Skip to main content
My Animal film image

My Animal

This event has passed

An outcast hockey player, Heather (Bobbi Salvor Menuez) is saddled with baggage heavier than her goalie pads: not only is she a closeted lesbian living with her alcoholic mom, but she’s also inherited a familial curse that transforms her into a bloodthirsty lycanthrope. Falling for Jonny (Amandla Stenberg), a figure skater nursing her own emotional wounds, Heather invites further persecution from the prejudiced townsfolk. But turn around is feral play, and there’s a full moon rising.

From its transfixing opening transformation sequence, Jacqueline Castel’s My Animal is a full-blooded creature feature that weds the classic werewolf mythos with its own sapphic sensibility. Likewise, it leans into some genre tropes (including a synth score in the key of Carpenter), while exploring new avenues of the uncanny (let it be said: LSD and lycanthropy don’t mix). Ultimately, it’s an anthem of self-actualization and an ode to outcasts, whatever form they take.

 

September 30 & October 2: Q&A with director Jacqueline Castel & crew

 

Series Media Partner

  

Director
Cast

Bobbi Salvör Menuez, Amandla Stenberg, Stephen McHattie, Heidi von Palleske, Cory Lipman, Scott Thompson

Credits
Country of Origin

Canada

Year

2023

Series

Altered States

Language

English

Content Warning

Sexual Discrimination

18+
103 min
Action & Suspense Drama Horror & Sci-Fi Women Directors

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits

Producer

Andrew Bronfman, Michael Solomon

Screenwriter

Jae Matthews

Cinematography

Bryn McCashin

Editor

Marc Boucrot & Jacqueline Castel

Production Design

Emma Doyle

Original Music

Pier Harrison

Director

Jacqueline Castel headshot

Jacqueline Castel

Jacqueline Castel is an internationally award-winning director, screenwriter, and curator based in NYC. Her short film work has been featured at more than fifty festivals worldwide, including Sundance, SXSW, Rotterdam, BAMcinemaFest, Sitges, and Fantasia. She has written for and directed cult auteurs John Carpenter and Jim Jarmusch, and collaborated on a film with David Lynch for his Festival of Disruption in 2018. Castel’s work has appeared in The New York Times, The BBC, Dazed, VICE, Italian Vogue, Interview Magazine, and on AMC’s Shudder. She earned her BFA with honors at the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. My Animal is her feature film debut.

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

Luther: Never Too Much

Dir. Dawn Porter
101 min

There is a lot more to soul superstar Luther Vandross than his honeyed hits. This definitive doc sheds light on his work with artists including David Bowie, Diana Ross and Aretha Franklin, his struggles with his image and sexuality, and remarkable gifts.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Granny Must Die

Dir. Yi-Jung Chen
87 min

An absurd comedy about the daily life of a three-generational Hakka household in Taipei. Huichiao, her grandmother Chunmei, Chunmei's son Fusang, and daughter-in-law Lichun live together in a three-generational household in Taipei. Tensions arise! Rated: PG

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Play It Loud! How Toronto Got Soul

Dir. Graeme Mathieson
84 min

Legendary Toronto soul, funk, and ska singer Jay Douglas leads us through an energizing history of Canadian Caribbean music. Join us Friday night and meet Jay in person, along with producer Andrew Munger!

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr. with R.E.M.'s Monster and New Adventures in Hi-Fi

Dir. Buster Keaton
60 min

Buster Keaton as you have never heard him before! Rock giants REM provide the score for this proto post-modern masterpiece about a projectionist who dreams himself onto (and into) the screen.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Universal Language

Dir. Matthew Rankin
89 min

In a wintery, Farsi-speaking city that’s equal measures Winnipeg and Tehran, storylines entangle and the concepts of space, time, and identity grow increasingly opaque. Inventive and absurd, Rankin's poetic fable reminds us that Winnipeg is a wonderland. Rated: G

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Dir. Mohammad Rasoulof
167 min

A tense mystery and an act of radical protest, this film tells the story of an Iranian lawyer who’s lost his handgun and knows someone in his family took it. With every moment, his wife and daughters grow more afraid of him–yet none of them will confess…

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre