The femme experience as told through various disciplines and genres, each a distinctly inimitable perspective.
October 2 & 3: Q&A with the film teams
This short film program includes the following films:
Between You and Me
Cameron Kletke, BC (4 min)
An animated journey through a young woman’s diary entries, notes, and drawings.
Dream Tricks: Over a Six Stair
Adam Seward, ON (16 min)
This documentary follows the daily life of Annie, a trans femme skateboarder and bassist in the band Dilly Dally, as she attempts a Varial Heelflip over a six-step jump.
Ancestral Threads
Sean Stiller, BC (12 min)
Using fashion as medicine for Vancouver’s Indigenous community, founder Joleen Mitton takes us behind-the-scenes at Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week. Featuring interviews with Musqueam weaver and artist Debra Sparrow and Dene fashion designer D’arcy Moses.
Redlights
Eva Thomas, ON (14 min)
An evening out takes a dramatic turn for two Indigenous women, Tina and Amber, when Amber is suddenly taken into police custody outside a pub.
Yun
Yuezhang Qin, BC (4 min)
A cloud accompanies a young woman through daily life.
Cassandra
Bea Santos, ON (15 min)
In the tradition of great tragedies, Cassandra follows the title character, an eccentric middle-aged artist whose family ignores her claims of clairvoyance.
Donna
Keenan MacWilliam, ON (18 min)
In an autobiographical search for the filmmaker’s birth mother, questions surrounding identity, family, and memory are embodied through performance.
Making Babies
Éric K. Boulianne, QC (20 min)
When a couple in a loving and long standing relationship decides to have a baby, their bond is tested.
Katshinau
Julien G. Marcotte, Jani Bellefleur-Kaltush, QC (17 min)
Set in the 18th century just before the British conquest of New France, Marie, an Indigenous slave to a local surgeon, encounters a young girl whom she presumes to be her child.
Supported by
Community Partner
Various
Canada
2022-2023
VIFF Short Forum
Various with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
A Sad and Beautiful World
This Lebanese love story chronicles the romance between a level-headed businesswoman and a romantic restauranteur across several decades in wartorn Beirut. It's funny, charming, melancholy and you'll feel it all.
Aruku - I Walk
This meditative documentary, captures the stories of four contemporary pilgrims on the Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage as they follow in the footsteps of master Kūkai, the monk who shaped Japanese Buddhism. Each is burdened, in different ways, by exhaustion, solitude, or quiet disillusionment.
How Dare You?
A bug-loving boy, a passionate classmate, and a troublemaker launch playful eco-protests against their town’s careless habits. As their missions escalate, they face real consequences in Director O’s witty, bittersweet Grand Jury Prize winner from the Toronto Japanese Film Festival.
One Last Love Letter
In 2024, Nazuna writes to the young man she secretly loved as a teenager. Her letter reaches his grieving father, revealing memories of Shinsuke, an aspiring boxer killed in the 2000 Naka-Meguro train disaster, and opening a tender exchange.
American Doctor
One of the most powerful documentaries of the year, this puts us smack in the open wound that is Gaza, filtered through the eyes of three American surgeons (of Palestinian, Jewish and Zoroastrian backgrounds) compelled to do their utmost to alleviate harm.

