Shorts from: Canada, France, Lebanon, Netherlands, Portugal, Poland, Syria, USA.
Oct 4 & 5: Q&A
This short film program includes the following films:
One Duck Down
Lindsay Aksarniq McIntyre, Canada (5 min)
Filmed on the tundra of the Canadian Arctic, place and personal histories are explored through memories embedded in the land.
Baadarane
Samah El Kadi, Lebanon (15 min)
In a small town on Mount Lebanon, a young boy tests God after his mother’s sudden death.
Water Girl
Sandra Desmazières, France/Netherlands/Portugal (15 min)
Anchored by her relationship to the sea as a freediver, Mia recalls her past.
Adieu Ugarit
Samy Benammar, Canada (16 min)
Benammar interviews Mohamed, who witnessed his best friend’s murder by armed militia on the outskirts of Damascus in 2012.
A Light That Doesn’t Dim
Colby Barrios, USA (19 min)
Sister Jones, a Mormon missionary stationed in Mexico, wants to go home.
Four Walls of Memory
Joanna Płatek, Poland (12 min)
A wild creature chases a girl into a cabin, slams into the wall, and dies. Why doesn’t she leave?
WASSUPKAYLEE
Pepi Ginsberg, France/USA (20 min)
Kaylee, a teenage influencer, struggles to find her groove as the latest member of a popular TikTok content house.
Supported by
Community Partner
Various
Various
2024 & 2025
Various
Animal cruelty, violence, murder
Book Tickets
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.