To locate one’s self, the desire to be seen and the need to hide one’s desires are in constant negotiation.
October 5 & 6: Q&A with the film teams
This short film program includes the following films:
Les Lavandières
Laura Kamugisha, QC (5 min)
In this visual essay strung along a clothesline, a narrator named Lavender tells the story of her mother, Jeanne, a Rwandese immigrant filled with hope.
Her Name Is Like a Sigh
Solara Thanh-Binh Dang, BC (17 min)
Ha, an overworked Vietnamese nail salon proprietor, reevaluates her life and marriage in an unexpected mid-life crisis prompted by a new customer.
Nigiqtuq (The South Wind)
Lindsay McIntyre, BC/AB (17 min)
An Inuit mother and daughter, Kumaa’naaq and Marguerite, must negotiate the pressures of assimilation after relocating to a new life in the South in the 1930s. Based on a true story.
Hair or No Hair
Janessa St. Pierre, BC (16 min)
Bel, a young black woman who has been hiding her Alopecia under wigs for years, is one day exposed publicly.
Cristo Negro
Paul Stavropoulos, Brendan Mills, ON (18 min)
History, religion, and colonialism collide with spiritual awakening, miracles, and poverty in Portobelo, Panama, where locals worship a black Jesus Christ. Culminating in the rapturous yearly festival, his most devout followers share how they came to their faith.
Sun, Moon and Four Peaks
Kevin Jin Kwan Kim, BC (15 min)
Two brothers, Minseo and Junho, are reunited in Vancouver after many years apart following their parents divorce in Korea.
Portrait of the Con Artist as a Young Man
Ryan Leedu, AB (8 min)
An aspiring con-artist works on his craft.
Silkworm
Amir Honarmand, BC (25 min)
Amin, an Iranian boy living in poverty during the pandemic, is gifted a stolen iPhone by his older brother. Not before long, the owner gets in touch.
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
Breaking the Waves
Kicking off our 2026 Pantheon series of the greatest films ever made, Lars von Trier's 1996 masterpiece is a devastating melodrama featuring an indelible performance from Emily Watson as the woman whose love for her husband knows no bounds.
The Track
In the middle of a mountain forest above Sarajevo, three boys train for the Olympics in a bullet-ridden luge track abandoned since the 1984 Winter Games. An ambitious, hopeful look at the next generation striving to overcome the sins of their fathers.
Yunan
In this haunting mood piece, Munir is a middle-aged Syrian writer in exile in Germany. In crisis, he takes himself up to one of the Halligan islands in the North Sea, a suitable place to end it all...
The Secret Agent
Having run afoul of an influential bureaucrat in Brazil’s military dictatorship circa 1977, Marcelo decamps to Recife to live under an assumed name — but he’ll soon come to understand precisely how rampant the country’s corruption has become.
The Mother and the Bear
Johnny Ma’s film stars Kim Ho-jung as a Korean woman who flies to Winnipeg when her immigrant daughter is hospitalized there. This crowd-pleaser plays up cultural differences to hilarious effect and offers a touching take on mother-daughter tension.

