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VIFF Short Forum: Program 5

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Cosmological, geological, and speculative potentials provide hope in periods of doubt and hardship.

 

October 6 & 7: Q&A with the film teams

 

This short film program includes the following films:

Baigal Nuur – Lake Baikal
Alisi Telengut, QC (9 min)

North of the Mongolian border, the ancient Siberian Lake Baikal is reimagined through hand-made animation, featuring the voice of a Buryat woman speaking in her endangered Buryat-Mongolian language.

 


Gentle Hum of Spring
Simon Garez, SK (10 min)

As the spring thaw approaches in Saskatchewan, a young beekeeper struggles to maintain his bee colonies.

 


My Tomato Heart
Benoît Le Rouzès Ménard, QC (15 min)

Due to a serious heart condition, Madeleine is forced to retire from her beloved job at the neighbourhood grocery store. How will her last day end?

 


Take Care
Tony Massil, BC (19 min)

A recently divorced and deflated James moves in with his grandmother Patty, a fiercely independent octogenarian. Despite Patty’s declining physical abilities, she is reluctant to give up her autonomy.

 


Return to Ombabika
Ma-Nee Chacaby, Zoe Gordon, Shayne Ehman, ON (22 min)

Two spirit Oji-Cree elder, activist and artist Ma-Nee Chacaby journeys home to Ombabika, Ontario. She reflects on the land, her personal healing and the impacts of colonization.

 


Defining Human
Daniel Code, BC (15 min)

As Earth reaches its environmental breaking point, Mia, a talented black astronaut, must make a difficult decision: to stay with her ailing father, or leave for the unknown potentials of space exploration.

 


Soleil de Nuit
Fernando Lopez Escriva, Maria Camila Arias, QC (13 min)

During a training exercise in an abandoned open-pit mine, a crew of Canadian astronauts are interrupted by an Atikamekw elder, who asks them to deliver an important message to the spirit of his community on the moon.

 


Dickinsonia
Charline Dally, QC (17 min)

This speculative investigation of the titular 500-million-year-old ocean species is an invitation for embodied listening — to open one’s unconscious in order to find what is embedded deep within our memories.

 

Supported by

Community Partner

Director

Various

Country of Origin

Canada

Year

2022-2023

Series

VIFF Short Forum

Language

Various with English subtitles

18+
120 min
Shorts

Book Tickets

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How Deep Is Your Love

Dir. Eleanor Mortimer
100 min

Filmmaker Eleanor Mortimer tags along with a team of oceanographers and marine biologists as they survey the Clarion-Clipperton fracture, one of the most remote spots on Earth, home to a dazzling array of unknown creatures.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Omaha

Dir. Cole Webley
84 min

Cole Webley's road movie about a single dad taking off with his two young kids is really just a fragment of a story, yet it unfolds with such authentic lyricism it lands with a heartbreaking emotional wallop.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Blue Heron

Dir. Sophy Romvari
90 min

In the late 1990s, eight-year-old Sasha and her Hungarian immigrant family relocate to a new home on Vancouver Island. Their fresh start is interrupted by increasingly dangerous behaviour from Jeremy, the family’s oldest child.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Last One for the Road

Dir. Francesco Sossai
100 min

Two middle-aged drunkards drive across the Veneto region on a freewheeling bender, taking a young college student along for the ride. A celebration of the spirit of drink and the kinds of stories told around a table of old friends and too much wine.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Art of Adventure

Dir. Alison Reid
90 min

The unbelievable adventure story of how painter Robert Bateman and ecologist Bristol Foster drove a Land Rover from Africa to Australia in 1957, developing a love of nature to last a lifetime. An inspirational love letter to the adventure of life itself.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Holy Days

Dir. Nat Boltt
95 min

After his mom passes, Brian (Elijah Tamati) is comforted by Sisters Agnes, Luke and Mary Clare (Judy Davis, Miriam Margolyes and Jacki Weaver, respectively). The quirky quartet hit the road to save their convent from being sold to a property developer.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema