VIFF Announces 42nd Edition Festival Lineup including LGBTQQ2SiA+ shorts.
42nd Vancouver International Film Festival
September 28 – October 8, 2023
VANCOUVER, BC (SEPTEMBER 6, 2023) Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) presents its 42nd edition this month, the first fully in-cinema festival since 2019. This year’s lineup features roughly 140 feature films and 100 shorts, presented on 10 screens in seven Vancouver venues. Vancouverites will be able to explore film culture through an expanded program of live events, performances, and exhibitions.
The festival will officially open with award-winning Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves, a poignant comedy about two lonely souls who believe they’re meant for each other, which won the Jury Prize at Cannes. The closing film selection will be The Pot-au-Feu (La Passion de Dodin Bouffant) by Tran Anh Hùng, a look at a romantic, intuitive, and intimate partnership between a famed gourmand and his beloved cook, played by Juliette Binoche. The film earned Tran Best Director at Cannes, 30 years after his debut film The Scent of Green Papaya won the Camera d’or at the same festival.
The 2023 film lineup speaks to the themes that are most pressing in our daily lives today, from intimate meditations on motherhood and the dynamics of family to the extensive impacts of climate change on the world around us. VIFF Talks brings together industry leaders who share insights into some of today’s most popular and acclaimed films. VIFF Live breathes life into stories from the screen, combining live performance and cinema culture. VIFF Amp examines the role of music in film, laying the groundwork to foster new talent and nurturing connections between composers and directors. Signals, co-presented by VIFF and DigiBC, explores how new creative technologies are generating uncharted opportunities for storytelling.
Website: https://viff.org/
Here is a round up of the International Shorts series dedicated to queer stories below:
Almost Fall (Presque l'Automne) dir. Margot Pouppeville (France) | Canadian Premiere Beyond the Sea dir. Hippolyte Leibovici (Belgium) | North American Premiere Headdress dir. Taietsarón:sere 'Tai' Leclaire (USA) | Canadian Premiere - Love for the same woman tore a sister and brother apart, now in old age they reconnect but is reconciliation possible?
Beyond the Sea, Dir. Hippolyte Leibovici (Belgium/France) | International Shorts - When an older drag queen is about to go on stage at her cabaret for the last time her estranged son unexpectedly shows up threatening to derail the evening.
Close to You, Dir. Dominic Savage (Canada/UK) | Showcase - Hurtling out of Toronto on a train bound for a family reunion, Sam (Elliot Page) prepares to face his family for the first time since transitioning. Upon arrival Sam is caught up in the unspoken tensions, and clumsy remarks, of his mostly well meaning but tactless family. As the visit wears on Sam faces the fact that he may have to sever ties once more. In his first feature film role since 2017, Elliot Page delivers a deeply felt and nuanced performance that cements his place as a generational talent.
Cut, Dir. Samuel Lucas Allen (Australia) | International Shorts - A teenage boy caught in a web of lies is pulled in different directions as he tries to juggle anti-Semitism, his queerness and an orthodox Jewish father.
Death Mask, Dir. John Greyson (ON, Canada) | VIFF Short Forum - This experimental opera reenacts the lesser known history of Chinese medical student Li Shiu Tong, and his lover Magnus Hirschfeld, a much older German sexologist and gay rights pioneer during Nazi Germany.
Headdress, Dir. Taietsarón:sere 'Tai' Leclaire (USA) | International Shorts - When a Queer Native person sees a Non-Native person wearing a ceremonial headdress, they retreat into their mind to find the perfect response.
I Am Sirat, Dirs. Deepa Mehta, Sirat Taneja (ON, Canada) | Showcase - A collaboration between filmmaker Deepa Mehta and Sirat Taneja, I Am Sirat is a personal documentary about Sirat, a transwoman in India, who lives a dual life. While supported by a queer network of friends in Delhi and on Instagram, Sirat reverts to the closet at home as she’s forced to maintain a son’s familial and cultural responsibilities to keep up appearances while living with her mother. An empowering portrait of a transwoman wrestling with cultural limitations while sharing her story with the world.
Mast-del, Dir. Maryam Tafakory (Iran/United Kingdom) | Modes - An intimate mid-night moment between two Iranian women, Mast-del witnesses the violent state threat posed to forbidden bodies and desires. Fragments of overexposed narrative clips from post-revolution Iranian cinema accompany a sparse audio landscape to contextualize abstractions of what must be inferred between silent narration. Premiering in Cannes, at Quinzaine des Cineastes, Maryam Tafakory's poignant, affecting work was nominated for both the Queer Palm and Golden Eye Award for Best Documentary.
Monster, Dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda (Japan) | Special Presentations - VIFF mainstay Hirokazu Kore-eda returns with a powerful critique of homophobia. As usual with the director, the case is built carefully, with a stress on human particulars over generalities. In its story of schoolboy Minato (Soya Kurokawa) and his teacher Mr. Mori (Eita Nagayama), Monster explores the same events through different perspectives—it’s a moral mystery tale, as complex as it is gratifying. In his final work for cinema, the late Sakamoto Ryuichi provides a gently radiant score.
An Ordinary Day (가장 보통의 하루), Dir. Ju-yeon GIM (South Korea) | International Shorts - On a day when a comet is about to strike the Earth two young women who do not know each other well, one blind and one paraplegic, decide to spend their last hours together.
Outside Center, Dir. Eli Jean Tahchi (QC, Canada/Germany) | VIFF Short Forum - Finding community via his gay rugby league, Jamaican-born Desmond navigates life, love, and identity as an immigrant living in Munich, Germany.
Youssou & Malek, Dir. Simon Frenay (France) | International Shorts - Two late teen boys are in love with each other and the utopian world they live in, but tomorrow heartbreak looms as one is leaving for university.
