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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

The Python Hunt

Dir. Xander Robin
91 min

Strange but true: the Florida Everglades are overrun with unwanted visitors. Not tourists, but invasive Burmese pythons decimating the local critters. The state's solution: an annual contest: $10 000 to whomever bags the most snakes in ten days.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Holy Days

Dir. Nat Boltt
95 min

After his mom passes, Brian (Elijah Tamati) is comforted by Sisters Agnes, Luke and Mary Clare (Judy Davis, Miriam Margolyes and Jacki Weaver, respectively). The quirky quartet hit the road to save their convent from being sold to a property developer.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
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Mārama

Dir. Taratoa Stappard
94 min

Set in North Yorkshire, 1859, this creepy gothic horror plays like The Piano in reverse: a young Maori woman takes up a position as a governess to a wealthy whaler's child, but finds colonial skeletons in his closets.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Blue Film

Dir. Elliot Tuttle
82 min

This transgressive two hander puts an Only Fans camboy in a room with a secret admirer. Turns out they have history... Not an easy watch, but a film that will fuel discussion for those who are open to it.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Departures

Dir. Neil Ely & Lloyd Eyre-Morgan
82 min

Two lads meet at an airport gate and begin monthly trips to Amsterdam together. Their chemistry is off the charts, but it's Jake who's calls the shots while Benji is the one who's emotionally invested. Comparisons to Pillion and Trainspotting are on mark.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Blue Heron

Dir. Sophy Romvari
90 min

In the late 1990s, eight-year-old Sasha and her Hungarian immigrant family relocate to a new home on Vancouver Island. Their fresh start is interrupted by increasingly dangerous behaviour from Jeremy, the family’s oldest child.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema