From 1885 to 1951, Canadian law banned the Indigenous Potlatch ceremony. Those who defied the ban were arrested, and masks and ceremonial objects were confiscated. The Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw nation has made it their quest to track down these sacred items. In some cases, the masks traveled across the country and eventually to Europe, finding their way into museums and private art collections, as well as ending up in the hands of surrealists like Max Ernst, André Breton, and Joan Miró. So Surreal: Behind the Masks traces the delightful confluence of the Yup’ik sensibility and the Western avant-garde movement and demonstrates the tremendous impact of Indigenous art in the most unexpected corners.
Neil Diamond and Joanne Roberton’s hugely entertaining film is part detective movie, part art doc. As it moves back and forth between Alert Bay, New York, and Paris, it provides an unusual and little-known perspective on art history, while highlighting the crucial work of redressing the cultural genocide perpetrated by Canadian and American authorities. Vital and vibrant, this film is an outstanding achievement.
Sept 29: Q&A with directors Neil Diamond & Joanne Robertson
Oct 1: Q&A with director Joanne Robertson
Presented by
Media Partner
Neil Diamond, Bill Cranmer, Juanita Johnston, Chuna McIntyre, John McIntyre
Canada
2024
English
Open to youth at SFU Woodwards
At Fifth Avenue
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Catherine Bainbridge, Ernest Webb
Producer
Daniel Morin
Screenwriter
Neil Diamond, Joanne Robertson
Cinematography
Glauco Bermudez, Yoan Cart
Editor
Rebecca Lessard
Original Music
Anaïs Larocque
Neil Diamond
Neil Diamond is a Cree filmmaker from Waskaganish, Quebec, on the coast of James Bay. Neil co-directed the award-winning feature documentaries, Reel Injun (2009) and the more recent Red Fever (2024) along with Cree Spoken Here (2001), One More River (2004), and Heavy Metal: A Mining Disaster in Northern Quebec (2005). He is an award-winning photographer, and co-founder of The Nation, the first news magazine to serve the Cree of northern Quebec and Ontario.
Filmography: Cree Spoken Here (2001); One More River (2004); Heavy Metal: A Mining Disaster in Northern Quebec (2005); Reel Injun (2009); Inuit Cree Reconciliation (2013); Red Fever (2024)
Joanne Robertson
Joanne Robertson grew up as a settler on the west coast on the lands of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish). Today she is a director, researcher, and creative producer. She began her work with Rezolution Pictures over 25 years ago, collaborating with Cree co-director Neil Diamond on such documentary projects as Cree Spoken Here (2001), Dab Iyiyuu (2004-2006), and One More River (2004). She has worked as a story producer on APTN’s Lands Enchanted (2024) and the award-winning documentary Red Fever (2024).
Filmography: À Table (2010)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Sentimental Value
A once-revered director crashes back into his family’s lives, eager to recruit his daughter for a film role. When she declines, he finds a new muse in an eager but unpolished Hollywood star, sending his botched reconciliation spiraling into chaos.
The Ice Tower
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.
La Grazia
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
Innocence
Lucile Hadžihalilović's first feature is a suggestive, subversive fairy tale set in a private school for young girls, the kind of film David Lynch might have made, if he'd been born a French woman in the early 1960s.
Where to Land
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.
La venue de l'avenir
Four cousins are tapped to investigate an abandoned house that is their joint inheritance. As they explore, they learn their story of their ancestor Adele (Suzanne Lindon) and her foray into Paris in the age of Impressionism.