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
The History of Concrete
After attending a workshop on pitching saccharine Hallmark movies, John Wilson tries to apply all the same best practices to his documentary about concrete. Frequently absurd and endlessly entertaining detours, asides, and digressions ensue.
La Bola Negra
A big, old-school historical melodrama gets a thrillingly modern, queer makeover from Spanish duo Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, who artfully juggle three gay protagonists across stories set in 1932, 1937, and 2017. Winner: Best Director, Cannes. Screening on 35mm.
The Mad Dog of Europe
The story of an unmade screenplay from the writer of Citizen Kane. In 1932, Herman Mankiewicz wrote a film that foretold the persecution of the Jews and the war in Europe. But Hollywood wouldn't take the risk and The Mad Dog of Europe was never made.
NAZA
NAZA is a codeword euphemistically used by Israeli intelligence to indicate the number of civilians it expects will be killed in an airstrike. This chilling documentary exposes the policy and process of state-sanctioned mass killings.
The Mortal Storm
In this explicitly anti-Nazi melodrama directed by Frank Borzage (Three Comrades) a year before the US entered the war, Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart fall in love as their friends and family fall prey to the rise of Hitler's Nazi party in Germany.
Three Comrades
Scripted by F Scott Fitzgerald, Three Comrades (1938) was the first US studio film to chronicle the rise of European fascism in the 30s. Three German veterans open up a repair shop and try to regain a normal life, but political extremists have other ideas.

