Skip to main content
Joonam film image

Joonam

This event has passed

Canadian Premiere

Joonam (a ubiquitous Persian term of endearment, literally, “My life/my dear”, which can be ascribed to anything touching, funny, sad or sweet) is a beautiful and intimate film about home and exile. Navigating barriers of language and culture, Sierra Urich embarks on a personal quest to make sense of her mixed-race, Iranian identity. While Sierra struggles with Farsi, her grandmother, Behjat, speaks in broken English. By translating, Sierra’s mother, Mitra, becomes the bridge between the two generations; she’s also representative of that generation of Iranian women who paid the price of revolution more than any other, and of those who immigrated for a better future for their children.  Urich’s delightful documentary paints a well-constructed, deeply moving and sometimes disarmingly humorous portrait of three generations of women and their complex relationship to an Iran of the past. Just like the word, Joonam is both simple and complex; it will make you laugh out loud and bring tears to your eyes.

Director
Credits
Country of Origin

USA

Year

2023

Series

Focus

Language

In English and Farsi with English subtitles

Film Contact
Links
18+
100 min
Documentary Women Directors

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits

Executive Producer

Maida Lynn, Ruth Ann Harnisch, Bill Harnisch

Producer

Keith Wilson, Sierra Urich

Cinematography

Sierra Urich

Editor

Sierra Urich

Director

Sierra Urich headshot

Sierra Urich

Sierra Urich is a Persian-American interdisciplinary visual artist and filmmaker based in Vermont. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration and Film from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2013. She was an artist-in-residence at The Banff Centre for the Arts 2017, Sundance Nonfiction Directors Fellow 2018, and Points North Fellow 2018, Firelight Doc Lab Fellow 2021, and Chicken & Egg Eggcelerator Lab Fellow 2022. Joonam is her first feature film.

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

Marcel the Shell With Shoes On

Dir. Dean Fleischer-Camp
121 min

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is a heartwarming film for all ages. Marcel, a tiny shell, lives with his grandmother Connie in a human house. When a filmmaker discovers Marcel, they team up to search for his long-lost relatives. Rated: G

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Wedding Banquet

Dir. Andrew Ahn
103 min

This joyful comedy cleverly updates Ang Lee's 1993 gay marriage comedy and transports the action to contemporary Seattle (actually, Vancouver).

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Tornado

Dir. John Maclean
91 min

Scotland in the 1790s, travelling circus samurai Tornado (Kōki) runs afoul of a band of murderous brigands led by Tim Roth and his ambitious son, Jack Lowden. Mayhem ensues.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Two Women

Dir. Chloé Robichaud
100 min

In this light-hearted, emancipatory take on a classic sex farce, two neglected married women discover the joys of casual sex and get their plumbing fixed.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
Nechako: It Will Be a Big River Again
Nechako: It Will Be a Big River Again film; overhead shot of churning water

Nechako: It Will Be a Big River Again

Dir. Lyana Patrick
91 min

In the face of environmental destruction, two Nations fight to restore their river and a way of life.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Fairy Creek

Dir. Jen Muranetz
86 min

Considered the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history, the Fairy Creek blockade led to more than 1200 arrests. What Jen Muranetz's film gives us is the story from the front line from the activists' point of view (often, from the treetops).

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre