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 Mentorship 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

The Life of Chuck

Dir. Mike Flanagan
111 min

The winner of the coveted Audience Award at TIFF last year, The Life of Chuck keeps us guessing about what it's up to and where it's going... Trust us, it's a keeper.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Graduate

Dir. Mike Nichols
106 min

In The Graduate Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman, 30 playing 20 with masterly understatement) comes home from college and is surprised to be seduced by the wife of his father's business partner, Mrs Robinson (Anne Bancroft).

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

blur: To the End

Dir. Toby L.
108 min

Now in their late 50s, Britpopsters blur (of Song 2 fame) do a celebratory lap of Great Britain culminating in their first ever Wembley Stadium show in this appealing observational doc. A companion piece to the concert film Live at Wembley Stadium.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Midnight Cowboy

Dir. John Schlesinger
113 min

Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman are street hustlers on different ends of the innocence / experience spectrum who establish something more than a business partnership in the seedy world of late 60s New York City in John Schlesinger's New Hollywood classic.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Sinners

Dir. Ryan Coogler
137 min

This year's unexpected box office sleeper is that rare beast, a genre movie full of bold invention and surprise. We are in Mississippi in the early 1930s, and the opening of a new blues joint on the edge of town is the signal for all hell to break out.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Headless Woman

Dir. Lucrecia Martel
87 min

The pictures tell the story -- and you better not blink -- when Veronica (the superb Maria Onetto) hits something on the road home. But what? She is too traumatized, or panic-stricken, to go back and look, and her fears are too terrible to acknowledge.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre