Skip to main content
Living Grounds film image; man staring offscreen

Living Grounds

Sol vivant

VIFF Short Forum

World Premiere

Luc, a weathered corpse mover, is called upon to the scene of a suicide.

Director
Cast

Jean-Michel Anctil, Mikhail Ahooja, Michel Mpambara, Léa Girard Nadeau, Laurence Trudelle, Sophie Dion

Credits
Country of Origin

Canada

Year

2025

Language

In French with English subtitles

Film Contact
Content Warning

Graphic violence, self harm, drug & alcohol abuse

18+
20 min
Action Drama Family Relations Shorts
Martine aimait les films

Credits & Director

Producer

Denise Payette, Raymond Lavoie, Émile Lavoie, Camille Mongeau, Gustave Dufresne

Screenwriter

Émile Lavoie, Camille Mongeau

Cinematography

Evangelos Desborough

Editor

Louis Chevalier Dagenais

Original Music

Théo Porcet

Art Director

Mathilde Donnard, Philippe Gauvin

Emile Lavoie headshot

Emile Lavoie

Émile Lavoie is a Montreal-based director, screenwriter, and producer. He founded Martine aimait les films in 2016 after studying film at UQAM. His first short, Mourir en silence (2022) earned more than 27 festival selections and eight awards, including two at Fantasia. Living Grounds (2025) is his second short film.

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

Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World

Dir. Sasha Waters
91 min

Sasha Waters' documentary takes us through the life of America's best-selling late twentieth century poet, a private woman who shared her innermost thoughts and made them indispensable.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Late Fame

Dir. Kent Jones
96 min

Based on a novella by Arthur Schnitzler (Eyes Wide Shut) this is a sly, poignant comedy about vanity and art from director Kent Jones, starring Willem Dafoe as a mailman belatedly acclaimed for a book of poetry he wrote in his youth.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

American Doctor

Dir. Poh Si Teng
93 min

One of the most powerful documentaries of the year, this puts us smack in the open wound that is Gaza, filtered through the eyes of three American surgeons (of Palestinian, Jewish and Zoroastrian backgrounds) compelled to do their utmost to alleviate harm.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Memory of Princess Mumbi

Dir. Damien Hauser
80 min

In 2093, a filmmaker arrives in the African village of Umata, where he meets Princess Mumbi, a woman torn between love, legacy, and the future of storytelling. It's a fabulous genre-blending fable about memory, invention and cinematic resistance.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
Joan Crawford in... Letty Lynton
Letty Lynton film image; woman held in a man's tight embrace

Joan Crawford in... Letty Lynton

Dir. Clarence Brown
84 min

This would be your first chance to see one of Joan Crawford's prime pre-Code films since 1936, a salacious melodrama about a socialite (Joan Crawford) accused of poisoning her ex lover.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Jack Johnson: Surfilmusic

Dir. Emmett Malloy
75 min

This new documentary chronicles Jack Johnson's evolution from surfer to filmmaker to world-renowned musician. The film traces how Jack's early years making surf films with close friends became a foundation for a much broader creative life.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema