Skip to main content
First Months of Freedom film image, director Kriss Li

First Months of Freedom

Canadian Premiere

Cat, a transgender woman in Tennessee, has completed parole. Using phone videos, Skype calls, archival material, and footage shot by a friend, a portrait emerges of the challenges posed by her newfound freedom.

 

Supported by

Community Broadcast Partner

Community Partner

Director
Credits
Country of Origin

Canada

Year

2021

Language

English

Film Contact
Content Warning

Sexual language

G
10 min

Featured in:

Patty Vs. Patty film image

VIFF Short Forum: Program 2

Fear, doubt, and loneliness give way to pleasure, empowerment, and reclamation—or, is it the other way around?

 

MORE INFO

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

The Secret in Their Eyes

Dir. Juan José Campanella
129 min

This month's Talking Pictures screening is a multi-layered, poignant thriller interweaving the personal lives of a prosecution investigator (Ricardo Darin) and a judge, with a manhunt spanning twenty-five years. Stay for cookies, coffee and a chat after!

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 - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Sunless

Dir. Chris Marker
103 min

Chris Marker's dazzling and discursive essay film ranges across Japan, Africa, San Francisco, Iceland, politics, philosophy, ritual, movies and memory. It's a film for the permanently curious.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Meet Me In St. Louis

Dir. Vincente Minnelli
113 min

Vincente Minnelli's heartwarming evergreen chronicles an ordinarily tumultuous year in the life of a prosperous household in 1904. It's debatable that MGM ever conjured a more affecting musical.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Credits

Screenwriter

Kriss Li, Rider Alsop

Cinematography

Catherine Lynn Quick, Midnight Forman

Editor

Kriss Li

Director

Kriss Li headshot, First Months of Freedom director

Kriss Li

Kriss Li s a multimedia artist who creates films, installations, and conceptual projects that explore structures of power. Their work has been shown in over 80 international festivals and exhibitions, including Oberhausen, MIX NYC, and National Contemporary Art Museum (Romania). Kriss currently lives on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations and works as a union organizer in their day job.