We’re excited to showcase nine impactful shorts from Vancouver-based filmmakers that use cinema to address pressing mental health subjects. Originally produced and/or presented by Voices With Impact, these five-minute films run the gamut from evocative animation to social realist drama and serve as springboards for discussions on issues such as burnout and grief, while platforming BIPOC voices and immigration stories. Featuring work from several alums of our VIFF Catalyst mentorship program.
Films
Are You Hungry?
Rachel Rose, Belen Garcia (Canada, 2023)
A film about the need to win, Are You Hungry? explores the wounds and crisis of this pursuit through the relationship between a player and her Coach.
Be Long
Sideah Alladice (Canada, 2021)
A Black woman recounts a 17-year battle with mental health, starting with a suicide attempt and ending in sobriety.
Beautiful Madness
Carly Charters, Russ Charters (Canada, 2022)
Beautiful Madness explores Bipolar Disorder and how creativity and inspiration can lead to healing and clarity.
Blue Garden
Natalie Murao (Canada, 2022)
Blue Garden retells the history of a Japanese Canadian fisherman who was forced to work on a tomato farm during the WW2 internment.
Esther & Sai
Rosie Choo Pidcock, Anaïsa Visser (Canada, 2021)
The night before their first day of nursing school in 1976, two new immigrants attempt to fit in by cooking dinner.
Like Minded
Jeremiah Reyes (Canada, 2022)
Two friends Jeremiah and Aska empathize with each other over similar childhood traumas, and mental health struggles and bond through a shared appreciation for biking.
Nanay
Thea Loo (Canada, 2021)
A documentary following two Filipino Canadians who recount their experiences as children of Filipina migrant workers.
Once Upon a Time
Athena Russell (Canada, 2022)
A young girl presents to her class. Through the lens of a fairytale, she shares the reality of her life living with an alcoholic parent.
Secret Horror
David Granneman (Canada, 2019)
Secret Horror explores how art-making can make us feel truly alive in the face of depression and substance use disorder.
Voices With Impact’s latest 10 shorts have their Canadian premiere at SFU Woodward’s Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema on Thursday, June 27.
This event will include a discussion with attending filmmakers Sideah Alladice, Carly Charters, David Granneman, Natalie Murao, Rachel Rose, and Anaïsa Visser, as well as Chris Hyde from Voices With Impact.
Various
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Also Playing
Love
This warm, thoughtful piece offers shrewd comic observations on modern dating as it trains a quizzical eye on the trysts of a female doctor, Marianne (Andrea Bræin Hovig), and her colleague, a gay male nurse, Tor (Tayo Cittadella Jacobsen).
Sex
Two chimney sweeps living in heterosexual marriages find their views on sexuality and gender challenged by a series of unexpected events. In a set of sharply scripted conversations, both men confront heretofore unexplored aspects of their identity.
3 Faces
Iranian filmmaker Panahi and actress Behnaz Jafari, both playing themselves, receive a video in which a distraught teenaged girl, whose acting dreams have been quashed appears to kill herself. Panahi and Jafari decide to investigate...