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

No Other Land

Dir. Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham & Rachel Szor
96 min

Deemed by many critics one of the essential films of 2024, a multiple festival award winner and Academy Award winner for Best Documentary, No Other Land is a reminder that mass expulsion is by no means a new reality for Palestinians.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Misericordia

Dir. Alain Guiraudie
103 min

Edgy, eccentric, and unapologetically queer, this film goes from drama to comedy without putting a foot wrong. Sex and murder are the subjects, and writer-director Alain Guiraudie (Stranger by the Lake) mines them for suspense and outrageous laughs.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

There's Still Tomorrow

Dir. Paola Cortellesi
118 min

A critical and box office sensation in Italy, Paola Cortellesi's triumphant directorial debut is the tale of a Roman housewife in 1946, who stands up against the routine sexist abuse she suffers. Funny, heartbreaking and inspiring.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Way, My Way

Dir. Bill Bennett
93 min

All manner of pilgrims flock to France and Spain to walk the 800 km Camino de Santiago. One such is Bill, a stroppy sexagenarian Australian filmmaker who's determined to do the Camino with minimal prep, a dickey leg, and no firm idea why.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Stand

Dir. Christopher Auchter
95 min

This rousing doc explores a 1985 dispute over logging in the Haida Gwaii. Taking us from canny retrospective commentary to the thick of the action, director Chris Auchter employs animation and a wealth of archival footage to riveting effect.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Resident Orca

Dir. Sarah Sharkey Pearce & Simon Schneider
97 min

Captured in Puget Sound in 1970, killer whale Lolita spent the next half century in a cramped tank in Seaquarium, Miami. The film follows a coalition of Lummi elders, animal lovers and philanthropists on a rescue mission to return her to the ocean.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre