
Get in for a rollercoaster journey through the depths of struggle and perseverance. Not for the faint of heart, this collection is as difficult as it is beautiful.
October 1 & 2: Q&A with the film teams
This short film program includes the following films:
Sisters
Marisa Hoicka, ON (3 min)
Mid-century advertisements, public service announcements, and product demonstrations are stitched together to create an unsettling narrative of two sisters.
Four Mile Creek
Ryan McKenna, QC (21 min)
Aurore Cormier was a settler child who died from smallpox at the turn of the 20th century, near what is now known as Thunder Bay. 100 years later, her relatives search for her grave.
Cloud Striker
A.W. Hopkins, BC (17 min)
Set in the 1930s, Chief Cloud Striker is on a quest to find his son Elijah, who has been forcibly taken from home and placed in Saint Ignatius Indian Residential School.
Conviction
Bruce Thomas Miller, AB (13 min)
Following release from prison, Joseph is faced with the challenges of reintegration into society.
Black Box Investigations
Paige Smith, BC (3 min)
Form and function are deconstructed through the artist’s interventions with the camera.
Autre Chose
Étienne Lacelle, QC (26 min)
Following a crippling motorcycle accident that killed his lover, a young man rebuilds his bike to take one last ride deep into the Canadian wilderness.
The Great Kind Mystery
Ella Morton, NL (17 min)
Inuk and Mi’kmaw artist Amy Hull reflects on her hometown of Daniel’s Harbour, Newfoundland and her connection to the natural world through the Mi’kmaq language.
Element
Will Niava, QC (22 min)
Struggling to make a living in the markets of Abidjan, a group of young men decide to step up their hustle and cast a spell in order to make some real money.
Supported by
Community Partner
Various
Canada
2022-2023
VIFF Short Forum
Various with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Teacher
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...
Bob Trevino Likes It
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...
The Encampments
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.
Shepherds
Mathyas quits his marketing job in Montreal and goes to France with the romantic notion of becoming a shepherd. He's in for a rude awakening... Based on a true story, Deraspe's stirring film plays spiritual uplift off against some 3000 sheep and a donkey.
Our Lady of the Nile
Veronica and Virginia are inseparable friends at an elite Catholic boarding school, Our Lady of the Nile, but what binds them together is the very thing that separates them forever. We are in Rwanda, 1973, and tribal tensions are simmering ominously.
Faces
Ten years after his landmark debut, Shadows, John Cassavetes returned to the indie model, self-financing this wrenching portrait of the sexual mores and miseries of American middle class. Gena Rowlands is luminous as Jeannie, the film's emotional barometer.