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

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

The Secret Agent

Dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho
158 min

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.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Ice Tower

Dir. Lucile Hadžihalilović
118 min

In Lucile Hadžihalilović's spellbinding fantasy drama, an orphan (Clara Pacini) becomes enthralled by a movie star (Marion Cotillard) playing the Snow Queen in a fairy tale film adaptation. Winner of the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Where to Land

Dir. Hal Hartley
75 min

Hal Hartley's first new film in a decade is a melancholy farce about mortality and what we'll call "late middle-age". Bill Sage is a semi-retired filmmaker who isn't dying faster than the rest of us but who behaves like he might be.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

La Grazia

Dir. Paolo Sorrentino
133 min

A contemplative, mournful but richly imagined movie about a retiring Italian President (Toni Servillo from The Great Beauty) facing two thorny ethical decisions that may define his legacy.

Image: © Andrea Pirrello

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Blue Star

Dir. Javier Macipe
129 min

In crisis, a popular singer quits Spain to backpack in Argentina. There he comes under the spell of a veteran musician, who teaches him the art of chacareras, zambas and vidalas. It's a journey of musical kinship and spiritual reawakening.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Mother and the Bear

Dir. Johnny Ma
100 min

Johnny Ma’s film stars Kim Ho-jung as a Korean woman who flies to Winnipeg when her immigrant daughter is hospitalized there. This crowd-pleaser plays up cultural differences to hilarious effect and offers a touching take on mother-daughter tension.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre