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 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

Heat

Dir. Jacqueline Zünd
85 min

Heat explores the unequal realities of a warming planet. Taking a sensory approach to its subject, director Jacqueline Zünd reveals how extreme heat intersects with labour rights, migration, and social inequality.

International Village 10

Elephants in the Fog

Dir. Abinash Bikram Shah
108 min

In a remote Nepalese village, Pirati takes charge in the search for a missing girl belonging to her family of third-gender Kinnar women. A densely atmospheric thriller and a moving portrait of an embattled but resilient community.

International Village 10 Fifth Avenue Cinema - 19+ only

RADIOHEART: The Drive and Times of DJ Kevin Cole

Dir. Peter Hilgendorf, Andrew Franks
83 min

Featuring a scintillating soundtrack of tunes going back to the ‘70s, RADIOHEART is a heartwarming celebration of one of the greatest radio DJs, Kevin Cole, whose musical tastes and influence are still reverberating across the world’s soundwaves.

International Village 9

Nous, L'orchestre De Paris

Dir. Philippe Béziat
90 min

Philippe Béziat’s documentary offers an unprecedented look at the Orchestre de Paris and the camaraderie of its 120 members. A jubilant ode to the transcendence of classical music.

International Village 8
Man in Motion: The Rick Hansen Story
Man in Motion film image; man using wheelchair down a street in the rain

Man in Motion: The Rick Hansen Story

Dir. Adrian Buitenhuis
96 min

Twenty-six months, 40,075 kilometres, 34 countries traversed in a wheelchair, and more than $26 million raised for accessibility initiatives… Man in Motion: The Rick Hansen Story documents the staggering accomplishments of an iconic athlete and activist.

Fifth Avenue Cinema - 19+ only
Strong Son
Strong Son film image; two men flexing their arm muscles

Strong Son

Dir. Ian Bawa
88 min

A bodybuilder returns home to care for his ailing father in Ian Bawa's debut feature. A moving exploration of masculinity, filial duty, and the emotional distance between first-generation immigrant parents and their children.

International Village 10