Archive and the land reveal other ways of seeing, ensuring that what is meant to survive cannot be erased. Truth lives in memory, inquiry, and the faces of the young, where the hubris and shame of colonizers and oppressive regimes are quietly, unmistakably inscribed.
Oct 1 & 9: Filmmaker Q&A
This short film program includes the following films:
A Dream Pointing to Aadchit
Ghinwa Yassine, Canada/Lebanon (18 min)
Haunted by a recurring dream, director Ghinwa Yassine returns home to find her memories changed by war.
Between Us and the World
Wallace Minchong Li, UK (17 min)
Young friends revisit the site of archival colonial footage, the place where they live and dream in Western Sahara.
Together
NEOZOON, Germany (14 min)
Early visions of togetherness are contrasted with the rise of individualism, questioning the urge to possess and protect.
Golden Island
Arief Budiman, Indonesia/Singapore (23 min)
Arief and Edi exchange photoshopped memories of Papua, constructing utopian illusions of the land.
Ghazal-E Sorkh
Maryam Tafakory, Iran/UK/France (19 min)
A personal recollection of betrayal built on fragmented films, commissioned by the Shah.
The Recce
Daniel Mann, UK/Germany (16 min)
Exploring cinema’s ties to land and its entanglement with colonial imaginaries, Mann binds the fiction of filmmaking to the fiction of state-building.
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Missing VIFF? Check Out What's Playing at the VIFF Centre
American Doctor
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.
The History of Concrete
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.
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.
A. Rimbaud
Patrick Wang (The Bread Factory) presents the life of French poet Arthur Rimbaud in this staggeringly adventurous and deeply considered movie, a three-hour, one-man show quite unlike anything we have seen before. "Poetic, audacious and singular."
The 39 Steps
In our new film studies series, FRAMEWORK, film scholar Michael van den Bos explores the work of Alfred Hitchcock, across four monochrome masterworks. This week: The 39 Steps (1935), a witty and fast-moving spy thriller from Hitchcock's English period.