Shorts from Brazil, Kenya, Martinique, Mexico, Taiwan, and USA.
Sept 30 & Oct 1: Q&A with filmmakers
This short film program includes the following films:
Minus Plus Multiply
Chu-Chieh Lee, UK (5 min)
Experiments with drawing, stop motion, and ceramics exploring one’s relationship to emotions through space.
Creatures of Light
Sylvie Weber, Mexico (12 min)
Through her connection with the natural world, Valeria brings comfort and lightness to her family.
When the Wind Rises
Hung Chen, Taiwan (18 min)
An elderly activist rallies his community against the expansion of an oil refinery in their tiny fishing village.
The Return
Laissa Malih, Kenya (16 min)
Malih returns to her community as the first Maasai filmmaker—both an insider and an outsider, a woman amongst men—so that she may carry on the sacred tradition of storytelling.
Mermaids
Sarah Malléon, Martinique (16 min)
On the island of Martinique, a young girl attempts to summon mermaids through calls from a conch shell.
Dadá
Luisa Arraes, Brazil (19 min)
In this comedy of manners, chaos ensues at a dinner party when the help does not arrive.
Fishmonger
Neil Ferron, USA (26 min)
A pathetic fishmonger must survive a sex pact with an ancient fish creature in order to save his mother’s soul.
Supported by
Community Partner
Various
Various
2023-2024
Various with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Tokyo Taxi
An overworked taxi driver takes 85-year-old Madame Sumire on a final journey through Tokyo, revisiting the places that shaped her life. Yoji Yamada’s 91st film is a moving, heartwarming love letter to Tokyo, nominated for nine Japanese Academy Awards.
KAKU KAKU SHIKA JIKA fka Blank Canvas: My So-Called Artist's Journey
Adapted from acclaimed manga artist Akiko Higashimura’s autobiographical manga is a funny and sharply observed coming-of-age story about the creative awakening of a master of manga.
A Sad and Beautiful World
This Lebanese love story chronicles the romance between a level-headed businesswoman and a romantic restauranteur across several decades in wartorn Beirut. It's funny, charming, melancholy and you'll feel it all.
Blue Boy Trial
Transgender filmmaker Kasho Iizuka revisits 1960s Japan and the sensational “Blue Boy Trial,” sparked by the arrest of a doctor performing sex reassignment surgeries. With trans actors in central roles, the film powerfully illuminates buried history, identity, dignity, and resilience.
Aruku - I Walk
This meditative documentary, captures the stories of four contemporary pilgrims on the Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage as they follow in the footsteps of master Kūkai, the monk who shaped Japanese Buddhism. Each is burdened, in different ways, by exhaustion, solitude, or quiet disillusionment.