Canadian Premiere
The summer is over and a small New England recreational baseball league is playing a make-up game. The Riverdogs meet Adler’s Paint on what is to be the final game played on Soldiers Field before its demolition. Despite delays (and a few too many beers), the game progresses through the day, as the men struggle to say goodbye to their beloved diamond.
Named after a slow, high-arcing pitch thrown to upset the batter’s timing, Eephus follows a similar trajectory by patiently documenting this small-stakes baseball game at a languid pace. In his directorial debut, a poetic ode to America’s favourite pastime, Carson Lund (DP on Christmas Eve at Miller’s Point, also in VIFF) tacitly examines the nature of time and the movement of light with gentle wit and great humanity.
Oct 5 & 6: Q&A with director Carson Lund
A lovely little sundowner movie… The minimal action is contained in the dugout chatter, the banter in the outfield, the beer cans multiplying in the grass, the bright sky slowly darkening, the tempers that get lost and found […] Its pearls of practical wisdom and jewels of melancholic wit make Eephus a gem, which is fitting, for a movie about a game played on a diamond.
Jessica Kiang, Variety
Keith William Richards, Cliff Blake, Ray Hryb, Stephen Radochia, David Pridemore, Pete Minkarah
USA/France
2024
English
At International Village
At Fifth Avenue
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Michael Tonelli, Brian Clark, Ashish Shetty, Jim Christman
Producer
Michael Basta, David Entin, Carson Lund, Tyler Taormina
Screenwriter
Michael Basta, Nate Fisher, Carson Lund
Cinematography
Greg Tango
Editor
Carson Lund
Production Design
Erik Lund
Original Music
Erik Lund, Carson Lund
Carson Lund
Carson Lund is a founding member of Omnes Films, an independent, Los Angeles-based filmmaking collective named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Film.” Lund marks his directorial debut with Eephus, which he also wrote and produced. As a cinematographer and producer, his credits include the upcoming film Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point, in addition to Ham on Rye (2020) and Topology of Sirens (2021). A New Hampshire native, Lund is also a musician and film critic.
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Resident Orca
Captured in Puget Sound in 1970, killer whale Lolita spent the next half century in a cramped tank in Seaquarium, Miami. The film follows a coalition of Lummi elders, animal lovers and philanthropists on a rescue mission to return her to the ocean.
No Other Land
Deemed by many critics one of the essential films of 2024, a multiple festival award winner and Academy Award winner for Best Documentary, No Other Land is a reminder that mass expulsion is by no means a new reality for Palestinians.
Misericordia
Edgy, eccentric, and unapologetically queer, this film goes from drama to comedy without putting a foot wrong. Sex and murder are the subjects, and writer-director Alain Guiraudie (Stranger by the Lake) mines them for suspense and outrageous laughs.
There's Still Tomorrow
A critical and box office sensation in Italy, Paola Cortellesi's triumphant directorial debut is the tale of a Roman housewife in 1946, who stands up against the routine sexist abuse she suffers. Funny, heartbreaking and inspiring.
The Way, My Way
All manner of pilgrims flock to France and Spain to walk the 800 km Camino de Santiago. One such is Bill, a stroppy sexagenarian Australian filmmaker who's determined to do the Camino with minimal prep, a dickey leg, and no firm idea why.