VIWFF 2020
The 2020 festival took place from March 3-8, a six-day celebration featuring in-person screenings, receptions, filmmaker panels, and more at VIFF Centre.
VIWFF 2020 Official Trailer
Features
A First Farewell
Lina Wang
China / 2020
Set in an Uyghur village in northwestern China, A First Farewell is an award winning film told through the eyes of a young boy. The depth and delight of his relationships to friends and family are movingly captured, as is their slow and unstoppable unravelling as the people chase ‘a better future’. An important film told by a filmmaker raised in the area.
Black Conflux
Nicole Dorsey
Canada / 2020
The lives of a promising, disillusioned, teen and a self-loathing outcast are intertwined in this well-crafted, haunting, film. Set in suburban Newfoundland in 1987, the story explores growing up isolated in a world of toxic masculinity. Compelling performances deliver the story. Selected as one of TIFF’s Top Ten for the year.
Vancouver Premiere
Heavy Craving
Pei-ju Hsieh
Taiwan / 2020
Ying-Juan works in her mother’s child care centre and reluctantly accepts her gift of a weight loss program. But when she meets Wu, a delivery man, and discovers the secret of one the centre’s students, her cravings take a wild turn. She begins to lose something more important than weight. This uplifting film tackles issues of discrimination while delivering great performances and beautiful cinematography.
Canadian Premiere
MurMur
Heather Young
Canada / 2020
The film follows Donna as she serves her community sentence in an animal shelter. In a futile attempt to address her chronic loneliness, Donna begins to bring the animals home. But her sense of emptiness grows while her life takes a relentless downward spiral. Selected as one of TIFF’s top ten.
Red Snow
Marie Clements
Canada / 2020
Captured by the Taliban, a Gwich’in soldier confronts memories in the Canadian north he thought he’d left behind. He forges an alliance with a Pashtun family as they escape through treacherous landscapes in a blizzard that is their key to survival. Tapping into a universal need for belonging, and shifting between striking arctic and arid landscapes, director/writer Marie Clements delivers a thriller as poignant as it is pulse-quickening.
Riot Girls
Jovanka Vuckovic
Canada / 2020
In an alternate 1995, a mysterious disease wipes out all the adults. Two young gangs are pitted against each other in a brutal war for territory, resources and survival.
The film is presented by WIFTV’s From Our Dark Side program supporting the creation of genre projects by Canadian women.
Seeing
Sumitra Bhave
India / 2020
Ramji is humble iron smith from a small village. His world falls apart after his only son drowns in the flooding river. He despairs, even as his friends question their ability to empathize. One rainy night, however, helping a troubled cow deliver a calf, destiny offers Ramji a chance to attain the ultimate realization.
Canadian Premiere
Take Me Somewhere Nice
Ena Sendijarević
Netherlands / 2020
Alma travels from the Netherlands to Bosnia to find the father she never met. With her indifferent cousin and his charming best friend, she embarks on an unpredictable and sexually charged road trip that changes them all. A sensitive director discovers the central character’s contradictions, leading to an unexpected journey in a scorching landscape.
BC Premiere
The Rabbits’ House
Valeria Selinger
Argentina / 2020
Based on the real and extraordinary events in Laura Alcoba's book, "Manèges, petite histoire Argentine", the film is set in the year immediately preceding Argentina’s Dirty War. Eight year old Laura learns to live a secret life, to use a fake name, and to hide the activists with whom she shares a home. She knows, too, that a clandestine printing press is concealed behind the rabbit’s house.
World Premiere
Be Natural
Pamela B. Green
USA / 2020
Alice Guy-Blaché began making films in 1894. She had an illustrious career in both France and the U.S, directing over 1000 works. In 1919, however, she abruptly disappeared from the history of film. Narrated by Jodie Foster, the documentary is both a tribute and a detective story, tracing the circumstances under which this extraordinary artist left us, and charting a path towards her reclamation.
Breaking Their Silence: Women on the Frontline of the Poaching War
Kerry David
USA / 2020
Shining a clear light on their intelligence, empathy, strength and stamina, filmmaker Kerry David and her crew capture the courageous women who live on the frontline of today’s poaching crisis. While trying to prevent Africa’s most vulnerable animals from extinction, the women bravely face seemingly insurmountable odds.
Canadian Premiere
Closing Time
Nicole Vögele
Switzerland / 2020
Like many who reside in the sleepless corners of Taipei, Kuo and his wife work all night, serving the nocturnal in a small restaurant. The film is a cinematographic meditation that perfectly captures the poetry of an ordinary life and the inexplicable connections between drifting souls.
Canadian Premiere
Lost Reactor
Alexandra Westmeier
Germany / 2020
In an extraordinary tale of hopes, dreams, deception and perseverance, the film captures the lives of three people who live in a nuclear power plant. Located in Crimea, the plant was the most costly project in Soviet history, yet it was never activated due to governmental collapse. Individuals who helped build the reactor now call it home.
Canadian Premiere
Parkland Rising
Cheryl Horner McDonough
USA / 2020
With unparalleled access, this documentary goes behind the headlines of the shooting of 17 young people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in 2018, and captures how High School students and family members unite to become leaders of a fearless national movement engaged in an epic battle with the gun lobby.
Canadian Premiere
Unceded Chiefs
Doreen Manuel
Canada / 2020
Unceded Chiefs traces the historic activism of BC First Nations Leaders who, in the late 1960’s, united to reject Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau’s proposed 1969 White Paper. Director Doreen Manuel skilfully weaves interviews and archival audio to tell a story of resilience and determination.
Canadian Premiere
Shorts
Shorts Program: In Search of Self and Home
Throat Singing in Kangirsuk (Katatjatuuk Kangirsumi)
Manon Chamberland & Eva Kaukai
Canada / 2020
Eva Kaukai and Manon Chamberland practice the Inuk art of throat singing in their small village of Kangirsuk. Their mesmerizing voices carry through the four seasons of their Arctic land.
Wamin (The Apple)
Katherine Nequado
Canada / 2020
Wamin, means apple in Atikamekw, and is used to insult those who leave their communities to go and live in the city: red on the outside, but white on the inside. A young Atikamekw woman demonstrates how she feels about this insult.
White Noise
Joleen Mitton
Canada / 2020
Two indigenous youths are subjected to the threat and dangers of colonization. A ceremonial cleansing of white influence is followed by a return to the land where the elders embody knowledge and protection. Inspired by an original performance piece by local director Joleen Mitton.
Who Am I
Adhel Arop
Who Am I tells the story of Adhel’s quest for identity as she reconciles with her mother’s past as a child soldier in South Sudan. War displacement, and trauma have affected both women’s lives and their relationship with each other.
Daughter
Daria Kashcheeva
Czech Republic / 2020
A woman stands at a window in her father’s hospital room when a small bird breaks the pane. It reminds her of her childhood - that precise moment of misunderstanding between her and her father and the lost embrace that has stretched all the way to now.
BC Premiere
Micky
Aimee Hoffman
USA/Canada / 2020
In San Francisco where homelessness is rapidly growing, a young woman travels the streets in search of a home and independence and discovers that home is not always a place.
World Premiere
The Juggler
Skirmanta Jakaitė
Lithuania / 2020
When someone juggles it seems that flying objects are connected by an invisible thread as are the stories in this sort animation – strands that are mysterious, uncanny, insane and mundane.
Vancouver Premiere
Shorts Program: Claiming the Natural Order
Now is the Time
Christopher Auchter
Canada / 2020
Robert Davidson was only 22 when he carved the first new totem pole on BC’s Haida Gwaii in almost a century. On the 50th anniversary of the pole’s raising, Haida filmmaker Christopher Auchter steps through history to revisit that day in 1969, when the village of Old Massett gathered to celebrate the event and signal the rebirth of the Haida spirit.
Biskawbiyng: The Return
Sage Petahtegoose
Canada / 2020
Shelley Charles, an Elder, and Nicholas Deleary, a pipe Chief dedicated to the repatriation of sacred objects and Anishinaabe culture, tell the stories of sacred objects and relay the importance of returning these objects to the First Nations communities from which they derived.
BC Premiere
Cedar Tree of Life
Odessa Shuquaya
Canada / 2020
Three Indigenous women commune with the sacred Cedar, practising and sharing their culture and art using knowledge passed down from their mothers and grandmothers. From garments to homes to burial material for those who have passed on, Cedar is inextricably linked to all aspects of life for Salish peoples.
The Evening Thread
Iris Moore
Canada / 2020
An old woman prepares to die. Accompanied by her granddaughter, she reflects on the memories of her life, and on the profound experience of being human. And then she steps into the unknown.
She Who Wears the Rain
Arianne Métivier
Canada / 2020
Immersed in a world that wavers between reality and dream, a young woman must confront her mourning.
BC Premiere
elephantfish
Meltse van Coillie
Belgium / 2020
Aboard a cargo ship, drifting in an endless sea, the sailors find ways to cope with the vast emptiness in time and space, but imagination rises from beneath the surface and gradually takes the helm.
Canadian Premiere
Shorts Program: Confusing Continuums
A Typical Fairytale
Annette Reilly
Canada / 2020
A fairy book romance, told entirely in rhyme, until a fairy godmother, or is it a crazed woman, predicts the birth of a boy and things are not what they had seemed to be. Can there still be a happy ending?
Il fagotto (The Load)
Giulia Giapponesi
Italy / 2020
In a dystopian future where the birth rate is in decline, the government applies harsh measures to women who don’t do their part to increase the population. At the annual declaration, where women must explain why they haven’t yet given birth, two women meet and are instantly driven to make a choice that could radically change their destiny.
Canadian Premiere
Odd Girl
Rami Kahlon
Canada 2020
A charismatic high school student, Dylan, finds his perfect existence compromised by the unwelcome attentions of a lonely outcast. But when his best friend takes pity on her and begins to express abnormal behaviour, Dylan discovers a supernatural force that turns his world upside down.
The Boogeywoman
Erica Scoggins
USA / 2020
A late-blooming teenager is haunted by her small town’s local legend, only to find that the “Boogeywoman” is her own flesh and blood.
BC Premiere
Ave Eva
Oliwia Tado (Twardowska)
Greece / 2020
What happens in the mind of seven year old Eva when she witnesses something she’s not supposed to see.
Canadian Premiere
Down the Rabbit Hole
Ali Froggatt
Canada / 2020
By seducing her victims into sedation, a young woman attempts to take back what was once stolen from her.
BC Premiere
Sentiments Distingués (Distinguished Feelings)
Keren Marciano
France / 2020
When Elena tries to test her husband’s fidelity by hiring an actor to seduce him, she becomes the victim of her own trap.
Canadian Premiere
Down the Rabbit Hole
Ali Froggatt
Canada / 2020
By seducing her victims into sedation, a young woman attempts to take back what was once stolen from her.
BC Premiere
Bloeistraat 11
Nienke Deutz
Belgium / 2020
Can the close bond between two childhood friends remain as they enter their teens and begin to broaden their horizons?
Shorts Program: Staring Down the Stillness
Am Himmel (Heaven’s Meadow)
Magdalena Chmielewska
Austria / 2020
Maya's emotional trauma takes much longer to heal than the physical injuries she experienced as the result of an assault. As she tries to regain control of her life will she heal or render another victim?
Canadian Premiere
The Hunger and the City
Whitehall
Canada / 2020
A climate catastrophe topples the daily operations of a metropolis and turmoil envelopes the city. Amidst this chaos, a woman makes her way through the dangerous streets to find supplies and confronts the threats of a fallen society.
World Premiere
Border Crossing
Agnieszka Chmura
Poland / 2020
In the sweltering heat during the summer of 1989, the last year of Communism in Eastern Europe, a family waits in a long line at the Czechoslovakian-Polish border. As they inch closer to the guards and tensions mount, release finally comes from an unexpected moment of humanity.
BC Premiere
Last Stand to Nowhere
Michelle Muldoon
Canada / 2020
The Clantons are a family of thieves who believe that the town's fortunes are theirs for the taking. The Earps are the strong arm of justice. The film is an all-female re-imagining of the most famous gunfight in the history of the West; the ultimate family feud that finds its resolution at the end of a gun barrel at the OK Corral.
Amalgama
Alejandra Wills
Colombia / 2020
A shared grief makes it painful for two Colombian peasants to spend time with each other as they are a constant reminder of one another’s loss. This gives birth to a complex bond that fosters acceptance.
Canadian Premiere
Dorotchka
Olga Delane
Russia / 2020
In the Siberian countryside, marriage is traditionally seen as the greatest achievable happiness for a woman. But the 80-year-old Dorotchka, an archetypal babushka, has always remained alone.
Canadian Premiere
Egg
Martina Scarpelli
France / 2020
Egg tells the story of woman locked in her home with an egg that she is both obsessed with and terrified by. This animation is a seductive contradiction—simultaneously beautiful and grotesque, soothing and brutal, filling you with dread and leaving you hungry for more.
Events
Matrix Mixer VIWFF Launch Party
Launching the Vancouver International Women in Film Festival and celebrating VIWFF with filmmakers, WIFTV members, staff and board members.
Advocacy Panels
It’s 2020 – are we there yet?
Two panel discussions examining both federal and provincial actions toward addressing the lack of gender parity and inclusivity in the film and television industry.
Federal
In 2016, Canada’s major film and television funding agencies and government production organizations committed to 50:50 by 2020 in funding and opportunities for women in creative leadership positions. Historic inequities for women directors, writers, and producers as well as with some organizations - editors, cinematographers and composers -were going to be addressed. At the same time, many of these organizations were also going to examine and address the historic lack of inclusivity and diversity in these roles.
Invited panelists included leaders from the CBC, Canada Media Fund, Telefilm Canada and the NFB as well as representatives of Women in View, WIFTV’s Advocacy Committee and filmmakers.
Provincial
A recently released Labour Market Information Report indicates several gaps in the hiring and representation of women and visible minorities in BC’s live action workforce: men outnumber women two to one, and only 15% of racialized performers and crew members are getting work, despite making up 30% of the workforce.
Opening Night: Screening & Celebration
We celebrated the opening of VIWFF with a screening of Red Snow, directed by Marie Clements followed by a Q&A with the director and key cast.
Folowed by a party featuring the launch of two singles from the Red Snow soundtrack, Dirt Walkers and We Are Still the People, performed live by:
Mozhdah Jamalzadah
Wayne Lavallee
Marina Hasselberg
Virtual Reality
VIWFF was pleased to host Virtual Reality experiences, thanks to the National Film Board of Canada!
Museum of Symmetry (20 min)
Directed by: Paloma Dawkin
“There are no rules here. Just enjoy!”
Part invitation, part dare, an impish game mistress welcomes you into a delightfully disorienting pleasure dome inspired by geometry and nature—and wired with infectious dance beats.
What happens next feels like swimming through poetic rainbow juice.
An absurdist mind-and-body romp through the highest clouds to the ocean deep, Museum of Symmetry is the explosive feel-good alter-universe of cartoonist and animator Paloma Dawkins—a room-scale VR experience with 2D animation in a 3D playground as never been seen before.
Case Study with GoodPitch
Following the screening of Away From Meaning, which was supported by Good Pitch Miami, Vanessa Cuervo Forero, Good Pitch Program Manager for Latin America, presented a Case Study of the film’s making.
Good Pitch connects the world's best social justice films with new allies and partners.
Genre Producing in Canada: A Case Study of Riot Girls
Presented by the film's producer Lauren Grant.
From script to screen, Lauren discussed the process of making Riot Girls.
Artist Talks
An informal conversation with some of our VIWFF filmmakers, including:
Adhel Arop (director) – Who Am I
Iris Moore (director) – The Evening Thread
Aimee Hoffman (director) – Micky
Annette Reilly (director) – A Typical Fairytale
Cheryl Horner McDonough (director) – Parkland Rising
Christopher Auchter (director) – Now Is the Time
Odessa Shuquaya (director) – Cedar Tree of Life
Doreen Manuel (director) – Unceded Chiefs
Victoria Angell (producer) – Last Stand to Nowhere
Ali Froggatt (director) – Down the Rabbit Hole
Rami Kahlon (director) – Odd Girl
A special writers edition with the finalists from our International Screenplay Competition.
Whitehall (director) – The Hunger and the City
Valeria Selinger (director) – The Rabbits’ House
Tricksters & Writers Actor Table Read Workshop
Tricksters & Writers is a screenwriting program for Indigenous women, organized by WIFTV and developed in collaboration with Doreen Manuel, a Secwepemc/Ktunaxa First Nations filmmaker, as well as the Director of the Nat and Flora Bosa Centre for Film & Animation and Peggy Thompson, screenwriter (The Lotus Eaters, Better than Chocolate) and Professor Emerita of UBC’s Creative Writing Program.
The program has been offered in the Okanagan, Vancouver and on the North Island.
Excerpts from two scripts were workshopped by professional actors.
Owl’s Pawn by Dawn Tonks (Kamloops)
Scarred by her past and desperate for normality Angel taunts the edge of her sanity with a relentless pursuit of vengeance and redemption.
It is Beautiful by Jules Koostachin (Vancouver)
Sassy travels back to her home community in Northern Ontario to say goodbye to her great KoKoom (grandmother) and comes face to face with a truth about herself, her twin, and the love of her life.
The 2019/2020 program has been funded by Matrix Production Services, CMPA-BC, Creative BC, TELUS STORYHIVE and INFilm
STORY + AUDIENCE: A Practical Workshop
Annelise Larson is a digital strategist & mentor for filmmakers and other storytellers. In this two-hour workshop she discussed why story and audience need to be developed at the same time to find long term success in the current (& future) media ecosystem.
Larson also outlined a practical approach to creating audience-led digital strategies for creative inspiration, discoverability, and fandom growth and engagement. This workshop included a few select indie film case studies and an overview of some tools to help you get started. Her STORY + AUDIENCE podcast with writer Jill Golick will be launched in March 2020.
VIWFF 2020 Pitch Sessions
A pitch session is a 10-minute one-on-one non-public session that is conducted in an open room in a "speed dating" style.
Pitch Professionals:
- Laurie McLay, Sistar Films - FULL
- Jason James, Resonance Films
- Janine Steele, The National Film Board of Canada Digital (NFB)
- Shirley Vercuysse, The National Film Board of Canada (NFB)
- Patrice Ramsey, Knowledge Network
- Matthew Cervi, Mad Samurai Productions
- Elizabeth Schofield, Omnifilm Entertainment
- Lynn Booth, Make Believe Media
- Jameson Parker, Brightlight Pictures
- Susan Curran, A71 and V71
- David Turko, Reality Distortion Field
- Brady Roberts and Mike Howorun, Rogue Panda Pictures
Panel Discussion with Unceded Chiefs Director: Doreen Manuel
This panel discussion directly followed the screening of Unceded Chiefs, featuring First Nations filmmaker Doreen Manuel.
International Women's Day Discussion
International Women's Day Discussion featured a conversation with Helen Granqvist (President WIFT International), moderated by Susan Brinton (WIFTV's Advocacy Chair and Media Analyst).
The Rabbits' House Post-Screening Discussion
Following the screening of The Rabbit’s House, a discussion was held between the director, Valeria Selinger, and local writer/performer, Carmen Aguirre, moderated by Joanne Walton (member of VIWFF’s film programming team).
Awards
International Women's Day Closing Gala
Celebrating International Women’s Day VIWFF presented:
The Matrix Awards for the Best BC Shorts
Screening of the three Matrix Award winning shorts
The Best of the Festival Awards
The From Our Dark Side Awards
The International Screenplay Competition KEN HAYWARD Award for Best Screenplay
Followed by a party in the Atrium with refreshments and live DJ Adia.
The Best of the Festival Awards included:
IATSE Local 891 Award for Best Feature
DGC BC Award for Best Direction
UBCP/ACTRA Award for Best Performance in a Feature
SIM Award for Best Cinematography in a Feature
CFA Award for Best Screenplay
CCE Award for Best Editing in a Feature
ELEVATE INCLUSION STRATEGIES Award for Best Short
LUCAS TALENT Award for Best Performance in a Short
ICG 669 Award for Best Cinematography in a Short
RON HEAPS Award for Best Editing in a Short
PACIFIC BACKLOT Award for Best Documentary
CFM Award for Best Musical Score
INTEGRAL ARTISTS IMPACT Award
VIWFF gratefully acknowledges the support of
