For a work set in the future, Ann Marie Fleming’s film is remarkably folksy. She takes us to a time when humanity has survived the global environmental crisis, but only at a steep price. As the film opens, Kiah (Keira Jang) is preparing for the first day of a new job, while her mother Ellie (Sandra Oh) is readying herself for a new journey of her own. Over the next two days, Kiah and her co-worker Daniel (Joel Oulette) perform their duties as official witnesses; together, they’re helping fulfill a global mandate to protect all life…
Can I Get a Witness? is a film in which the important facts emerge gradually; as it builds to its powerful conclusion, the pace is leisurely and the style is deceptively casual. Fleming has a great ear for dialogue, and she directs with a strong attention to the nuances of human interaction. Jang and Oulette give subtle and convincing performances, and Oh is wonderful as always.
Sept 27: Q&A with producers Alexis King, Raymond Massey & Ruth Vincent and actors Joel Oulette & Keira Jang
Oct 2: Q&A with director Ann Marie Fleming, sustainability coordinator Devon Ellis-Durity and editor Justin Li
Supported by
Media Partner
Community Partner
Keira Jang, Joel Oulette, Sandra Oh
Canada
2024
English
At Vancouver Playhouse
At Fifth Avenue
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Haydn Wazelle, Sandra Oh, Ann Marie Fleming
Producer
Ruth Vincent, Raymond Massey, Ann Marie Fleming
Screenwriter
Ann Marie Fleming
Cinematography
C. Kim Miles
Editor
Justin Li
Production Design
Cheryl Marion
Original Music
Brent Belke
Ann Marie Fleming
Ann Marie Fleming is an award-winning visual artist, writer, director, animator and cross-platform media maker who has worked in a variety of genres (animation, experimental, documentary and drama). Her work often deals with themes of family, history and memory.
Ann Marie’s 2003 feature documentary The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam, based on the life of her magician and acrobat great-grandfather, won both the Grand Jury and Best Documentary Prize at the San Diego Asian Film Festival and the Best Documentary Prize at the Victoria Independent Film and Video Festival in Canada. And her animated feature film, Window Horses, received numerous international awards, including Best Animated film at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards and the Gijon International Film Festival in Barcelona.
Filmography: The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam (2003); The French Guy (2005); Window Horses (2016)
Photo by Erik Whittaker
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Whispers in the Woods
A luxuriant, healing immersion in nature with ravishing wildlife photography, this is the cinematic equivalent of "forest bathing," a trip deep into the Vosges, France, with photographer Vincent Munier (The Velvet Queen), his father and his son.
Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould
A bona fide classic and arguably the greatest Canadian film of the 90s, Girard's dazzling deconstruction of the biopic gives us the mercurial pianist Glenn Gould as Picasso might have rendered him, a cubist portrait combining multimedia vignettes.
King Arthur's Night
John Bolton's film of Niall McNeil and Marcus Youssef's musical staging recreates Camelot at Harrison Hot Springs. It's a self-referential piece which joyfully reframes a classical narrative through the prisms of disability, inclusivity, and imagination.
Dazed and Confused
The last day of high school in May, 1976: seniors debate party politics while next term's freshmen run the gauntlet of brutal initiation rites, barely comforted by the knowledge that they'll wield the stick one day.
Democracy Under Siege
As the USA turns 250, Oscar-nominated director Laura Nix considers the roots of the current political crisis with commentary from historian Heather Cox Richardson, progressive politician Jamie Raskin, and cartoonist Ann Telnaes, among others.