World Premiere
In this personal documentary, Indigenous comedian Chad Charlie goes to participate in the Standing Rock occupation and has a transformative experience. The film takes us on Charlie’s powerful passage of self-discovery, from the irreverent jokester to the culturally aware poet whose powerful spoken word piece encapsulates his realizations at the close of the film. In this blend of cinema, vlog, and social media with tons of humour, Charlie uses a real mix of formats (phone streaming, news footage, fly-on-the-wall documentary style) very effectively, and doesn’t try to work in a huge narrative or have a tidy conclusion. Like many who were there and endured violence by police against their peaceful marches, Charlie is still working through trauma and mental health issues he experienced from it. In his case, this journey has left him with a greater awareness of the ongoing injustices that Indigenous people must still contend with.
Community Partner
USA
2022
English
Featured in:
International Shorts: Personal Journeys
The films in this shorts program are all about discovery. Beautiful and thought-provoking voyages of internal and external discovery that honour relations and history, while encountering stimuli that promote a new understanding of self.
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Late Fame
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.
Memory of Princess Mumbi
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.
Lessons of Darkness
Werner Herzog's unforgettable documentary reveals the unfolding disaster of the Kuwaitian oil fields in flames in 1991 as a sweeping inferno of mesmerizing power.
Beau Travail
Inspired by Herman Melville's Billy Budd, Claire Denis' transfixing Beau Travail is set in East Africa. Sgt Galoup (Denis Lavant) reflects on his time in the French Foreign Legion, and the impact of the handsome Sentain (Gregoire Colin).
But I'm a Cheerleader
Megan (Natasha Lyonne) is the perfect All-American Girl, or so she thinks. That is until she’s shipped off to conversion therapy. This pitch black comedy is wrapped in a saccharine bow, featuring the icon herself, RuPaul, as a conversion counsellor.
Credits
Producer
Ben-Alex Dupris
Cinematography
Alex Goetz
Editor
Ben-Alex Dupris
Original Music
Terrance Sabbas
Director
Chad Charlie
Chad Charlie is an Afro-Indigenous filmmaker from Ahousaht First Nation. Beginning his career in 2008 as a stand-up comedian and spoken word artist, he now extends the same passion for poetry and humour in his writing for TV and film. He is currently a writer and actor for the hit television series Reservation Dogs (FX).