World Premiere
One of the few female monumental sculptors of her generation, feminist artist Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002) is best known for her playfully vibrant, voluptuous Nana statues, which stand proudly as icons of female empowerment in multiple countries’ public spaces.
Combining photos from her own archive with new footage, director Michiko Matsumoto guides us on a joyous retrospective of Saint Phalle’s breathtaking oeuvre. Gallerists, a sociologist, friends, and family weigh in on Saint Phalle’s life and legacy, from her early avant-garde Shooting paintings to her impressive architectural structures that visitors can enter and explore, such as The Dragon, a massive playhouse in Knokke, Belgium. Saint Phalle’s masterwork, The Tarot Garden, in Tuscany, took twenty years to construct. Adorned with stunning hand-laid ceramic and mirror mosaic pieces, her dreamy outdoor sculpture garden depicts the mystical meanings of the Tarot’s 22 Major Arcana.
A portrait of a fascinating woman who rebelled against childhood trauma and the patriarchy through her inspiring works, Viva Niki is a testament to the healing power of art.
Presented by
Supported by
Media Partner
Niki de Saint Phalle
Japan
2024
In English, French, Italian and Japanese with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits & Director
Producer
Michiko Matsumoto
Screenwriter
Michiko Matsumoto
Cinematography
Michiko Matsumoto
Editor
Takeshi Ikeda
Original Music
Alliance de Chat Noir (Kenji Ueda & Kyoko Koizumi)
Michiko Matsumoto 松本路子
Filmmaker, photographer, and essayist, Michiko Matsumoto was born in Shizuoka, Japan in 1950. She started working as a freelance photographer after graduating from Hosei University in 1973. Matsumoto has published fifteen books of her photographs and essays including Portraits of Women Artists, DANCERS, and Portrait of Niki de Saint Phalle. Her photography is in the collections of museums internationally. Viva Niki – The Spirit of Niki de Saint Phalle is her first feature.
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
NAZA
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.
The Sandbox
Borders are the faultlines of the world. Kenya-Jade Pinto's doc examines how modern surveillance technology, bio-metrics and AI are combining to make land and sea borders as impenetrable as air travel, and suggests the unspoken cost is our own humanity.
Atonement
A former Marine suffering from PTSD seeks a meeting with the Iraqi family to which he did great wrong ten years earlier in the Gulf War. Atonement navigates challenging, politically-charged psychological territory with diligence and sensitivity.
The Pervert's Guide to Ideology
Slavoj Zizek re-teams with director Sophie Fiennes for another wildly entertaining romp through the crossroads of cinema and philosophy. From The Sound of Music to Titanic, Jaws to The Dark Knight, Zizek offers new ways to understanding Hollywood.
The Pervert's Guide to Cinema
The Pervert's Guide to Cinema takes the viewer on an exhilarating ride through some of the greatest movies ever made (Hitchcock, Lynch, Tarkovsky et al). Serving as guide is Slavoj Zizek, the superstar Slovenian philosopher and psychoanalyst.
You Had to Be There
In a strange quirk of fate, the legendary Toronto '72 production of the musical comedy Jesus hit Godspell launched a constellation of comedy stars, all unknown at the time but now known to us as Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, Victor Garber, et al