Skip to main content
Seagrass film image

Seagrass

This event has passed

Having decamped to a Gabriola Island couples’ retreat in a last-ditch attempt to save their crumbling marriage, preoccupied Judith (Ally Maki) and Steve (Luke Roberts) leave their young daughters to their own devices. In turn, 11-year-old Stephanie (Nyha Breitkreuz) quickly ditches six-year-old Emmy (Remy Marthaller) in favour of a pack of unruly teens and their accompanying temptations. Abandoned and adrift, the introverted Emmy grows fixated with an eerie cave and convinced that her late grandmother has been conjured as an unseen ghost.

Drawing from her own childhood experiences, writer-director Meredith Hama-Brown demonstrates a profound talent for eliciting unspeakably nuanced, frequently heartbreaking performances from Breitkreuz and Marthaller. Likewise, she deftly investigates the unique tensions of Judith and Steve’s interracial marriage (including her infatuation with another man). All the while, Norm Li’s highly observant cinematography provides a practically mesmerizing degree of intimacy. A deftly orchestrated, deeply moving portrait of a family at the brink of implosion, Seagrass sees Hama-Brown exude compassion and conviction in an accomplished debut.

 

September 29 & October 1: Q&A with director Meredith Hama-Brown & crew

 

Presented by

Series Media Partner

     

Director
Cast

Ally Maki, Luke Roberts, Sarah Gadon, Chris Pang

Credits
Country of Origin

Canada

Year

2023

Series

Northern Lights

Language

English

Film Contact
18+

At SFU Woodwards

19+

At The Rio

115 min
Drama Women Directors

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits

Executive Producer

Norm Li, Sara Blake, Tyler Hagan, Kathleen Hepburn, Meredith Hama-Brown

Producer

Tyler Hagan, Sara Blake

Screenwriter

Meredith Hama-Brown

Cinematography

Norm Li

Editor

Kane Stewart, Shun Ando

Production Design

Louisa Birkin

Director

Meredith Hama-Brown headshot

Meredith Hama-Brown

Meradith Hama-Brown is an actress, producer, and director. She is best known for her short Broke Bunny (2018), which won the Telus Sea to Sky Award at the Vancouver International Film Festival. With this short, she also won Best Narrative Film Award at Las Cruces International Film Festival and Best Film Award at the Future of Film Show. In 2020, Brown was selected for the TIFF Filmmaker Lab and was awarded the Canada Goose Fellowship for her first feature film, Seagrass (2023).

Filmography: Seagrass (2023)

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

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Dir. Mike Nichols
131 min

A young couple accept an invitation for a nightcap with history professor George (Richard Burton) and his wife Martha (Elizabeth Taylor). At first it's fun and games. But what passes for caustic wit soon degenerates into vicious mind games.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
Drop Dead City
Drop Dead City film image; someone holding a newspaper up in front of a brick wall

Drop Dead City

Dir. Michael Rohatyn & Peter Yost
108 min

New York, 1975. The city is minutes away from bankruptcy and President Gerald Ford wants no part of it. Sanitation workers are on strike and cops are telling tourists it's not safe to visit. The town is going up in flames and they can't pay the firemen.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Shall We Dance?

Dir. Masayuki Suô
137 min

Masayuki Suô's delightful and charming 1996 film was a box office smash and won 14 Japanese Academy Awards including Best Film. It's the story of a married salaryman who falls in love with... dance.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

In the Mood for Love

Dir. Wong Kar-wai
107 min

Wong Kar-wai's most acclaimed and popular film is a love story about two neighbours (Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung) who are drawn together by the long absences of their respective spouses + a newly released short companion piece from 2001.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
Georgia O'Keeffe: the Brightness of Light
Georgia O’Keeffe: The Brightness of Light film image; painted reds, pinks, oranges, and yellows that combine to look like a flower

Georgia O'Keeffe: the Brightness of Light

Dir. Paul Wagner
118 min

Drawing on her copious correspondence and the world's leading scholars, this is a definitive documentary on the life and work of "the mother of American Modernism."

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Familiar Touch

Dir. Sarah Friedland
90 min

A loving portrait of an octogenarian transitioning into an assisted living facility, this award-winning first feature by choreographer Sarah Friedland has a simplicity and warmth that's exceptionally poignant.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre