World Premiere
It’s 2003, and 12-year-old Rell “Goat” Barrel (Shayelin Martin) and her mom Jane (Caitlyn Sponheimer) are scheming and scrounging their way through another Penticton summer. Having illegally sublet the house they’re renting; they’re now holed up in a RV park bordering Skaha Lake. From this modest base of operations, Goat befriends an awkward outsider (Leandro Guedes), skateboards, shoplifts, and talks a big game about becoming a world-class surfer… Despite having never actually climbed atop a board or laid eyes on the ocean.
Helming her debut feature, Sponheimer conspires with cinematographer Joseph Schweers and composer Cayne McKenzie to transform the Okanagan Valley into a majestic, almost mythical backdrop for this tale of a young girl trying to slip the shackles of circumstance. Skilfully subverting expectations at practically every turn, a story of grand ambitions draws its persuasive power from chance encounters, casual exchanges, and instances in which summer lethargy cedes to adolescent rebellion.
September 29 & October 3: Q&A with director Caitlyn Sponheimer & crew
Presented by
Series Media Partner
Community Partner
Shayelin Martin, Leandro Guedes, Dyllón Burnside, Caitlyn Sponheimer, Brittany Drisdelle
Canada
2023
Northern Lights
English
Coarse Language
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Executive Producer
Abubakar Salim, Robert Montcalm, Warren Sultatycky, Dyllón Burnside
Producer
Mike Johnston, Caitlyn Sponheimer
Screenwriter
Caitlyn Sponheimer
Cinematography
Joseph Schweers
Editor
Sarah Trudelle
Director
Caitlyn Sponheimer
Award winning Canadian filmmaker, Caitlyn Sponheimer, is a Director Guild of Canada nominee, Reykjavik Talent Lab alumna and Telefilm Canada and Canada Council for the Arts grant recipient. As an actor, Caitlyn is a graduate of Meisner’s Neighborhood Playhouse. Her work has been shown at festivals around the globe with her co-written/lead role feature premiering under Telefilm’s Best of New Canadian Cinema at Cannes Marche (’18). Caitlyn produced and costarred in the multi-award-winning Telefilm Canada and Alberta Media Fund feature Jasmine Road (2020). In 2021, Caitlyn wrote, directed, and produced a project for 20th Digital Studios/Freeform, The Ugliest of Them All, which garnered nearly 3 million views in under a week. Currently, Caitlyn is completing her debut feature film, the Telefilm and Crave/Bell Media Wild Goat Surf, which she wrote, directed, and starred in. Acting credits include Amazon’s The Boys, NBC’s Transplant, and Supermassive’s horror video game from the Dark Pictures Anthology Little Hope starring opposite Will Poulter.
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
KAKU KAKU SHIKA JIKA fka Blank Canvas: My So-Called Artist's Journey
Adapted from acclaimed manga artist Akiko Higashimura’s autobiographical manga is a funny and sharply observed coming-of-age story about the creative awakening of a master of manga.
A Sad and Beautiful World
This Lebanese love story chronicles the romance between a level-headed businesswoman and a romantic restauranteur across several decades in wartorn Beirut. It's funny, charming, melancholy and you'll feel it all.
Blue Boy Trial
Transgender filmmaker Kasho Iizuka revisits 1960s Japan and the sensational “Blue Boy Trial,” sparked by the arrest of a doctor performing sex reassignment surgeries. With trans actors in central roles, the film powerfully illuminates buried history, identity, dignity, and resilience.
Aruku - I Walk
This meditative documentary, captures the stories of four contemporary pilgrims on the Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage as they follow in the footsteps of master Kūkai, the monk who shaped Japanese Buddhism. Each is burdened, in different ways, by exhaustion, solitude, or quiet disillusionment.
How Dare You?
A bug-loving boy, a passionate classmate, and a troublemaker launch playful eco-protests against their town’s careless habits. As their missions escalate, they face real consequences in Director O’s witty, bittersweet Grand Jury Prize winner from the Toronto Japanese Film Festival.