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
Brooklyn Aleksic, Hannah Smeed, Savannah Miley, Amy Wheatcroft, Ashley Dezura
Canada
2024
English
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
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
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
The Secret Agent
Having run afoul of an influential bureaucrat in Brazil’s military dictatorship circa 1977, Marcelo decamps to Recife to live under an assumed name — but he’ll soon come to understand precisely how rampant the country’s corruption has become.
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.
Mr. Nobody Against Putin
Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary, and Special Jury Prize Winner, Sundance, 2025, this exposé shot by a Russian primary teacher shows how the Putin propaganda machine works to militarize children.
Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story
Harlem-based photographer, freedom fighter and activist Kwame Brathwaite took 500,000 photos across his 70-year career, always devoted to celebrating the joy and beauty of African American life. Brathwaite pioneered the idea that Black is Beautiful.
Cutting Through Rocks
Winner of Sundance's World Cinema Documentary Grand Jury Prize, Cutting Through Rocks follows Sara Shahverdi — motorcyclist, midwife, and first-ever councilwoman elected in her Iranian village. A vérité triumph by Sara Khaki & Mohammadreza Eyni.
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.

