Skip to main content
Inay film image; two people hugging in the snow

Inay (Mama)

Northern Lights

This event has passed

Canadian Premiere

From the 1990s, the Live-In Caregiver Program attracted thousands of Filipino women to Canada as migrant workers, enabling them to send money back home and gain permanent residency. In Inay (Tagalog for “Mama”), director Thea Loo and cinematographer Jeremiah Reyes (a husband and wife duo) turn the camera on themselves to explore the cultural and psychological impact on the children who were abandoned by their mothers out of economic necessity. With remarkable frankness, Jeremiah and their friend Shirley testify to similar narratives of secrets, anger, a lack of belonging, and the depression that results from intergenerational trauma, revealing that childhood wounds linger even into adulthood.

The documentary examines the repercussions of systemic policies and government legislation which are only now being felt and spoken about by generations of Filipino Canadians. Deeply personal and self-reflective, Inay reveals the hidden pain behind the lives of women who sacrificed themselves to take care of Canada’s children and elderly, and the loved ones they had to leave behind.

 

Oct 2 & 4: Q&A with director Thea Loo; cinematographers Jeremiah Reyes & Christian Jones; and executive producer Chelsea Birks

 

Presented by

       

Supported by

Media Partner

           

Director
Featuring

Thea Loo, Jeremiah Reyes, Shirley Lagman, Rowena Loo, Patrick Loo, Elvira Gangte

Credits
Country of Origin

Canada/Philippines

Year

2024

Language

In English and Kapampangan with English subtitles

Film Contact
Links
18+
56 min
BC Spotlight Catalyst Program Alumni Documentary Q&As at VIFF
No More Productions, Knowledge Network, The Cinematheque

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits & Director

Executive Producer

Patrice Ramsay, Priscilla Galvez, Chelsea Birks

Producer

Thea Loo, Natalie Murao

Cinematography

Jeremiah Reyes, Christian Yves Jones

Editor

Anna Chiyeko Shannon

Original Music

Moses Caliboso, Jeremiah Reyes

Thea Loo headshot; Inay (Mama) director

Thea Loo

Thea Loo is a producer and director from Vancouver, BC. Her work has played at Sundance, Palm Springs ShortFest, CAAMFest and distributed on the digital TIFF Bell Lightbox. She is an alum of the Reelworld Producers Program and TIFF Series Accelerator. Her debut TV 1-hour documentary, Inay (Mama), will premiere in 2024.

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

21st Century Classics Audience Choice: Parasite

Dir. Bong Joon-ho
132 min

South Korean master filmmaker Bong Joon-ho delivers an unpredictable comic suspense thriller with his Palme d'Or and Academy Award-winning film, Parasite.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

School of Rock

Dir. Richard Linklater
108 min

With not one, but two new Richard Linklater movies at VIFF this year (Nouvelle Vague and Blue Moon), we thought it would be fun to revisit a choice cut from his rich back catalogue: the best Black and White movie ever made, School of Rock.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Boyhood

Dir. Richard Linklater
165 min

A dozen years in the making, Richard Linklater's masterpiece chronicles the evolution of a boy into a young man, from six to 18. It is the ultimate coming-of-age movie, and one of the most audacious cinematic feats of the decade.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

There Will Be Blood

Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
158 min

Paul Thomas Anderson's lacerating epic about the birth of the oil age: Daniel Day-Lewis is extraordinary as the prospector entirely consumed with his own enterprise, a Trumpian figure of naked self-assertion; Paul Dano the evangelist who may be his nemesis.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Godland

Dir. Hlynur Pálmason
143 min

In the late 19th century, a Danish Lutheran priest is dispatched to a far corner of Iceland where a devout farmer has seen fit to build a church. The physical journey is arduous. His spiritual journey, more taxing still.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Balconettes

Dir. Noémie Merlant
105 min

In this flamboyant black comedy set in Marseille during a heatwave, writer-director-star Noémie Merlant and her two besties have to cover up the unpleasant evidence of a disastrous night partying with the hunk across the way.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre