Experience a rare live AV performance by acclaimed pianist, producer, and composer Kelly Moran, an artist known for conjuring hypnotic textures and charting unconventional sonic pathways through classical, avant-garde, and electronic sound. Renowned for her explorations and manipulations of acoustic sounds, Moran has released a number of highly regarded albums and collaborated with notable contemporaries — FKA twigs, Yves Tumor, Kelsey Lu, Oneohtrix Point Never, and the Avalanches among them. For this unique VIFF Live presentation, she performs material from her celebrated 2025 album Don’t Trust Mirrors, released on Warp Records, which has been called a “sterling achievement … of commanding beauty” (Treble Zine).
Vancouver electronic musician and composer Bahar Khazei presents a special live AV set to open the evening.
Before the show, explore an immersive experience in the lobby, featuring work from two Canadian artists. Learn more about the art installation here.
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Oct 4
7:30 pm
8:00 pm
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Artists
Kelly Moran
Kelly Moran is a New York-based composer and pianist who has spent her career excavating the sonic possibilities of the piano. In the past decade, Moran has released numerous acclaimed albums that have challenged the piano’s traditional, classically imposed school of thought with a more contemporary approach. Her unique strand of experimental piano compositions, which conjure hypnotizing textures and dramatic compositional arcs, have been included on year-end lists across classical, avant-garde, and metal genres. An accomplished and highly sought-after composer, Moran has collaborated with visionary contemporaries including FKA Twigs, Yves Tumor, The Avalanches, Kelsey Lu, Oneohtrix Point Never, and classical musician Margaret Leng Tan.
Bahar Khazei
Bahar Khazei is a sound artist, performer, and composer living in so-called Vancouver. Her work spans electroacoustic music, free improvisation, ambient noise, and synthesis. Originally from Tehran, she draws on themes of language, migration, othering, and belonging. Often using modular synthesis, prepared piano, collected sounds, field recordings, speech, and original compositions, she creates work that reaches liminal spaces where the familiar and unfamiliar meet. As an active member of Vancouver’s experimental music community, she regularly performs in the city’s free improvisation and underground noise scenes.
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 Best Years of Our Lives
One of the finest films to come out of WWII, The Best Years of Our Lives sympathetically conveys the difficulties returning veterans faced in readjusting to life at home. It won 7 of the top Academy Awards including Best Picture, Director and Actor.
Ray Gunn (Special Advance Screening with Brad Bird)
In an alternate future as seen from 1939, a private eye (Sam Rockwell) is drawn into a case involving aliens, murder, and a multimedia star (Scarlett Johansson). Followed by a moderated discussion with director Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Ratatouille).
The Bloodettes
In this early Afro-futurist shlocker from Cameroonian director Jean-Pierre Bekolo (made in 2005 and set in 2025), two sex workers try to dispose of the body of a high profile politician who's died on the job (theirs, not his).
La Bola Negra
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.
Akashi
In Mayumi Yoshida’s tender drama, struggling artist Kana journeys to Tokyo to attend her grandmother’s funeral. While there, she reconnects with her childhood love and stumbles across a family secret that prompts her to reconsider her place in the world.