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Square the Circle film image

MODES 1

Image: Square the Circle, VIFF 2023

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At the intersection of the natural world, technology and the ongoing pursuit of colonization, sits a necessary reflection on worlds, cities, and people, and how they change over time.

 

This short film program includes the following films:

NYC RGB
Viktoria Schmid, Austria/USA (7 min)

Part of a series of works exploring early colour film processes, Austria’s Viktoria Schmid invites an alternative frame of reference to view America’s most overexposed city.

 


Slow Shift
Shambhavi Kaul, India/USA (9 min)

The immediacy of time is eerily visible upon Hampi’s fragmented landscape. As its primate inhabitants formulate their familiar yet uncertain surroundings, the UNESCO site endures.

 


Shadow Does
Laure Prouvost, Belgium/France/Austria (13 min)

A young girl engages in shadow play. A plain white sheet is all that stands between her and her grandmother, to whom she describes an ever-evolving world and everything what has come to pass in a lifetime.

 


Let’s Talk
Simon Liu, Hong Kong (11 min)

On the 25 year anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover from Great Britain to Mainland China, directives for “a new era” promising stability and prosperity are found on murals and public slogans.

 


Mother Land
Kantarama Gahigiri, Rwanda/Switzerland (10 min)

Confronting and trenchant, standing tall, an almost supernatural presence atop a mountain of tech waste, plastic and rubbish, she unearths the truths of Africa’s environmental degradation.

 


This Is Not Here
Charlotte Mungomery, Australia/Peru/Spain (10 min)

Two pedestal fans in dialogue propound a pointed parody of wellness. These ambiguous forms are perceived as objects with meaning, and spin tangential contemplation on the processes, experiences and absurdities of grief.

 


Square the Circle
Hanna Hovitie, Finland (18 min)

A cyclical comedy, framed within a round edge rather than the screen’s desired square or rectangular aspects. Square the Circle asks, how can one fear the dark, while living in a place consumed by darkness for the better part of the year?

 

Series Media Partner

Community Partner

Director

Various

Country of Origin

Various

Year

2022-2023

Series

MODES

Language

Various with English subtitles

18+
78 min

Book Tickets

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

Minotaur
Minotaur film image; people laughing around a dinner table

Minotaur

Dir. Andrey Zvyagintsev
141 min

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The Story of Documentary Film – The 2010s & 2020s

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SFU Woodwards
Tangles
Tangles film image; two people hugging in a garden

Tangles

Dir. Leah Nelson
102 min

Based on the graphic memoir by Vancouver artist Sarah Leavitt, Tangles is a stunning, hand-drawn animated feature about a cartoonist coming to terms with her mom’s early-onset Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Nominated for the Caméra d’Or at Cannes 2026.

The Park Theatre The Rio Theatre
How We Stand
How We Stand film image; woman holding up a lit lighter

How We Stand

Dir. Marie Clements
110 min

How We Stand follows three Indigenous sisters separated after their family relocates to Los Angeles under Native American Relocation Program in the 1950s. Twenty years later, they navigate identity, trauma, and very different lives.

Lindsay Family Stage at Granville Island
Afterpiece
Afterpiece film image; man standing by a wall with posters on it

Afterpiece

Dir. Keane T.K. Wong 王德健 王
112 min

This wry, twisty theatrical farce stars Stephen Fung as a playwright, actor, and director who writes a play based on his own past. His rich ex-lover wants to co-star, but our hero has found a sexy new actress, and he’s got a plan to get her the part…

International Village 10

Ana, En Passant

Dir. Fernanda Salgado
90 min

Fernanda Salgado makes an elegant feature debut with this lyrical animated drama about a young Black woman returning to her late grandmother’s native town in Brazil to make sense of distant memories and her family’s legacy.

The Cinematheque