Skip to main content

VIFF Short Forum: Program 4

This event has passed

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

Director

Various

Country of Origin

Canada

Year

2022-2023

Series

VIFF Short Forum

Language

Various with English subtitles

18+
121 min
Shorts

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

Clubfoot
Clubfoot film image; three people at the end of an aisle in a library

Clubfoot

Dir. Nathan Donovan
70 min

An adopted teen and his friend coerce a younger adoptee to go for a drive out to the countryside — but things turn violent. With a fragmented structure and unresolved questions, Clubfoot reflects the uncertainty and isolation that often follow adoption.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
Smudge the Blades
Smudge the Blades headshot; hockey players in a faceoff

Smudge the Blades

Dir. Cody Lightning
96 min

This rousing hockey drama centres on the Treaty 6 Blades, a team of Indigenous youth on a quest for redemption. Blessed with a terrific cast, this is a crowd-pleaser in which victory is about much more than winning the game.

International Village 9

Congo Boy

Dir. Rafiki Fariala
91 min

Congo Boy is a deeply moving coming-of-age drama about Robert, a 17-year-old Congolese refugee in the Central African Republic balancing school, odd jobs, and the care of his four younger siblings — while dreaming of success as a musician.

Image: © 2026 MAKONGO FILMS UNITÉ KIRIPIFILMS KARTA FILM CANAL

Lindsay Family Stage at Granville Island

Sweet Milk Lake

Dir. Harvey Zielinski
94 min

In Sweet Milk Lake, a trans man is mistaken for his cisgender twin in a darkly comic thriller about deception, gender, and dangerous wish fulfilment.

Fifth Avenue Cinema - 19+ only International Village 9

Ba's Book

Dir. Ashley Duong
102 min

A TIFF Docs world premiere and Cannes Docs award winner, Ba’s Book follows Vietnamese-Canadian filmmaker Ashley Duong as she brings her father’s memoir to Vietnam and recreates it with her family, blending documentary and staged scenes.

International Village 8

Family Fears Another Night of Terror

Dir. Cristian Ponce
83 min

Night after night, a family of four is tormented by an unseen presence inside their home — or so it seems. Family Fears Another Night of Terror transforms the aesthetics of a late-night television special into an analogue nightmare.

International Village 10