Skip to main content
Inkwo: For When the Starving Return film image; two people and a dog sitting around a campfire at night

Short Fuse

VIFF Short Forum

Image: Inkwo: For When the Starving Return

This event has passed

Where do filmmakers find their stories? This shorts program of Canadian and International shorts was specially selected for our Ignite High School series, where we invite thousands of students to come to VIFF each year to learn from inspiring new films and ideas. We are pleased to also offer a second special screening of Short Fuse for all audiences to experience this special series of eye-opening stories on screen. Each short was selected for the ways they inspire new approaches for storytelling or animation. Charming, funny, and at times a bit scary, these filmmakers explore stories from the everyday, to ancient history and science; from Indigenous futurism, to the imaginary, and more. Together they offer a memorable collection for the next generation of filmmakers.

 

Q&A with director Amanda Strong

 

This short film program includes the following films:

Dokra Keu Bojhey Na
Sneha Das & Monjima Mullick, India (8 min)

An innovative animated documentary about the ancient bronze craft of Dokra sculptures in India told through the voices of Dokra artisans and sellers. They share some of the challenges they face as they endeavor to keep this art tradition alive.

 


Judy’s Garden
Evie Metz, USA (7 min)

In this enchanting animated short, a woman is confronted by death and taken on a journey through her past in a cosmic, and microcosmic, garden of life, death, and renewal.

 


The Everlasting Pea
Su Rynard, Canada (17 min)

Through the eyes of a scientist questioning plant consciousness, a pea plant dreaming of its past in Rome’s Colosseum, and a botanist unravelling a mystery, The Everlasting Pea invites a profound reimagining of our relationship with the vegetal world.

 


Beeps
Kirk Johnson, USA (15 min)

Sam can’t sleep. His bedroom is surrounded on all sides by chirping smoke alarms, the sign of a low battery. So he sets out on an odyssey to find the annoying beeps and in the process, learns about himself, his neighbors, and his place in the world.

 


Inkwo: For When the Starving Return
Amanda Strong, Canada (19 min)

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.

 


Soap Box
Jimmy G. Pettigrew, Canada (17 min)

Hubert, 10, wants to win the annual soapbox race down the mountain to impress Anouk–who is also competing. Soap Box is a thrilling, wildly fun sports comedy, and a tribute to children’s incredible imaginations.

 

Supported by

    

Community Partner

Director

Various

Country of Origin

Various

Year

2023-2024

Language

Various with English subtitles

Content Warning

Graphic violence, animal cruelty, coarse language, may frighten young children

PG

Open to youth!

83 min
Action & Suspense Animation Art, Music & Photography BC Spotlight Comedy Documentary Horror & Sci-Fi Indigenous Cinema LGBTQIA2S+ Q&As at VIFF Shorts U18 May Attend Women Directors

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

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

Our Lady of the Nile

Dir. Atiq Rahimi
106 min

Veronica and Virginia are inseparable friends at an elite Catholic boarding school, Our Lady of the Nile, but what binds them together is the very thing that separates them forever. We are in Rwanda, 1973, and tribal tensions are simmering ominously.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
Night Moves: Street Photography, Poetry and Music with Rodney DeCroo
man playing a guitar singing into a microphone with a bus shelter in the background

Night Moves: Street Photography, Poetry and Music with Rodney DeCroo

120 min

To mark the publication of Night Moves, his first book of street photography (shot in and around Commercial Drive), singer-songwriter, poet and playwright Rodney DeCroo shares his images, stories and music, along with his band The Wise Blood.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Secret Mall Apartment

Dir. Jeremy Workman
91 min

The stranger-than-fiction true story of a group of artists who built and furnished a hidden apartment inside a mall, remaining undetected for years. This is an absurdly fun and surprisingly profound film about gentrification and art.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Teacher

Dir. Farah Nabulsi
118 min

In this potent thriller, English teacher Basem witnesses the murder of a teenager by a Israeli settler. While the subsequent investigation rolls slowly towards a foregone conclusion, the teacher is caught up in a parallel kidnapping case...

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Bob Trevino Likes It

Dir. Tracie Laymon
102 min

When her toxic, narcissistic dad cuts her out of his life, Lily Trevino looks him up on Facebook and happens across his namesake, Bob (John Leguizamo), a gentle, genial contractor who lives nearby, and who proves an altogether better dad...

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Encampments

Dir. Michael T. Workman & Kei Pritsker
82 min

When pro-Palestine protests took hold of Columbia last year, the filmmakers were there from the beginning. This documentary charts the mounting tensions between students and the administration, as the protests were picked up across North America.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre