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
A Poet
When embittered poet Oscar Restrepo takes a job at a local high school, he meets Yurlady, a talented student from a poor background. Seeking to help her cultivate her art, he draws her into the poetry world — to disastrous and comedic results.
Spring After Spring
Three daughters strive to live up to the standards set by their mother Marie Mimi Ho, and keep Vancouver Chinatown's Spring Parade going through thick and thin, in this enormously affectionate local documentary by Jon Chiang.
It Was Just an Accident
Having offered some late-night assistance to a stranger in the wake of an auto accident, a mechanic grows convinced that he recognizes the supposed stranger’s voice as that of his torturer during a grueling prison spell.
The Painted Life of E.J. Hughes
A beautiful portrait of E.J. Hughes, who quietly helped reshape the artistic landscape of British Columbia in the 20th century. This extraordinary documentary explores Hughes’s legacy not only as an artist, but as a devoted, humble human being.
Seeds
Shot over nine years, Brittany Shyne’s Sundance-winning documentary is a tender portrait of Black farming families in the American South. A moving meditation on land, legacy, and the strength it takes to hold on.