To locate one’s self, the desire to be seen and the need to hide one’s desires are in constant negotiation.
October 5 & 6: Q&A with the film teams
This short film program includes the following films:
Les Lavandières
Laura Kamugisha, QC (5 min)
In this visual essay strung along a clothesline, a narrator named Lavender tells the story of her mother, Jeanne, a Rwandese immigrant filled with hope.
Her Name Is Like a Sigh
Solara Thanh-Binh Dang, BC (17 min)
Ha, an overworked Vietnamese nail salon proprietor, reevaluates her life and marriage in an unexpected mid-life crisis prompted by a new customer.
Nigiqtuq (The South Wind)
Lindsay McIntyre, BC/AB (17 min)
An Inuit mother and daughter, Kumaa’naaq and Marguerite, must negotiate the pressures of assimilation after relocating to a new life in the South in the 1930s. Based on a true story.
Hair or No Hair
Janessa St. Pierre, BC (16 min)
Bel, a young black woman who has been hiding her Alopecia under wigs for years, is one day exposed publicly.
Cristo Negro
Paul Stavropoulos, Brendan Mills, ON (18 min)
History, religion, and colonialism collide with spiritual awakening, miracles, and poverty in Portobelo, Panama, where locals worship a black Jesus Christ. Culminating in the rapturous yearly festival, his most devout followers share how they came to their faith.
Sun, Moon and Four Peaks
Kevin Jin Kwan Kim, BC (15 min)
Two brothers, Minseo and Junho, are reunited in Vancouver after many years apart following their parents divorce in Korea.
Portrait of the Con Artist as a Young Man
Ryan Leedu, AB (8 min)
An aspiring con-artist works on his craft.
Silkworm
Amir Honarmand, BC (25 min)
Amin, an Iranian boy living in poverty during the pandemic, is gifted a stolen iPhone by his older brother. Not before long, the owner gets in touch.
Supported by
Community Partner
Various
Canada
2022-2023
VIFF Short Forum
Various with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
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.

