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We Deserve an Empire film image; lake in purple lighting at night with canoe

VIFF Short Forum 7

VIFF Short Forum

Image: We Deserve an Empire

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Shorts from Armenia, Canada, Tibet, Colombia, Japan, and Turkey.

 

Oct 3 & 4: Q&A with filmmakers

 

This short film program includes the following films:

Grizzly Bear Country
Mave Ky, Canada (6 min)

Masculinity and male friendships are explored through three friends who go on a backcountry hiking trip in the Alberta Rockies.

 


Magic Candies
Daisuke Nishio, Japan (21 min)

Somewhat of a loner, Dong-Dong is content playing marbles on his own. One day, he goes to buy new marbles but leaves the shop with a bag of magic candies instead. Based on the Korean picture book, Magic Candies by Heena Baek.

 


The Egg
Vahan Grigoryan, Armenia (12 min)

A struggling actor decides to steal an egg at the grocery store.

 


Morî
Yakup Tekintangaç, Turkey (20 min)

When a new teacher starts at school, Morî is convinced that he is her long-lost father.

 


The Boys and the Donkey
Tsering Yangjyab, China (21 min)

In the Tibetan Plateau, four friends roughhouse with a neighbour’s donkey, leading to a nasty scratch on one of their faces. They resolve to punish the beast.

 


Culture Shock
Barry Bilinsky, Canada (15 min)

While Joey struggles to fit in at Culture Camp—where she is sent after defacing a mural—the mural artist’s sister is there also, looking for the vandal.

 


We Deserve an Empire
Mauricio Maldonado, Colombia (23 min)

Scrap metal thieves prepare to excavate an abandoned mine for gold.

 

Supported by

    

Community Partner

Director

Various

Country of Origin

Various

Year

2023-2024

Language

Various with English subtitles

Content Warning

Animal cruelty

18+
118 min
Animation BC Spotlight Cinemas of Asia Drama Experimental & Avant Garde Indigenous Cinema LGBTQIA2S+ Q&As at VIFF Shorts

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

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

Blue Film

Dir. Elliot Tuttle
82 min

This transgressive two hander puts an Only Fans camboy in a room with a secret admirer. Turns out they have history... Not an easy watch, but a film that will fuel discussion for those who are open to it.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Departures

Dir. Neil Ely & Lloyd Eyre-Morgan
82 min

Two lads meet at an airport gate and begin monthly trips to Amsterdam together. Their chemistry is off the charts, but it's Jake who's calls the shots while Benji is the one who's emotionally invested. Comparisons to Pillion and Trainspotting are on mark.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Blue Heron

Dir. Sophy Romvari
90 min

In the late 1990s, eight-year-old Sasha and her Hungarian immigrant family relocate to a new home on Vancouver Island. Their fresh start is interrupted by increasingly dangerous behaviour from Jeremy, the family’s oldest child.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Steal This Story, Please!

Dir. Carl Deal & Tia Lessin
101 min

Urgent, provocative and unexpectedly funny, Steal This Story, Please! is a portrait of Amy Goodman, the host of the long-running progressive news show, Democracy Now!

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Richest Woman in the World

Dir. Thierry Klifa
123 min

Isabelle Huppert plays cosmetics CEO Marianne in this teasingly ambivalent satire inspired by the Bettancourt Affair, when L'Oreal heir Francoise Bettancourt scandalized France by frittering away her fortune on a notorious celebrity photographer.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Mārama

Dir. Taratoa Stappard
94 min

Set in North Yorkshire, 1859, this creepy gothic horror plays like The Piano in reverse: a young Maori woman takes up a position as a governess to a wealthy whaler's child, but finds colonial skeletons in his closets.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre