Skip to main content
Uncommon Ground film image; woman scared in woods

Uncommon Ground

VIFF Short Forum

Canadian Premiere

In the year 2171, Tawni and her aunt live in the Shadowlands. While on a journey to the capital for medicine, Tawni discovers a plane crash survivor and risks her own safety to treat him.

 

Supported by

    

Media Partner

Community Partner

Director
Cast

Leenah Robinson, Malcolm Sparrow-Crawford, Quelemia Sparrow

Credits
Country of Origin

Canada

Year

2024

Language

English

Film Contact
18+
20 min
Action BC Spotlight Family Relations Horror & Thriller Indigenous Cinema Shorts Women Directors
Imoto Productions, Halo Halo Productions

Credits & Director

Executive Producer

Stephanie Rennie, Amanda J Strachan

Producer

Mik Narciso, Makenna Jow, Phil Planta, Nightingale

Screenwriter

Faith Sparrow-Crawford, Bruce Crawford

Cinematography

Kaayla Whachell

Editor

Kevin Ang

Production Design

Jane Li

Original Music

Justin Delorme

Faith Sparrow-Crawford headshot

Faith Sparrow-Crawford

Faith Sparrow-Crawford is an early-career writer, director, and producer from the Musqueam Nation in Vancouver, BC. She was raised in her community by generations of storytellers and artists and has always had a love for sharing the stories of her people. She has devoted herself to creating meaningful work that creates space for Indigenous peoples and people of colour in film. In 2024, Faith completed her first short film, Uncommon Ground.

Missing VIFF? Check Out What's Playing at the VIFF Centre

La Bola Negra
La Bola Negra film image; man playing a trumpet

La Bola Negra

Dir. Javier Ambrossi, Javier Calvo
155 min

A big, old-school historical melodrama gets a thrillingly modern, queer makeover from Spanish duo Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, who artfully juggle three gay protagonists across stories set in 1932, 1937, and 2017. Winner: Best Director, Cannes. Screening on 35mm.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
The History of Concrete
The History of Concrete film image; man smoothing just-poured concrete sidewalk

The History of Concrete

Dir. John Wilson
101 min

After attending a workshop on pitching saccharine Hallmark movies, John Wilson tries to apply all the same best practices to his documentary about concrete. Frequently absurd and endlessly entertaining detours, asides, and digressions ensue.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
More info

Sold Out

The Mad Dog of Europe

Dir. Rubika Shah
83 min

The story of an unmade screenplay from the writer of Citizen Kane. In 1932, Herman Mankiewicz wrote a film that foretold the persecution of the Jews and the war in Europe. But Hollywood wouldn't take the risk and The Mad Dog of Europe was never made.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Mortal Storm

Dir. Frank Borzage
100 min

In this explicitly anti-Nazi melodrama directed by Frank Borzage (Three Comrades) a year before the US entered the war, Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart fall in love as their friends and family fall prey to the rise of Hitler's Nazi party in Germany.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
NAZA
Naza film image; two people sitting in a foggy night with skyscrapers in the background

NAZA

Dir. Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor
80 min

NAZA is a codeword euphemistically used by Israeli intelligence to indicate the number of civilians it expects will be killed in an airstrike. This chilling documentary exposes the policy and process of state-sanctioned mass killings.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
Three Comrades
Three Comrades film image; men gathered outside chatting

Three Comrades

Dir. Frank Borzage
100 min

Scripted by F Scott Fitzgerald, Three Comrades (1938) was the first US studio film to chronicle the rise of European fascism in the 30s. Three German veterans open up a repair shop and try to regain a normal life, but political extremists have other ideas.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre