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Our Grandmother the Inlet film image

VIFF Short Forum: Program 1

Image: Our Grandmother the Inlet, VIFF 2023

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As time moves ever the more forward, histories are revisited. Some continue to be honoured while others are called for a reckoning.

 

September 29 & October 1: Q&A with the film teams

 

This short film program includes the following films:

Our Grandmother the Inlet
Jaime Leigh Gianopoulos, Kayah George, BC (9 min)

Kayah George, a young Tsleil-Waututh woman and her grandmother Ta7a, daughter of the late Chief Dan George, reflect on their relationship to water, culture, and land.

 


Unspeakable Heap
Kara Ditte Hansen (14 min)

An accumulation of histories is explored via the filmmaker’s uncle, a retired Grego-Roman Olympian wrestler who lives in a sinking house built atop a decommissioned landfill.

 


Master of the House
Dylan Maranda, BC (17 min)

A young sommelier struggles to balance friendship and ambition on the night an acclaimed restaurant critic dines at his work — Reclamation, a restaurant hyped on reinventing Indigenous cuisine.

 


The Company We Keep
Wojtek Jakubiec, QC (6 min)

An intimate portrait of a ceramics artist and her dog.

 


Modern Goose
Karsten Wall, MB (20 min)

The adaptive behaviours of the Canadian geese are examined as city co-habitants affected by human intervention and climate change.

 


Outside Center
Eli Jean Tahchi, QC (21 min)

Finding community via his gay rugby league, Jamaican-born Desmond navigates life, love, and identity as an immigrant living in Munich, Germany.

 


Death Mask
John Greyson, ON (10 min)

This experimental opera reenacts the lesser known history of Chinese medical student Li Shiu Tong, and his lover Magnus Hirschfeld, a much older German sexologist and gay rights pioneer during Nazi Germany.

 


All the Days of May
Miryam Charles, QC (7 min)

Following the production of a documentary on the death of her daughter, a mother reflects on life, grief, and time.

 


Mothers and Monsters
Edith Jorisch, QC (16 min)

In this surrealist satire, a celebratory banquet hosted for and by new mothers is disrupted by a series of strange disturbances.

 

Supported by

Community Partner

Director

Various

Country of Origin

Canada

Year

2023

Series

VIFF Short Forum

Language

Various with English subtitles

18+
120 min
Shorts

Book Tickets

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

H is for Hawk

Dir. Philippa Lowthorpe
114 min

Based on naturalist Helen MacDonald's memoir (scripted by Emma Donoghue), H is for Hawk follows Helen (Claire Foy), who, after the sudden death of her father embarks on an intense relationship... with a goshawk.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Sirât

Dir. Óliver Laxe
115 min

A desperate father (Sergi Lopez) searchers for his missing daughter through the spiritual wasteland of the Moroccan desert. An unforgettable sensory powerhouse, Sîrat will have you riveted and rattled for hours after the end credits have rolled.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

2026 Oscar® Shorts (Documentary)

Dir. Various
157 min

Don't come to the program of Oscar®-nominated documentary shorts for escapism. But let's talk about the Canadian contender, Perfectly a Strangeness, featuring an abandoned observatory and three donkeys. More of this, please.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The English Patient

Dir. Anthony Minghella
162 min

In the first of a new Film Studies series exploring literary adaptations, director Anthony Minghella tackles Michael Ondatje's challenging, poetic WWII novel about an enigmatic, badly burnt patient with a tragic past. Introduced by Patricia Gruben.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

2026 Oscar® Shorts (Animated)

Dir. Various
83 min

The nominees for Best Animated Short Film include The Girl Who Cried Pearls, a fable from Canadian filmmakers Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski, narrated by Colm Feore.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

2026 Oscar® Shorts (Live Action)

Dir. Various
119 min

This year's contenders in the Live Action category include comedies, drama, an experimental musical, and a dystopian fantasy; films from the UK and the US, France and Israel.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema