World Premiere
For 36 years, Tojo’s has been a mainstay in the Vancouver food scene, beloved by critics, foodies, and a plethora of celebrities. A pioneer of Japanese cuisine in the West, chef Hidekazu Tojo helped bring sushi to the mainstream and is known as the inventor of the California Roll. Still working in his seventies, chef Tojo is inspired to look back on his life and ponder the legacy he will leave behind. He recalls his early years as a Japanese immigrant, coming to Canada at the age of 21, and his ambition to create a singular culinary path. We also accompany the chef on a return trip to Japan, where he connects with locals and explores new food trends.
Shot in Vancouver, Vancouver Island, and Japan, The Chef & the Daruma is a mouth-watering film tracing a journey of immigration, identity, and reinvention. Mads K. Baekkevold, in his first feature documentary, creates a loving tribute to a man who has devoted his life to sharing food.
The October 3 screening of The Chef & the Daruma is a Relaxed Screening. Relaxed Screenings are open to ANYONE who would benefit from a less restrictive and sensory-friendly experience. Learn more about Relaxed Screenings here.
Sept 30: Q&A with director Mads K. Baekkevold; editor Anna Chiyeko Shannon; executive producer Matt Lawrence Dix; writer/producer Natalie Murao; producer Luis Guerra; and Hidekazu Tojo & Momoko Tojo
Oct 5: Q&A with director Mads K. Baekkevold; executive producer Matt Lawrence Dix; producers Natalie Murao & Luis Guerra; and Hidekazu Tojo & Momoko Tojo
Supported by
Media Partner
Hidekazu Tojo
Canada
2024
In English and Japanese with English subtitles
Coarse language
Open to youth at SFU Woodwards & Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
At Fifth Avenue
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Matt Lawrence Dix
Producer
Luis Guerra
Screenwriter
Natalie Murao
Cinematography
Kaayla Whachell
Editor
Anna Chiyeko Shannon
Production Design
Megan MacAulay
Original Music
Masahiro Takahashi
Mads K. Baekkevold
Mads K. Baekkevold, born in Norway and earning a BA in film directing at Lasalle College of the Arts in Singapore, has built his career while constantly on the move.
From working as a senior creative at Media.Monks in Amsterdam to working through Asia and being part of a Cannes Lions-awarded creative team, Mads has a curiosity for people, their stories, their customs—and, of course, food.
Now based in the Pacific Northwest, he has completed his latest film, The Chef & the Daruma (2024), alongside writer and creative producer Natalie Murao.
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Barbarian Invasions
Arcand's belated sequel finds his erstwhile "sensual socialist" facing terminal cancer and trying to make peace with his financier son. This is one of the most acclaimed Canadian films ever made, garlanded all over the world.
The Players
In this intense semi-autobiographical debut feature, teenager Emily (the remarkable Stefani Kimber) joins an experimental theatre troupe led by the charismatic Reinhardt (Eric Johnson). It will be a rite of passage fraught with menace. Rated: PG
Who by Fire
Jeff, a 17-year-old aspiring filmmaker, goes on vacation with his friend Max and his family to an isolated lodge. Philippe Lesage’s film is a tense, mesmerizing tour de force that is both agonizing and cathartic. A Berlinale award winner.
Crocodile Eyes
Drawing on home movies and her immediate family relations, Ingrid Veninger sets out to make a film comprising 100 "real moments": birth, death, and the in-between. Minutes mundane and momentous, personal histories, memories shared.
Village Keeper
In Karen Chapman’s sensitive debut feature, a widowed mother desperate to shelter her teenage daughter and son from a surge of gun violence in Toronto takes it upon herself to cleanse the blood from crime scenes in her Lawrence Heights neighbourhood.
Incandescence
Filmed across the Okanagan before, during and after several devastating fires by veteran non-fiction filmmakers Nova Ami and Velcrow Ripper (Metamorphosis; ScaredSacred), Incandescence is a mesmerizing cinematic contemplation of the power of wildfires.