7: War at Home
Rotation film image; upside down image of woman sitting in a field

Short Forum 7: War at Home

107 min

Truly, no one is safe until everyone is safe.

International Village 8