Skip to main content
Square the Circle film image

MODES 1

Image: Square the Circle, VIFF 2023

This event has passed

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

This event has passed.

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

That They May Face the Rising Sun

Dir. Pat Collins
111 min

John and Kate have moved from London to a farm in Ireland, to the bemusement of the locals. This lyrical Irish reverie taps deep wells of feeling in the stuff of everyday life.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Secret Mall Apartment

Dir. Jeremy Workman
91 min

The stranger-than-fiction true story of a group of artists who built and furnished a hidden apartment inside a mall, remaining undetected for years. This is an absurdly fun and surprisingly profound film about gentrification and art.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Encampments

Dir. Michael T. Workman & Kei Pritsker
82 min

When pro-Palestine protests took hold of Columbia last year, the filmmakers were there from the beginning. This documentary charts the mounting tensions between students and the administration, as the protests were picked up across North America.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Teacher

Dir. Farah Nabulsi
118 min

In this potent thriller, English teacher Basem witnesses the murder of a teenager by a Israeli settler. While the subsequent investigation rolls slowly towards a foregone conclusion, the teacher is caught up in a parallel kidnapping case...

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Bob Trevino Likes It

Dir. Tracie Laymon
102 min

When her toxic, narcissistic dad cuts her out of his life, Lily Trevino looks him up on Facebook and happens across his namesake, Bob (John Leguizamo), a gentle, genial contractor who lives nearby, and who proves an altogether better dad...

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
A Duke Ellington Tribute with the Mike Braverman Sextet
man posed to play a piano

A Duke Ellington Tribute with the Mike Braverman Sextet

150 min

After a scintillating session of Duke standards performed by The Mike Braverman Sextet, enjoy a roundup of Ellingtonia on Film: his first short sound films from the late 20s and 30s, and clips from the scores he composed in the 50s and 60s.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema