Skip to main content
Curl Power film image; group of girls wearing a team uniform

Curl Power

Insights

This event has passed

Josephine Anderson’s uplifting documentary follows the 4KGirl$, a teenage curling team from the suburb of Maple Ridge, BC. Hannah, Brook, Amy, Ashley, and Savannah are a hardworking, tight-knit group of friends who strive to become Canadian Junior Curling Champions. Coached by three of their mothers, who are former Olympians, the girls navigate the uncertainties of their teen years — from self-esteem and body image issues to anxiety, depression, breakups, and the major transition that high school graduation entails — but see each other through it all.

Buoyed by an upbeat soundtrack and intimate camerawork, Curl Power preserves a heartwarming time capsule of its teenage subjects’ rich interior lives: their moments of levity, growth, and candid self-reflection as they test their mettle in a quintessentially Canadian sport. Highlights include mother and daughter Diane and Ashley’s profoundly touching commentary on coping with the emotional upheaval of a breast cancer experience, and the comfort to be found in quality time bonding over a shared special interest in curling.

 

Oct 3: Q&A with director Josephine Anderson; producer Mike Johnston; and Brook Aleksic, Diane Dezura & Sav Miley

Oct 5: Q&A with director Josephine Anderson; producer Mike Johnston; and Brook Aleksic, Diane Dezura, Hannah Smeed & Sav Miley

 

Presented by

Media Partner

     

Director
Featuring

Brooklyn Aleksic, Hannah Smeed, Savannah Miley, Amy Wheatcroft, Ashley Dezura

Credits
Country of Origin

Canada

Year

2024

Language

English

Film Contact
Links
18+
85 min
BC Spotlight Documentary Family Relations Q&As at VIFF Women Directors
Studio 104 Entertainment, Secret Bench Films

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits & Director

Executive Producer

Mike Johnston, Josephine Anderson

Producer

Mike Johnston, Josephine Anderson

Screenwriter

Josephine Anderson

Cinematography

Claire Sanford

Editor

Alex Bohs

Original Music

Jesse Zubot, Josh Zubot

Josephine Anderson headshot; Curl Power director

Josephine Anderson

Josephine Anderson is a Canadian documentary filmmaker known for her intimate, sensorial, and imaginative work exploring themes of time, irreverence, yearning, and female experience. Josephine’s work has been shown at festivals worldwide including Tribeca and IDFA, and exhibited by The New Yorker, CBC, and the National Film Board of Canada. Josephine is a Berlinale Talent Campus alumna and a former Board Director for the Documentary Organization of Canada. Curl Power is her debut feature.

 

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

A Brighter Summer Day

Dir. Edward Yang
237 min

Edward Yang's landmark movie is based on the true story of a crime that rocked Taiwan in the early 60s, set against a simmering backdrop of restless youth, rock and roll, and political turmoil.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Everybody to Kenmure Street

Dir. Felipe Bustos Sierra
95 min

This rousing documentary (100% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) never puts a foot wrong as it recreates a tense, prolonged stand-off between the police and the citizens of Glasgow when an Immigration Enforcement squad attempt to arrest two men from their homes.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Namesake

Dir. Eileen Francis & Evan Adams
76 min

Powell River... named for Israel Wood Powell, a 19th century politician and a man of his time, an advocate for residential schools and the Indian Act. The Tla'amin Nation asks the city to consider changing its name, a request which sparks intense debate.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

One Woman One Bra

Dir. Vincho Nchogu
80 min

Kenyan filmmaker Vincho Nchogu impresses with her humorous account of one woman's fight to keep her ancestral land. Winner: Best First Feature, London Film Festival

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Julio Avila Cuban Band Live + The Mambo Kings Film Screening

234 min

Feel the heat! Shake your booty as we combine a live set of exhilarating Cuban music followed by a rediscovered 90s barnstormer of a movie starring Latin heartthrobs Armand Assante and Antonio Banderas alongside the likes of Tito Puente and Celia Cruz.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Silence of the Lambs

Dir. Jonathan Demme
118 min

Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) gives FBI serial killer hunter Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) pointers from his maximum security cell. But is he trying to aid the investigation, or just messing with her head?

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema