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
L'Atalante
Jean Vigo died from TB in 1934 at the age of 29. Yet he is revered as one of the great innovators of the medium, and his only feature, L'Atalante, is a seminal film, a tender, lyrical love story set on a barge on the Seine.
Spring After Spring
Three daughters strive to live up to the standards set by their mother Marie Mimi Ho, and keep Vancouver Chinatown's Spring Parade going through thick and thin, in this enormously affectionate local documentary by Jon Chiang.
Sirât
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.
The Painted Life of E.J. Hughes
A beautiful portrait of E.J. Hughes, who quietly helped reshape the artistic landscape of British Columbia in the 20th century. This extraordinary documentary explores Hughes’s legacy not only as an artist, but as a devoted, humble human being.
Montreal, ma belle
In this Valentine to discovering love later in life, the ever-elegant Joan Chen plays Feng Xia, a 53-year-old Chinese immigrant and mother in Montreal whose world is turned upside down when she meets and falls in love with a young Quebecoise.
The Love That Remains
Anna and Magnús have separated, leaving her to raise their three children as he spends long stretches at sea, working as a fisherman. As the seasons pass, their emotions ebb and flow. A richly conceived story with unexpected delight and humour.

