Skip to main content
Inkwo: For When the Starving Return film image; close on person in dim lighting

Inkwo: For When the Starving Return

Inkwo à la défense des vivants

VIFF Short Forum

Set two lifetimes in the future. Dove, a gender-shifting warrior, uses their Indigenous medicine (Inkwo) to protect their community from an unburied swarm of terrifying creatures.

 

Supported by

    

Community Partner

Director
Cast

Paulina Alexis, Tantoo Cardinal, Art Napoleon

Credits
Country of Origin

Canada

Year

2024

Language

In English and Dene with English subtitles

Film Contact
Content Warning

Graphic violence, animal cruelty, may frighten young children

PG

Open to youth!

19 min
Action & Suspense Animation BC Spotlight Horror & Sci-Fi Indigenous Cinema LGBTQIA2S+ Shorts Women Directors
Spotted Fawn Productions, NFB

Credits & Director

Executive Producer

Amanda Strong, Haydn Wazelle, Robert McLaughlin, Lupe Danyluk

Producer

Amanda Strong, Maral Mohammadian, Nina Werewka

Screenwriter

Amanda Strong, Richard Van Camp, Bracken Hanuse Corlett

Cinematography

Dean Holmes

Editor

Amanda Strong, Michael Bourquin

ANIM

Deanna Partridge-David, Anna Berezowsky, Juan Soto, Payton Curtis

Production Design

Kate Stransky

Amanda Strong headshot; Inkwo: For When the Starving Return director

Amanda Strong

Amanda Strong is a Michif/Métis artist, writer, producer, director, filmmaker and mother. As the owner and executive producer of Spotted Fawn Productions Inc., her collaborative creations serve to amplify Indigenous storytelling and ideologies. Strong’s work has received Canadian Screen Award and Emmy nominations, and her films—which include Biidaaban (2018) and Four Faces of the Moon (2016) —have been shown worldwide at venues such as TIFF, the Cannes film market, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and the American Museum of Natural History.

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

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Dir. Mike Nichols
131 min

A young couple accept an invitation for a nightcap with history professor George (Richard Burton) and his wife Martha (Elizabeth Taylor). At first it's fun and games. But what passes for caustic wit soon degenerates into vicious mind games.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
Drop Dead City
Drop Dead City film image; someone holding a newspaper up in front of a brick wall

Drop Dead City

Dir. Michael Rohatyn & Peter Yost
108 min

New York, 1975. The city is minutes away from bankruptcy and President Gerald Ford wants no part of it. Sanitation workers are on strike and cops are telling tourists it's not safe to visit. The town is going up in flames and they can't pay the firemen.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Shall We Dance?

Dir. Masayuki Suô
137 min

Masayuki Suô's delightful and charming 1996 film was a box office smash and won 14 Japanese Academy Awards including Best Film. It's the story of a married salaryman who falls in love with... dance.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

In the Mood for Love

Dir. Wong Kar-wai
107 min

Wong Kar-wai's most acclaimed and popular film is a love story about two neighbours (Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung) who are drawn together by the long absences of their respective spouses + a newly released short companion piece from 2001.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
Georgia O'Keeffe: the Brightness of Light
Georgia O’Keeffe: The Brightness of Light film image; painted reds, pinks, oranges, and yellows that combine to look like a flower

Georgia O'Keeffe: the Brightness of Light

Dir. Paul Wagner
118 min

Drawing on her copious correspondence and the world's leading scholars, this is a definitive documentary on the life and work of "the mother of American Modernism."

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Familiar Touch

Dir. Sarah Friedland
90 min

A loving portrait of an octogenarian transitioning into an assisted living facility, this award-winning first feature by choreographer Sarah Friedland has a simplicity and warmth that's exceptionally poignant.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre