Canada

VIFF 2025 Review: Bidad (بیداد)

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment
An Iranian singer named Seti (left, played by Sarvin Zabetian) is threatened by the law and only has a random man she met (right, played by Amir Jadidi) supporting her in Bidad.

At this year’s Festival, you will see a lot of films that deal with the harsh realities of the filmmaker’s home nation. Bidad is a film that deals with the issue of simple human rights.

Seti is a young Iranian woman who dreams of a singing career. In Iran, only men can be lead singers and female singers are relegated to the background. Seti did sing at a park sing-along but was stopped by the Guidance Patrols, or ‘morality police’ of Iran. Since she can’t perform on a public stage, the most she can do is post videos of her singing on social media. Seti also has a major problem in her life. Her mother Homeyra, whom she lives with, is an alcoholic who can’t seem to recover from her addiction. To make matters worse, Homeyra often has an alcohol-fueled explosive temper. Seti often stumbles into her with a bottle in her hand, and it infuriates her.

Seti is a bit of a rebel. She dares to walk the streets of Tehran without a veil or a hijab, despite the chance of the Guidance Patrols arresting her even for that. She even cuts her hair in anger. One day after rehearsing with others in her underground college, she comes across a man who hoots at her from her car. At first, she thinks it’s just another young jerk male. She reluctantly decides to spend the night at his place. She learns this man named Bebin is a lot more. He has shown a liking to Seti and her music. Overnight she learns more about Bebin and he’s a man who really cares about her. Bebin also has a secret of his own. He has a bottle of specialty alcohol that he has to keep hidden from the Guidance Patrols. He gives her a drink and he talks about hope of seeking refuge in another country.

Seti has a public performance set up for her at a club. The advertising had to be kept to a minimum for the sake of Seti’s safety. Homeyra is scared to see her there but Bebin will see her perform. Before she is even able to perform, the Guidance Patrols bust the place up. They boot everyone out of the club. Infuriated, Seti attacks the Patrol and runs off with Bebin helping her escape. The Patrols did track her identity down and later arrest her at home. She is taken into custody for a week’s period of time. The cell she’s kept in feels like a prison. The inspections she is forced to endure from both male and female patrols are humiliating. She is released on bail awaiting trial.

After her release, she returns home. Homeyra tries to show Seti that she has stopped drinking for nine days. Seti learns some unhappy news. Her social media account is restricted and Homeyra posted a message that Seti will never perform or post videos again. Seti is infuriated and lets out her anger to Homeyra. She leaves for the streets and soon learns the club she performed at is closed off by a concrete barrier. Soon, she learns of an underground public music rally. Many other women will be performing. On her way, she’s fortunate to bump into Bebin again.

Seti and Bebin find a group of ‘underground’ performers. It looks ideal for Seti to sing as many women are singing and are without veils. Just as Seti finds a female guitarist to sing along with, the Guidance Patrols bust the location up and are ready to make arrests. Bidad knows if Seti is caught, she would be arrested and could be executed. Bidad is willing to take her to safety, but Seti insists on singing with the guitarist. The ending doesn’t give full details of the aftermath but the images during the credits are telling.

Seti’s story is a common story for many women in Iran. Men have more freedoms and the women are frequently targets of the Guidance Patrols if they don’t obey. It’s been that way since 1978 when the Islamic Revolution happened in Iran. Even seeing how there are a lot of women that are part of the Guidance Patrols speaks a message how there are many women in Iran who agree with this restrictiveness. Seti is a woman of rebellion. Her only weapon is her singing voice, but the powers that be in Iran consider it a threat. No veil and a woman singing in public. You can understand the reason for rebellion with the Iranian women revolting in 2022. In fact, the word Bidad is Farsi for ‘outcry.’ You can see that this film is also outcry about this problem. That scene where Seti cuts her hair will remind you of how Iranian women cut their hair during the revolt that year.

It should also be reminded it’s not just women doing what women are not allowed to do that are under scrutiny from the Guidance Patrols. Drinking alcohol is a crime for any Iranian. That explains why Bebin has a hidden bottle of whiskey and that’s why Homeyra can’t get proper treatment for alcoholism. Because she’ll be arrested.

The film isn’t just a reminder of what women in countries like Iran are going through. The film is about Seti herself. Seti loves to sing. It’s her expression. She does not understand why only men get the lead and only men can perform in public. It’s because of her passion for singing that she dares to perform in the club and dares to attack the Guidance Patrol when she’s about to be arrested. It’s because she’s furious with her mother when she learns she posted a fake video that she’ll never sing again. How dare she say a lie like that on social media about her passion. You can understand why Seti dared to perform at that underground performance. She won’t even let the threat of death stop her from doing what she loves.

This film is a great work from Iranian director Soheil Beiraghi. Iranian women and their fight for their rights and autonomy are a common theme in his films like 2016’s I (Me), 2018’s Cold Sweat (Permission), and 2020’s Popular. This fourth feature he directed and wrote is another story of Iranian women and their struggle. This is something how Iran and their Guidance Patrols consider something as simple as a woman singing in public is seen as a threat to order. He has a statement to make and he does an excellent job of making it as a dramatic story rather than something preachy. It’s tricky to do something like that but he succeeds very well. This film was a nominee for the Best Film award at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival and won the Crystal Globe at that Festival for Special Mention.

The performance of Sarvin Zabetian is excellent. She not only delivers a good performance but she makes Seti and her dream of public singing a relatable story. One can’t help but feel a connection to her dream and disgust to why she’s forbidden, and she succeeds in making us feel that way. Leili Rashidi is another actor who delivers a great performance. Her performance of Homeyra is one where you don’t know whether to despise her or feel sympathy for her. I know Seti makes it appear living with her is like a prison of its own but sometimes, you sense Homeyra is also a prisoner of her own situation. Amir Jedidi delivers a great character in his role of Bebin. He makes Bebin to be a likeable person, especially as he’s the one person Seti feels completely secure around, but I feel his role could have been developed more.

Bidad is both a tragedy and a story of hope. You can see an incident like this happening in Iran. You can also sense the film telling you despite these dark times, there is hope for the future of women in Iran.

VIFF 2025 Shorts Segment Review: Forum 6 – City slickin’

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment

What can I say about short films? A lot of them are good and can often promote an emerging director. The latest Shorts forum I saw was Forum 6: City slickin‘.

As you can tell by the title, the series revolves around situations in cities. The cities in the six shorts are in Spain, Belgium, Jordan, France and two in the Unites States. All six make for some great tales:

-Budget Paradise (USA – dir. Latajh Simmons-Weaver): Chester is a non-binary artist looking for an area to paint in peace and inspiration. They are told to leave one public place. They go to an art store and steals $97 worth of paint. They try a café for artists, but the cashier gives them attitude. They try a hotel for a two-hour stay in a suite promising to pay. The model they hire attracts them, but the hotel owner demands they pay.

Trying to get art done wherever and whenever. A common artistic dilemma. This adds humor as Chester finds bad place after bad place, has to steal paint, gets caught up in a street dance and the the one place they can find, it demands pay. A humorous story how one steals paint and coaxes their way into creating their art.

-Our Room (Spain – dir. Jaime Claret Muxart): Gal-la is a disc jockey at a Spanish radio station for its classical music show. She brought along her younger son Marius to watch, but he’s bored. She is also unhappy in her setting. She thinks to how her French-speaking husband Paul is into electronic music. It’s there she decides to quit and the three of them can start their own home radio station that fuses classical music and electronica with Marius’ keyboard!

It’s hard to picture something like this happening in real life where they can make a radio station at home, but it makes for a fun story. I believe the theme of the story is about family relations and family closeness. The beginning seems a bit drawn out or elongated. The ending, however, is happy and you’re left convinced that’s how it should be.

-Father Alphonse and the Fight Between Carnival and Lent (Canada – dir. Diana Thorneycroft): Father Alphone is a new priest and his first mass is to be on Ash Wednesday. As he readies himself, it’s Fat Tuesday and all the people in town are having a blast with all their pre-Lent debauchery. Something his strict father forbade him to do throughout his life. As he walks through town, he’s shocked by all the debauchery but finds himself in an unexpected tangle. That leads to a humorous and unexpected ending.

This short by Winnipeg animator Diana Thorneycroft was inspired by the 16th Century Belgian painting The Fight Between Carnival And Lent. This charming stop-motion short is a case where life imitates art for the new priest and he get tangled in with behaviors his strict father would condemn of! It’s cute and humorous and a delight to watch.

-Ambush (Jordan – dir. Yassmina Karajah): In a conservative area in Jordan’s capital Amman, a hall is turned into a techno club and makes a lot of noise in the normally quiet neighborhood. Hasan, a young man, watches the club from his family rooftop and anticipates an encounter one day. One of the attendees, Jana, is a recovering alcoholic wresting with her own love issues. Can they connect?

The story has two themes in one. One is about people’s desire for love. The other is about how what we see from the outside isn’t completely what we think it is. Hasan watches from afar and thinks they’re all having fun while Jana shows a reality Hasan can’t notice from that far away. As time passes, you think they won’t connect. The ending could get you thinking otherwise.

-There’s A Devil Inside Me (USA – dir. Karina Lomelin-Ripper): Teenage girl Teresa is about to be confirmed at her Catholic church. She struggles in her confirmation class as other girls have attitude. As she struggles with her faith, she dons a nun’s habit as a mass is taking place. An altar boy mistakes her for a real nun and hands her all the collection money. What’s she to do with the money she’s given? Especially after her bratty little sister lost a tooth and swallowed it?

Watching a film like this can cause one to question is this is blasphemy or just simply a film about a mistake that happened. Teresa makes for a believable story of a teenage girl who’s trying to work things out with her life, her faith, her romancing boys and her place in the family. It does make for a bizarrely far-fetched comedy that gives an ending you can laugh at either way you see it.

-No Skate! (France – dir. Guil Sela): Isaac is a student who’s hired to promote swimming in the Seine River. He notices Cleo, his colleague, get into a fight with her skateboarder boyfriend. He sees it as a chance. She’s reluctant, even though they do date and she gets him to spend the night with her. Cleo insists it’s just a friendship, but is it?

New love can come from the unlikeliest of people in the unlikeliest of places. Even the type where one tried to make like it’s not really love. This is a boy-meets-girls story that is slow and leads to an ambiguous ending. Even if you’re left undecided if this is new love or not, the story is funny and charming.

And there they are. Those are the six short films part of the City slickin‘ forum. All of them were unique in their own way and all six had a good story to tell.

VIFF 2025 Review: Akashi (あかし)

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment
Akashi is a film by Mayumi Yoshida (right) who makes peace with her Japanese family’s past during the funeral of her grandmother, played by Hana Kino.

One thing about the Vancouver Film Festival is you will find some unique films from local filmmakers. The Japanese-language film Akashi is one of those films and it was met with great fanfare.

The film begins with Kana returning to Tokyo, Japan from Toronto, Canada. Kana is an advertising professional who dreams of breaking through as an artist. The purpose for the trip is a sad one: her grandmother’s passing. She is welcomed warmly by her parents, siblings, niece, nephew and in-laws. Kana is the only one of the children who has not yet married. In Canada, she’s been more focused on getting a prestigious arts grant and is awaiting the news of her third attempt at it.

As she’s in the home of her grandparents, memories come back to her. As she sees her grandfather’s artwork on the walls, it reminds her of how he used to teach her how to draw when she was younger and how it would lead to her own dream to be an artist. As she sees photos of her grandmother, she is reminded of the last talk she had with her. Her grandmother told her the marriage was arranged shortly after World War II and her grandfather actually loved another woman named Wakaku.

As she’s on a shopping errand before the funeral, she goes to a local store. In the store is Hiro, the boyfriend she had before she left for Canada. As they dated, Hiro had dreams of becoming an actor and the relationship was a case of two lovers with artistic dreams. Kana does not want Hiro to know she’s here and hides, but a sudden phone call from Shelby, her work colleague in Toronto, gives it away. Hiro is surprised to see her and the two talk for a while.

Kana is staying with her family for that week’s period. The funeral happens and they hold the service, tearfully paying their last respects. As Kana spends more time with her family, she starts observing her parents and how they struggled to keep a marriage and a family together while they were pursuing their professions. Now she sees it in her brother and sister and how they’re trying to raise their two children. This causes her to spend more time with Hiro. She starts to sense maybe Hiro was the one she was meant to be with.

Things become more frustrating for Kana as she learns that the drama group he’s with is not that successful. This comes over time she tries to learn more about the love between her grandfather and the other woman Wakaku. It’s in her grandfather’s drawings and notes that she learns more about what was covered up over time. Even though her grandfather was arranged to be marries to her grandmother, his love for Wakaku never died. Any interaction between the two had to be kept private. It’s noticeable as in one encounter in an art gallery, Wakaku and the grandfather had to give small talk and not have people notice. One boyfriend of Wakaku’s did find out about the love in the 1950’s and blamed her miscarried pregnancy on him, but it was the boyfriend that impregnated her.

As Kana is nearing the end of her visit, she has to make decisions. As she’s about to leave, she tells Hiro that she can’t be his. Hiro is heartbroken to hear the news. He takes it as another failure in his life. She gets the news of her attempt for her grant from Shelby. Again, it was unsuccessful. She also has a meeting with Wakaku on the day she is to leave. She sees Wakaku and learns she never married. She hears from Wakaku all that happened. Wakaku even appeared at her grandfather’s funeral. For which, the grandmother had no ill feeling and thanked her for loving him. The film appears to end with a telephone interaction between Hiro and Kana that appears she will live out a similar love story like her grandparents.

One theme of this film is about making resolve of the past and making sense of what love is. Kana sees the strong but difficult marriage of her parents and the marital situations of her own siblings. She has the reflection of her own relationship with Hiro and doesn’t know if it’s worth pursuing again. Then there’s the loveless marriage of the grandparents and knowing of the other woman. It is through talking with the other woman that Kana can resolve the dark secret in her family. Hidden truths no longer have to haunt her or the family. The marriage of her grandparents happened in post-World War II Japan and times were difficult as the nation was rebuilding itself. All personal lives and all family’s lives in Japan were affected by it in some way. It was a hard time for the family and for the grandmother to marry a man she didn’t love, but she held no hard feelings to the other woman in the end.

The film has many more themes to it. Another element of the story is about how things relate to in her own life. Kana is a struggling artist. Despite having a good job with an advertising agency, she still wants to make it as an artist. Meanwhile she reunites with her boyfriend who has still not become too successful as an actor. Her other siblings have bustling but difficult careers and her parents are retiring. This comes as she’s waiting to see if her application for the grant, her third attempt, will come through or not. As this all happens during her grandmother’s funeral, it’s there she finally gets the answers about the ‘other woman’ she learned of years ago. It’s there she learned of grandfather’s true love and gets a look at the relationship of her own parents and her siblings. It’s as she sees and learns what goes around her, she’s trying to question her own life and her own love. All this in a week’s period of time. To add to it, she begins the film as the family member who has been away for so many years and appears out of place at the start. At the end, she gets her feeling of belonging back. It’s almost like everything in question at the beginning was answered in the end.

This film is unique that it has most of the story in black and white, but both the story of the affair of Wakaku and the grandfather and the mental interaction of Kana and Hiro at the end in color. I think Yoshida had a reason to make it that way. I think it may be because the color was to represent the love that’s meant to be, despite the barriers and friction separating them. The story itself is slow and can get intense at times, but it does tell its story very well.

This film is an accomplishment for actor/writer/director Mayumi Yoshida. It’s a feature-length film nine years in the developing. It started as a stage play, adapted into a short film in 2017 and eventually evolved into a feature-length film. The audience at the Playhouse Theatre cheered loudly as a Japanese-born Vancouver local made her dream happen! The story is based on a conversation Yoshida had with her own grandmother back in 2011 shortly after the earthquake and tsunami that year. In an interview, she mentioned she noticed how her grandmother’s generation and her own generation look at love and marriage differently and has often reflected on the popular misconception of the young that the older generations had it better and easier. The film may be slow at times and appears to try and keep solitude even in the biggest moments of friction, but it tells the story well and pieces the puzzle together in good form.

Additional good acting performances are from Hana Kino. Her portrayal as the grandmother who kept secrets and eventually found peace in the end added to the drama of the story. Ryo Tajima is also very good as Hiro. His portrayal as the ex-boyfriend who still loves Kana makes for a very telling situation of modern love in a story about love between three generations. The performances of Kimura Bun as the younger grandfather and Sayaka Kunisada as the young Wakako is acted very well and makes for a believable scenario of the complications of love at the time. Even that single-scene performance of Chieko Matsubara as the older Wakaku makes you feel for the ‘other woman.’ The best technical aspects of the film are the cinematography from Jaryl Lim, the colorizing from David Tomiak, and the piano-driven score from Andrew Yong Hoon Lee.

Akashi is a film that’s simply more than a woman returning home. It’s about making peace and resolve with the past while making decisions about her own life. Although it may be slower than it should be, it’s still nice to see and showcases the skills of a promising director.

VIFF 2025 Review: The Things You Kill (Öldürdüğün Şeyler)

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment
Ekin Koc plays a son whose dark family secrets are unraveled after his mother’s death in The Things You Kill.

For the 2025 Oscar race, Canada’s official entry for the category of Best International Feature Film is a Turkish-language film: The Things You Kill. The film is both a psychological drama and a supernatural story.

Ali appears to live a somewhat stable life in Turkey with problems no worse than anyone else. He returned to teach English in Turkey after spending fourteen years in the United States as a literature professor. His wife Hazar wants to start a family but he learns of a low sperm count he tries to keep hidden. He lives in a well-to-do house and has a garden miles away he wants to make active again. He hires a new gardener named Reza to help. He notices his mother’s house is in need of great repair. Repairs the father neglects to carry out.

Then one day, the mother dies. After the funeral, the father Hamit puts all the blame on Ali for spending all those years in the United States. More bad news in Ali’s case comes as he’s told they can’t afford to have his program taught at the University. To add to it, he never told his wife about the low sperm count result. Soon his sister privately tells him a dark secret. The mother had head injuries at the time of her death and Hamit was seen with a bandaged arm. Ali suspects the worst. He tries to get an official account of her death, but it will take days.

Ali soon develops a mentality of rage. First he hires Reza to help dig a hole in an unknown place in the Turkish valley. Both men help in leading Hamit there and killing him. After the incident, Ali soon enslaves Reza and keeps him at the garden where he treats him like a dog, even leashing him with a chain. Ali also tries to keep all the secrets of what he conducted away from his sisters and Hazar as a nationwide search is conducted. Hazar is suspecting the marriage is falling apart. Hamit’s mother, Ali’s grandmother, is hugely concerned. Ali also receives a rude surprise as one of the people heavily concerned with Hamit missing is his mistress. To which, Ali responds with nasty insults to her.

One day, Ali returns to the burial site of his father only to find it all dug up. He goes back to the garden hoping to check up on Reza, only to get a surprise retaliation from him. Now Reza is filling in the places of Ali’s life Ali used to have, including that of teacher. It’s in a flashback to an interview with the Turkish college that we learn of the biggest reason why Ali chose to teach in the United States because of the abuse he and his family suffered at the hands of his father. The film ends just as Reza has it good for him, and he receives a shocking surprise at his door one night.

This film makes for a compelling drama. The incidents that take place over time will get one questioning of what really happened. Did his mother die at the hands of Hamit? The film also makes you question Ali. He is angered over the death of his mother and believes it’s his father’s fault, but he now turns into a person who is hungry for blood. He kills his father with Reza and then enslaves Reza like a dog. You’re left to wonder what’s with Ali? Is something supernatural taking over him?

The film does succeed in being a drama, but the film succeeds better as a puzzle pieced together over time. Throughout the film, there’s what we know and what we don’t know. This is something that will take time as the story will unravel facts hidden from us. It’s as it nears the end that we learn of what was hidden from us the whole time. Even though many questions are unanswered, you could see why Ali suspects this from Hamit. At the same time, this film does become a supernatural story as Reza acts like a dog as Ali treats him like a dog. It’s after Reza gets revenge on Ali that he acts human again. Even the ending of what Reza faces is supernatural. I just wonder if genres are trying to be mixed in the film.

This is a great film from Iranian-Canadian director/writer Alireza Khatami. His latest feature film, he creates a drama that will connect with you and keep you intrigued with what’s happening. The story may puzzle you, but he connects things all together at the very end. It’s a great work form him. Ekin Koc does a great job in his role of Ali. Going from the troubled son in the family to the one committing sinister acts is a big change of character and he does it well. Although Ali is the lead role, there are also great supporting performances. Hazar Erguclu is great as the wife Hazar. She is the one who’s able to maintain some control over Ali as he’s going out of control. Erkan Kostendil is also great as Reza. To go from human to animal-like back to a human character and make it look believable is no easy feat. Erkan does a great job of it.

The film’s accolades not only include the Oscar entry, but was also nominated for seven awards at the Istanbul Film Festival, nominated for Best Film at the SXSW London Film Festival and won a Sundance award for directing for Khatami in the World Cinema – Director category.

The Things You Kill is more than just Oscar bait. It’s a story that gets you thinking. It gets you trying to make sense of the story after you leave the theatre long after.

VIFF 2025 Shorts Segment Review: Forum 3 – The peripheral core

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment

One thing about being into cinema is that it will give you a liking for short films. I saw a second segment or forum of shorts at the VIFF entitled The peripheral core. This segment, the third Forum segment, consisted of eight films that are very similar, very different, but tell a lot.

-Resistance Meditation (dir. Sara Wylie): In this documentary, we see a woman (possibly director Wylie) sleeping in bed. As she sleeps, Wylie talks about sleeping and how the time on the clock we follow is ‘corporate time.’ As she lays in bad, we learn she has a disability and she calls her sleep here ‘crip time.’ It’s not just for her sleep, but to rebel against the demands of the capitalist world.

Simply put, this is a five-minute documentary where the filmmaker has something to say. Although I don’t completely agree with her opinion about ‘corporate time,’ I like how she makes her statement in a creative way. It makes sense to present filming of sleeping and her speaking her belief about time, disability and rebelling against it.

-A Very Straight Neck (Japan – dir. Neo Sora): A woman wakes up from her sleep and has terrible neck pain. The dream she has haunts her. Her dream was she was lying face-down on the sidewalk of a busy street and the world passes around her. Even crumbling out of its existence in her mind.

This is a picturesque short film which the focus is on unspoken images and the main character narrating in the background. The biggest quality is the visuals as it adds to the story and creates the mood of what she’s trying to say. Sometimes we can understand the pain she’s going through. Very well done.

-Not Enough for the Love Inside (Brazil – dirs. Marcelo Matos de Oliveira and Wallace Nogueira): Cassio and Otto are both gay couple in Bahia, Brazil and both became blind recently. Cassio is unemployed while Otto is able to participate with a theatre group. Through all that happens in the story and Cassio’s body language, one can’t help but notice the relationship appears doomed to end.

The biggest quality of the film is the body language. I don’t know if both became blind from the same incident or from separate incidents, but you can understand how sudden changes can affect a relationship. The body language in the film is as valuable to the story as the dialogue itself. It creates the negative vibe of a relationship that is starting to fall apart.

-The Sphinx (USA – dir. Jesse Pavdeen): Harold is a young adult locksmith by profession, but he has a problem. He was born without a nose and he needs to wear a prosthetic. His nose falls off during a date, but his date doesn’t mind. She encourages him to come to a party. Things get worse when the people at the party want him to show ‘his true self.’ He takes his nose off and they all laugh. He runs to his estranged mother’s house, but she has the door locked with seven locks. Meeting with his father exposes the secret.

When you have short films, you should expect a bizarre comedy or two. Harold is seen as The Sphinx as The Sphinx itself has its nose missing. I’ve seen stories of missing body parts or weird body parts before, but this comedy does a unique job in showing one young man’s flaw and how the world treats him. Even his mother who has cut herself off from everyone. It’s a bizarre story that’s humorous too.

-Confluence (Canada – dirs. Charlene Moore and Oliver Darrius Merrick King): This is a documentary made by Indigenous members of the Winnipeg Film Group for their 50th anniversary. As images of parts of Winnipeg are shown on screen, the Indigenous members of the Group talk about various topics like their land and colonizing, being an Indigenous person, filmmaking as an Indigenous person and even envisioning the future and pondering ideas of what to film next.

I’m from Winnipeg and I remember the Winnipeg Film Group and how it took a modest area in an office building back in the 1990’s. The Group has grown a lot. This documentary is important because in recent decades, the Indigenous peoples are getting more into the arts and holding their own. Film has a bright future in Winnipeg, but the Indigenous filmmakers show the most promise and most envisioning. It’s good to hear them speak their minds about the topics as we view images of Winnipeg.

-In My Hand (Norway – dirs. Marja Helander and Liselotte Wajstedt): The film begins with a re-enactment of Norwegian Sami activist Niillas Somby waking up in prison with his amputated arm bandaged. Niillas narrated how he spent 21 years in prison and was involved greatly with Sami activism. He also talks of the accidental battery explosion from 1981 that led to the loss of his arm. He also talks of the time he went to Canada cleverly disguised as a white man and with a fake passport. The film ends in the present with present-day Niillas and today’s Sami activists.

This is another film that showcases the racism felt by a nation’s first peoples. In this case, it’s the Sami peoples of the Nordic nations. Niillas Somby tells his story about what it was like to be a Sami activist and of some of the illegal things he did in his life. We hear Somby narrate as the moments are re-enacted in front of us. This is a valuable story in learning about their struggle and has a message worth hearing.

-Cocotte Coulombe, Filmmaker (Canada – dir. Charles-Francois Asselin): Charles-Francois has always known his unmarried deaf aunt Cocotte. He does remember her bringing a film camera to family events. It’s after her death that he discovered she had taken lots of family films. As he watches the family films of hers, he discovers this was they way she communicated her love to them.

This documentary is great at telling its story. Cocotte’s family films play in the background as Charles-Francois tells his story of Cocotte and his recent discovery of the films. It’s an intimate story of how a film maker himself learns how home videos were not just a hobby for Cocotte, but also the means for a deaf family member to show her love to them. It was nice to watch.

-We Were The Scenery (USA – dir. Christopher Radcliff): In 1978, Hoa Thi Le and Hue Nguyen Che were Vietnamese refugees in a refugee camp in the Philippines. During that time in that same place, Francis Ford Coppola was filming Apocalypse Now and wanted to use the refugees as extras for the film. Le and Che rewatch Apocalypse Now and during the scenes, they point themselves out and mention of other people they knew personally as their appearances come on screen.

This is one documentary one would not expect. Most of us who saw Apocalypse Now probably never bothered to notice the extras were from a Vietnamese refugee camp. It was great to hear the story of how a couple who are married were those very extras and they saw it as just a way to make some extra money. It’s also a smart choice the director had them tell their story in Vietnamese. Although they are now American citizens, telling their story in Vietnamese only adds to this documentary.

And that was my experience with the short films from Forum 3: The peripheral core. Interesting how with this forum, five of the eight films were documentaries. Although I prefer watching live-action, I still found the documentaries intriguing to watch. Whatever the documentaries had to say, they said it well in their own way. For the live-action, they were unique to watch as well.

VIFF 2025 Review: The Track

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment
The Track is about three Bosnian lugers who are not only dreaming of an Olympic chance, but restoring vitality into a damaged Olympic site.

You might wonder why would anyone be interested in a documentary about something from the 1984 Winter Olympic Games? The Track isn’t solely about a track used for the 1984 Winter Olympics, but making a future happen.

It’s February 2018 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics are happening. Three teenage boys in Sarajevo — Zlatan, Mirza and Hamza — are watching the luge competition with their coach Senad and observing how the best lugers steer their sleds. They have a luge track a distance away because of the Sarajevo Winter Olympics from 1984, but it’s hard to sled on. During the Balkan War from 1992 to 1995, the track was subject to a lot of bullet damage. In the decades that followed, little had been done to repair it back to the world class form it had during the Olympics and before the Balkan War.

Despite the shabby graffiti-ridden cement track, the three boys still have the dream to compete at the next Olympics and Senad is willing to coach them. Fortunately, one of the boys is an engineering student and he is able to help create a roller luge to ride on a concrete track. Also Senad is willing to help use concrete patches to help fix up the track. For all of them, the fixing, building and training comes at a big expense for them as they won’t be receiving much government funding.

One thing about this is it is coming as it is hard to be a young person in Bosnia-Hercegovina. In the decades that followed the end of the war, the nation of Bosnia-Hercegovina has struggled to rebuild itself. The war devastated a lot of populations. In the Balkan nations, many young people feel they have to leave for another nation in order to get wealth. The corruption of the governments that have since led Bosnia has caused additional problems. As for sport, there’s very little money going around for Olympic sports and luge hardly gets much, if any money. Despite all that, all three boys and the coach still stay strong with their dream.

One thing about this Olympic dream is four years is a long way. As the three are young, they’re in that stage of life trying to decide about what their future will be. Some come from difficult family situations where they may have to supply them with an income. One comes from a family where the father left them and he has to look out for his mother and younger sisters. It may have them questioning if doing luge is worth their time. To add to it, the coach Senad makes it clear his health is ailing. It’s hard to coach the three especially since he would be paid very little for coaching.

The year 2018 is about getting the roller sleds ready, the track patched up and the boys watching luge competitions to see how it’s done. The summer is used as a time to use the roller sleds for their luging. It’s not an easy thing to do as the track is also a tourist attraction. 2019, the practices still continue for the boys as they ponder their futures. Training gets better as the track is better patched up and the sledders are able to do more sledding. They even enter international junior competitions such as one in Calgary. 2020 is a setback not just for them, but the whole world as the COVID pandemic. They have to use makeshift training methods for training. The pressure of it all gets to the point Zlatan can’t do it anymore.

As 2021 begins, the COVID pandemic is still active but the training has to get more serious. Senad adds two new cross training methods for the two. He adds in running up the Igman Olympic Jumps, another abandoned Olympic site, as part of their cross-training. He also includes indoor training at the Zetra Olympic Hall — the former Olympic arena rebuilt as a multi-purpose recreation facility — to develop their speed and conditioning more. Mirza, Senad and Hamza make television appearances. Senad goes as far as talking about his failing health in one interview.

Then the 2021-2022 luge season. For either Mirza and Hamza to qualify for the Olympic Games, they need to achieve a qualifying time and a qualifying place during the Luge world Cup circuit. This would be tough for them as they will finally sled on ice. The first attempt was Altenberg, Germany in December 2021. It did not happen as Mirza, the one with the best chances, fell from his sled near the end. He’s unhappy about it, but he has to ready himself as there’s the next meet in Innsbruck the following week. In Innsbruck, he completes both his runs and achieves the qualifying time. His Olympic berth is guaranteed! At the Beijing Olympics, Mirza is one of the two flagbearers for Bosnia during the Opening Ceremony. He competes the next day and finishes last. Nevertheless, he is proud of his achievement of competing. He also talks about his increase in social media popularity. As Mirza and Senad are back at home and on the track, they reflect and talk about their ‘impossible possibility.’

This documentary is not just about athletes dreaming of the Olympic Games. This is also about restoring life to an Olympic site that was devastated. This is about four people and their families trying to make dreams come true despite the difficulties of their livelihoods. This is about giving some vitality to a nation still recovering from a devastating war that lasted 3 1/2 years and they’re still picking up the pieces from. During that war, over 100,000 people were killed, over 2.2 million people were displaced and Sarajevo became the longest-sieged capital city ever. I myself remember watching the Sarajevo Olympics when I was a child. I also remember nonstop news stories of the Bosnian War as I was a college student and I often wondered if it would ever end. Since then, the nation has struggled to rebuild, government corruption has been common and many people have had to find opportunity in other nations.

The documentary shows how the three boys and their coach are training for their athletic dreams, but it also shows how the boys are also growing into young men. The documentary takes place over a four-year time frame. Their athletic dreams face frequent obstacles like their family situations, their maturation into adults, trying to decide their futures, and dealing with living in a nation with limited opportunity. It’s not like they live in Germany, Austria, Italy, the US or Canada where they can juggle it all with less difficulty. They have little to no funding, they have difficult living situations and they’re training on a shabby track. It’s almost like they’re the Olympic amateurs of past decades before professionals were allowed to compete starting in the 1980’s. It’s an against-all-odds story where they won.

If there’s one flaw of the documentary, I think it’s about the limited amount of footage in the film. It does a good job of showing the four training and of their family situation, but I feel the film could have also focused more on the background of the Olympic track and why it became shabby over time. It does often mention of the Sarajevo Olympics of 1984 and of the Bosnian War in the 1990’s, but it’s mostly brief moments. Seeing them train for their dream was great to see, but past references could have been added in more. Even more footage of what the track looked like in its Olympic glory days would be great. Despite what I want, that does not stop in telling a good story of Olympic dreams.

Top respect for director Ryan Sidhoo. He knows the story is about them and he has them tell the story as it happens over the four -year period. We often see these up-close-and-personal stories of Olympians before they compete in their big moment, but this is unique that it’s over this four-year period. Although there were some areas where it could have been better, I feel Ryan did an excellent job of showing their stories. Oh, and for those wondering about for the upcoming Cortina Olympics this coming February, Mirza is still luging. For the 2024-2025 season, he finished 20th in the World Cup standings and looks poised to compete at the upcoming Olympics and do much better than his placing in Beijing. Only this coming luge season will tell by how well he does.

The Track is more than just a documentary of Olympic dreams. It’s a story of hope for sport, for a nation, and for the young. The chronology of telling the story over four years tells you why this story is about a lot more.

VIFF 2025 Shorts Segment Review: Forum 2 – Memory & Meditation

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment

With the VIFF happening, I have to see at least one segment of short films. Forum 2 – Memory & Meditation was the first one I saw. Some are live- action, some animated, while some are documentary style. All are intriguing in their own way.

–One Duck Down (Canada – dir. Lindsay Aksarniq McIntyre): This film is a five-minute documentary. Lindsay Aksarniq McIntyre returns to her home in the Arctic tundra. There she finds the carcass of a duck with the feathers still on. As we see imagery of the duck, various shot ducks, the land and the waters, she tells of the area and of her own personal story.

The documentary is fast, brief and simple, but also intimate. If you look at the imagery, you can understand why Lindsay talks of the area. It’s the area she grew up in and was raised. The imagery means a lot to her. Even that of a dead duck means a lot to her as hunting was most likely part of her family’s livelihood. It was nice to see.

–Baadarane (Lebanon – dir. Sarah El Kadi): In a small town in Lebanon, a young boy loses his mother. At her funeral at the mosque, he hears people always talking of God as they pay their last respects to her. Some even saying this is ‘God’s will.’ That causes him to think. Did God punish her with a young death? He himself feels he’s at odds with God for her death.

You can tell the theme of God is omnipresent in the film as God’s name is mentioned throughout. I guess it’s common living in a Muslim society to hear God frequently referenced. The story does capture a young boy’s crisis of faith especially since his mother died and many reference it as God’s will. It makes him question if his mother was a bad person to die so young. The black-and-white filming adds in as at a young age, it does seem like a black-and-white issue and you don’t know what to think.

–Water Girl (France/Netherlands/Portugal – dir. Sandra Desmazieres): An elderly woman looks out to the empty seashore as she drinks coffee. As she looks out, she’s reminded of the times she used to doo deep-sea fishing for a living. She also remembers the time at the nearby lounge where she used to drink, be entertained and romance.

Animation usually does a lot with storytelling and imagery that live-action normally can’t. This story of a woman reminiscing on a coastline really creates the environment of her past and uses the imagery of fish and various colors to help add to the storytelling. The story is slow, but creates a mood and is a delight to watch.

-Adieu Ugarit (Canada – dir. Samy Benammar): The film is a documentary where a Syrian refugee named Mohamed tells his story. He tells of growing up in a harsh dictatorship mixed with political turmoil in Syria and knowing as a soldier, his life could be taken any time. Unfortunately, his best friend was murdered by militia men just outside of Damascus in 2012. He recounts these memories as we see imagery of a peaceful land and water.

This documentary is of a story that we rarely hear about, but needs to be heard. Benammar makes a smart move in having the audio of Mohamed telling his story as we see imagery of the land and the water. The land and water is in the Laurentian area of Ontario but it brings back his traumatic memories. Especially that of a lake in Syria filled with the blood of soldiers. As Mohamed tells his story, the images haunt us back.

-A Light That Doesn’t Dim (USA – dir. Colby Barrios): Sister Jones is a Mormon missionary in Mexico. You can tell by the look on her face she’s not happy about something. Could it be homesickness? Could it be a lack of faith? She makes it clear in her diary she wants to go home. Meeting with elders does not help her personal crisis any more. Then one night, she has images that shock her and haunt her.

Of all the characters in the film’s shorts, It’s Sister Jones that will cut the deepest. She faces either a crisis of faith or homesickness, but no one is there to help. Colby’s distortive and hallucinatory imagery in the film adds to the traumatic feel to the story and makes us feel the frustration of Sister Jones’ situation. It makes the story unforgettable.

-Four Walls And A Memory (Poland – dir. Joanna Piatek): A young girl is on the run from a wild creature. She enders into a cabin, but the creature enters. Fortunately in the run, the creature hits his head on the wall and dies. For some reason, the girl doesn’t leave. She stays for days where she even makes food out of the dead creature’s leg, makes the creature like a blanket overnight and dances with the creature as she hears music from the radio of a passer-by.

The film festival is known for showing films with out-of-the-ordinary stories, but the magic of animation is it can take out-of-the-ordinary to even bigger lengths. It does seem odd for the girl to go from running from the creature to eating one of his limbs to making him a blanket to dancing with him. Sometimes you think the story is about her overcoming her fears, but it could end up being more than that. It’s subject to one’s opinions.

-WASSUPKAYLEE (USA – dir. Pepi Ginsberg): Kaylee, a young awkward teenage girl, is a social media influencer in a house popular with TikTok content and with other teen influencers. Despite the other influencers befriending her, Kaylee feels out of place as they all have bigger followings than her. Everything changes as one of the boys tries to do a high dive from the house roof into the pool. He misses and is badly hurt. As all reach out to communicate the emergency, Kaylee does it on social media and that gives her the breakthrough she’s been waiting for. Also the boy will be just fine.

Although this story doesn’t take the same creative chances as the other films in this shorts forum, it does tell a story. It’s a story relatable as we have a lot of young people who want to grow up to be a social media influencer. Kaylee is like a lot of teenagers where her self-esteem is connected to her popularity. She shouldn’t let her lack of a breakthrough get to her, but it does. Fortunately she does get a breakthrough. It may be due to the result of an injured friend, but he’ll be fine.

And there’s my look at the short films of the VIFF segment Forum 2 – Memory & Meditation. Two were documentaries, two were animated and three were dramas. Two were made by Canadians, two by Americans, and the other three from France, Poland and Lebanon. All were intriguing to watch.

VIFF Is Back For 2025

Jon The BlogcentricLeave a comment

The Vancouver International Film Festival is back for 2025 to make it their 44th annual festival. As has been since the COVID pandemic, it’s a total of eleven days. One noticeable change from different years is this year’s festival is now beginning on the first Thursday of October: October 2nd. That’s a change as it normally begins on the last Thursday of September. I’m assuming they’re doing this change so that the Festival gets a boost when it ends on the Sunday before Canadian Thanksgiving: October 13th.

From the 2nd to the 12th of October, this year’s Film Festival will continue to show films and host VIFF Industry conferences on various vocations of filmmaking as well as VIFF Amp conferences about musicians and music in film. Also returning to VIFF are VIFF Labs forums in skill development VIFF Catalyst forums highlighting work from rising filmmakers. VIFF Talks and Special events also returns but most events are ticketed with prices bigger than the average VIFF ticket. VIFF Live is back with four musical performances and VIFF Signals is back to showcase futuristic media and art.

New for myself is a new set of volunteer duties. For this year, I have been assigned volunteer duties with the ‘Strike and Load’ team. From what I’ve sensed, the Strike and Load team are the people involved with setting up the theatre venues for the film festival either with VIFF posters or VIFF booths or various other VIFF materials. The team will also be needed to disassemble things at the end of the Festival or whatever last festival day at the venue. My first two shifts will be during the two days before the Festival begins. I’m involved with set-up at Granville Island, International Village and the VIFF Theatre days before the Festival begins. I’m also involved with takedown and return of supplies in the afternoon of Thanksgiving.

Now time to focus on to the films at VIFF. This year, VIFF has rebounded to host a total of 284 films in both short films and feature-length. That’s over 100 more than last year. If you’re like me and continue to have a big interest in VIFF’s running of films that are a nation’s official entry in the Academy Awards category of Best International Feature Film, 24 films here are a nation’s official entry in that category, including Canada’s: the Turkish-language The Things You Kill.

For the returning theatres, International Village is the main venue for most of the films while the Playhouse Theatre hosting the galas and more featured films and the VanCity Theatre hosting major films and events. Rio Theatre, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, Cinematheque, SFU Goldthorp Theatre and Cinema 3 of Fifth Avenue Cinema return as venues for VIFF 2025. New for VIFF this year is four more added venues for film and special concerts:

  • Theatre 7 of International Village: This will expand the number of International Village theatres used for VIFF to four.
  • Alliance Francaise Vancouver: The recently-opened new venue for the Alliance Francaise school has a 165-seat theatre for stage and film. Contrary to popular belief, the venue will not only show French-language films.
  • Granville Island Theatre: Host venue for the Arts Club Theatre, this 440-seat theatre on Granville Island will host VIFF films for the first time and during the last three days of the Festival.
  • H. R. MacMillan Space Centre: The 209-seat space centre is the venue for a special VIFF event. Wilfred Buck’s Star Stories will be showcased on October 10th. The mix of storytelling and visual imager should make for a great spectacle.

Now onto the highlighted films of VIFF 2025:

OPENING GALA: Nouvelle Vague – Normally you would not expect a director like Richard Linklater to direct a timepiece set in Paris in 1959, but that’s what he does. This is a story of Jean-Luc Godard trying to break into the Paris film scene despite tough competition. He meets up with Jean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo to make the film he hopes to be his breakthrough.

CLOSING GALA: Köln 75 – Interesting the film for the Closing Gala will take place the day before with a live concert. The German film directed by Ido Fluk is the story of American composer Keith Jarrett and his efforts against a stack of odds to do his legendary improvised concert in Cologne in 1975. The film won three awards at the Barcelona-Sant Jordi Film Festival.

After The Hunt – Directed by Luca Guadagnino and starring Julia Roberts and Leonardo Di Caprio, this film focuses on a professor who has to deal with a memory of sexual harassment as a student of hers brings up her own harassment issue. The story promises to cut deep.

Christy – David Michod directs this biopic of Christy Martin who helped pioneer women’s boxing in the 1990’s. Christy, played by Sydney Sweeney, first feels she’s fated for the common female life in her younger years until a punch thrown by her changes everything. The road to the top isn’t easy as her manager/husband is very abusive.

Father Mother Sister Brother – Directed by Jim Jarmusch and featuring a stellar cast including Tom Waits, Adam Driver, Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett and Mayim Bialik, this is a family story of siblings around the world and their parents who they feel are distant, both physically and emotionally.

Franz – Poland’s official submission for the Oscars directed by Agnieszka Holland, this biopic of Franz Kafka explores his life and also tries to put a fictional twist to try to get into Kafka’s mind and create a biopic that’s just as much of an enigma as Kafka himself.

It Was Just An Accident – Winner of the Palme door at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and France’s official Oscars submission, Jafar Panahi’s latest film is a story of a man who does a ‘Good Samaritan’ act to a man on the road whom he later recalls as his violent cellmate from his past prison days. The good deed soon turns into a trigger for revenge.

Jay Kelly – The latest film from Noah Baumbach, Jay Kelly is an A-list Hollywood actor who appears to have it all, but feels empty. He’s tired of playing himself all the time in movies but he doesn’t even know who he is anymore. George Clooney plays Jay Kelly and Adam Sandler plays his manager.

Kokuho – Japan’s official submission for the Oscars, Lee Sang-il creates a story of two brothers adopted by a Kabuki actor and trains then to be Kabuki actors themselves. As they excel over the decades, the two rival each other for greatness while still trying to maintain their brotherly bond.

The Mastermind – Kelly Reichard directs a crime comedy set in a small Massachusetts town in 1970. There, an art lover at the less-than-inspiring art gallery conducts a clumsy hoist to steal four modestly valued paintings only having no clue what to do next. It’s like a crime with no clue!

Mile End Kicks – A Canadian film directed by Chandler Levack. The film takes us back to 2011 as a young aspiring female music critic is pursuing writing a book about Alanis Morisette’s Jagged Little Pill album. Her goal changes as she comes across two members of an indie rock band and decides to be their publicist. The film parodies the sexism of music journalism while also becoming a heartfelt story.

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie – If you think they misspelled Nirvana, you’re wrong. This Canadian comedy directed by Matt Johnson stars Johnson and Jay McCarrol and is based off their hit web series. Their movie is of a band that fails to make it until a soda-fueled Accident sends them time travelling back to 2008. It’s part Back To The Future, part pop culture parody.

No Other Choice – South Korea’s official Oscars submission, director Park Chan-wook does a Korean adaptation of Donald Westlake’s 1997 novel The Ax. A paper mill executive who was laid off from his executive job tries a corporate maneuver to overtake the competition in hopes of it paving the way for his next job. Will it work? The mix of drama and satire will set the scene.

Palestine 36 – Palestine’s official submission for this year’s Oscars, Annemarie Jacir directs a timepiece story of the Palestinian uprising against British rule in 1936. The story follows a man who becomes a soldier of the rebellion after his fellow villagers get their land conquered and are frequently pillage. The story appears to show how the present echoes the past.

A Private Life – Directed by Rebecca Zlotowski and starring Jodie Foster in her third French-language role! Foster plays a psychiatrist who must research information about a patient’s death, but her own neuroses complicate her search. The film is a mystery thriller that mixes satire.

Rental Family – Directed by Japanese director Hikari and starring Brendan Fraser. A lonely American actor who’s hired as part of a Japanese ‘rental family’ system of renting actors to be family members for events finds a family he connects with emotionally and wants to stay with them past his term of work.

The Secret Agent – Brazil’s official submission for this year’s Academy Awards, this film is a Cannes award winner for director Kleber Mendonca Filho and lead actor Wagner Moura. It’s a neo-noir political drama set in Brazil in 1977of a man who ran afoul with an influential politician that’s part of the national dictatorship at the time.

Sentimental Value – Norway’s official Academy Awards submission and a Grand Prix winner at Cannes. Two actress sisters who recently lost their mother have the added burden of dealing with their director father who abandoned the family when they were children. The story is as much about the daughter’s lives as much as the attempt at reconciliation. Stars Stellan Skarsgard, Renate Reinsve and Elle Fanning.

Sirāt – Spain’s official submission for this year’s Oscars and a Jury Prize winner at this year’s Cannes. Director Oliver Laxe delivers a story of a Spanish man and his son in the Moroccan Sahara searching for his missing daughter. An anarchic desert rave party and the aftermath make it hard for them and helpers they meet at the rave deal with the treacherous landscape and an ecstasy that becomes a damnation.

Steal Away – A Canadian horror film directed by Clement Virgo. An overprotected teenage girl is introduced to a refugee girl her mother has taken into shelter. As she becomes overly curious in the girl, even sexually, a terrible secret in her family estate is threatening to expose itself.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery – Director Rian Johnson returns with Daniel Craig again playing detective Benoit Blanc. This mystery is in New England and involves a gothic church with eccentric parishioners. The murder makes it hard to solve when it appears divine intervention could be involved with it.

Young Mothers – Belgium’s official Oscars submission. Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne direct a story of five young mothers part of a teenage mothers outreach program. They go through the difficulties of being a mother at such a young age and try to take the next steps in motherhood and trying to make a future for themselves.

And there you go. That’s my preview of VIFF 2025. Lots to look forward to. My reviews of the films I watch will be coming shortly. I hope to see ten or more, despite how difficult my schedule is right now.

VIFF 2024 Ends On A Good Note

Jon The BlogcentricLeave a comment

I know that VIFF ended over two months ago, but I lacked the drive to write for a long time. Since we’ve passed Christmas, I figured it’s enough wasting time and to get out the wrap-up blog.

Last year, the Vancouver International Film Festival ended the Sunday before Canadian Thanksgiving. This year, they end on Sunday October 6th: a week before Canadian Thanksgiving. Still, it was an excellent 11 days of cinema. Yes, there was the continuation of downsizing for the festival. There were less than half the number of films there were in past Festivals before the pandemic. The church that used to be the Centre In Vancouver For Performing Arts was not available this year as it has been in past years. Despite that, most facilities that had been available for the VIFF in past years were available again. VIFF also continued to showcase digital films and digital arts as it’s fast becoming a growing art form. The common cinematic films still remained the highlight of the Festival and there were excellent turn outs. There were sellout shows and repeat screenings for many films. I’ll explain more when I talk about my volunteering experience.

For this year, I was only lucky to see twelve films. I still had my goals of watching a shorts segment, a Canadian feature-length film and a Best International Feature Film Oscar contender. I was able to accomplish all three. I often want to go above and beyond it but it didn’t work out. I didn’t have as much free time during VIFF as I normally do. Outside of Monday September 30th that was a national holiday, there weren’t any regular weekdays when I could see films at any time. Another problem was not as many films had a 9:30 start time on the weekdays that’s often the best bet for me. Despite those setbacks, I did make it work. Twelve is the same number of films I saw last year. There were at least two days when I saw three films. Yes, I have a habit of cramming. Actually there were three days I saw three films but one was a day I saw a single one by choice and the other two as an usher.

For volunteering, I worked ushering at the International Village again. The crazy thing about this year is there were a lot of changes in set-up. In the past, there would be a ticket purchase booth at ground level, line control and organizing for the three cinemas on the second and the cinemas on the third floor. This year there was no booth on the main floor, lines were still on the second but ticket purchase was on the third floor just outside the theatre entrance. Even the volunteer meeting room changed. In the past, it was in a room past the theatre admission area. This year it was moved to an area just outside the main entrance. It was a lot of getting used to and sometimes a discomfort. I volunteered for three days.

The first two shifts took place the evening of the first Saturday (September 28th) and the Sunday afternoon the following day. For those two days, they were mostly to do with line control and supervising the Platinum Pass lounge. In both cases, I didn’t have the luck of seeing films. It was after that Sunday afternoon shift completed that I went to see two films after. On Saturday, October 5th, I had the luck of being able to see an Altered States film before I could start my third and last volunteer shift. With it being my last shift for the year, I had the luck of being an usher and seeing two films in the theatre. Both were documentaries.

With only nine films seen before the last day of the Festival (Sunday October 6th), I made the final day my catch-up day. There would be two films I wanted to see but would not be guaranteed a seat because their tickets sold out: the Latvian animated film Flow and the Farsi-language Canadian film Universal Language. I first took a gamble with Flow by being in the standby line-up 45 minutes in advance. After waiting and waiting, I was able to get in. I got in ten minutes after it began. It was that high in demand and it was one of the few films at VIFF open to all ages. I saw it and enjoyed it. Also I wasn’t too disappointed with coming in late because I would later have the luck of seeing it in its entirety at the VIFF volunteer party held a week later! For the rest of the day before attempting to see Universal Language, I tried making judgments of what else to see and when. I saw the Marlina film in between that time and then went back to the International Village to be early enough to see Universal Language. While the gamble with Flow paid off, the gamble with Universal Language didn’t. Being only second in the standby line did not assure me a seat. So with limited time and distance left, I rushed over to the Queen Elizabeth Theatre Warehouse to see The End. Although I wasn’t happy with The End, I was glad to see the last film of VIFF 2024 to complete itself.

For those that want a list of the films I saw at VIFF 2024, here they are in the order I saw them in:

Now some of you may want to know which films are the award winners. There were six juried award winners and nine people’s choice award winners. Interesting for this year, they changed the names of the juried categories! Descriptions of the awards are with the named categories:

JURIED AWARD WINNERS

SUMMIT Award
for outstanding narrative feature by an established Canadian director:
–Universal Language (dir. Matthew Rankin)

HORIZON Award
for outstanding first or second feature by a Canadian filmmaker:
–Mongrels (dir. George Yoo)

TIDES Award
for outstanding documentary feature by a Canadian filmmaker:
–Ninan Auassat: We, The Children (dir. Kim O’Bomsawin)

ARBUTUS Award
for outstanding feature film production in BC:
–Inay (Mama) (dir. Thea Loo)

SHORT FORUM Award
open to all short films in the Short Forums
–Strawberry Shortcake (dir. Deborah Devyn Chuang)

VANGUARD Award
open to all feature films in VIFF’s Vanguard section
–78 Days (dir. Emilija Gasic)

AUDIENCE AWARDS

Galas and Special Presentations
–I’m Still Here (dir. Walter Salles)

Showcase
–No Other Land (dirs. Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham & Rachel Szor)

Panorama
–Angela’s Shadow (dir. Jules Arita Koostachin)

Vanguard
–Red Path (dir. Lotfi Achour)

Northern Lights
–The Stand (dir. Christopher Auchter)

Insights
–The Chef and the Daruma (dir. Mads K. Baekkevold)

Spectrum
–Grand Theft Hamlet (dir. Pinny Grylls & Sam Crane)

Portraits
–Luther: Never Too Much (dir. Dawn Porter)

Altered States
–40 Acres (dir. R. T. Thorne)

There you have it! That’s my long-delayed wrap up blog for VIFF 2024. Next year’s VIFF will actually start in the month of October! The Festival is expected to go from October 2 – 12 in 2025. Looking forward to it.

VIFF 2024 Review: Paying For It

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment
Emily Le and Dan Beirne play a couple who try open love and go in unorthodox directions in the oddball romance Paying For It.

I first took an interest to Paying For It knowing it’s directed by Sook-Yin Lee. I had no clue of what to expect. Boy was I in for a surprise!

Chester Brown and Sonny Lee are a Toronto couple in a tough situation. They’ve had a romantic relationship together for years and do a lot together, but they haven’t had sex in a long time. Both Chester and Sonny come from two different worlds in the arts. Sonny is a video jockey on the music channel Max Music and Chester is an illustrator/author of cartoon books that detail his personal life. Sonny has a few friends at her place of work while Chester frequently meets with his work colleagues from the same writing community and has a close friendship bond with them. Sonny has a lot of success but Chester is struggling to make a name for himself. Chester is quite introverted and keeps to his circle while Sonny’s not afraid to meet new people.

Sonny recommends they try open love. Maybe they were or weren’t meant for each other and maybe they need time away to figure it out. Sonny being famous on national television has no problem finding other men. Chester on the other hand struggles. His author friends warn him jealousy will sink in pretty soon. Chester does become frustrated how Sonny is able to find many a nightly partner. It even reflects in his illustrations. Chester tries an unorthodox route advised from one of his writer friends: prostitutes. Besides, he’s given up on romantic love.

Over time, both find a lot of pleasure from what they get into but they struggle to find the one. Every other man Sonny hitches up with, he’s a great passionate lover but they’re not as fun as Chester and they don’t relate to her as well. Also at work, she learns one of her female colleagues is attracted to her. Meanwhile each prostitute and escort Chester gets involved with involves something complicating or some kind of discomfort. Many are willing to give Chester what he wants that night but most of them completely back off of any commitment. Some even have demands of their own. Despite it all, Chester is finding a quality in this he feels is missing in monogamy.

Simultaneously, both have difficulties and challenges at their own jobs. Sonny had no problem being a VJ while the alternative rock wave of the 90’s was riding high, but the wave has become a ripple and in came the tsunami of boy bands and other teenpop acts Sonny does not like introducing at all. Over time, Chester and his friends question about what’s going on with his many hook-ups and it affects the art for his latest literature. Especially since Chester hasn’t found ‘the one’ and it’s frustrating for him.

Then things change over time. Chester’s writing career and the careers of his writer-colleagues get a boost. Chester also spends the night with an escort who’s her own madam and it changes his life. Sonny, on the other hand, won’t be silent about the frustration with her job and her life, even on live TV. That eventually leads her to be dropped form Max Music. The two eventually reunite during a tragic moment. The death of her dog. It’s as they mourn together they learn they had something so special, no new love of theirs can replace that, even though they have to move on.

The film is about this complicated thing called love. I’m sure a lot of you look at the situation in your relationships and find yourselves asking why can’t we just love? Why do we have to make it complicated? This film itself is about that human fallibility of making love more complicated than it should. In this case, it’s not just creating the freedom of an open relationship but also the types of people both of them date during that time. Then there’s the mix of the two professions that are similar that they’re both in art or entertainment, but very different. Then there’s the talking with friends. The people they most trust to confide into and divulge their personal feelings. Then there are the changes in their lives. Then there are human idiocies and their attitudes. All that is what makes love more complicated than it should be.

Basically this is a story about a relationship that was doomed to end. Chester and Sonny are close, but complicated. The expired birth control should send that message. Eventually Chester and Sonny grew as different people and learned in the end, they were best as friends. Chester may have found a new love with an escort who’s her own madam but his relationship with Sonny made clear he’ll never have a closeness with another that’s the same. Sonny may have found men that were better at making love, but she learned they all made lousy partners. It was Chester who had no problem with her squirt gun or her dog or any of her other oddities. The ending gave a message I have seen often enough where two in a relationship couldn’t succeed as a couple but they could succeed as soul mates.

The film does give a lot of humor and in a lot of ways is somewhat biographical of both Brown and Lee. For those that remember MuchMusic during the 80’s and 90’s, you will remember Sook-Yin Lee as one of the VJ’s in the 1990’s. Yep, Canadian Generation Xer’s like me and early Millennials will have fond memories of her. Those of us who remember her from that and see the film will see the humor in how what’s happening in the film mirrors her own life and will laugh at the humor involved. Those who have read the book Paying For It will know that Brown and Lee were romantically linked and it detailed the complications. The film does some changes with the dates as it has the film taking place as Sonny’s career is bustling while Brown’s is struggling. In real life, Brown started his relationship with Sook-Yin in 1992, before she was signed onto MuchMusic and the relationship ended in 1996 just shortly as Sook-Yin’s MuchMusic fame took off.

This is a great alternative comedy from director Sook Yin-Lee. It is a very personal story to her and she’s able to show the comedy in it in this story she co-wrote with writer Joanne Sarazen. She’s also able to make some of the changes in chronology work for the flow of the film. There were some elements of shock in the film, but the story and settings made the shock humor work. Emily Le is great as Sonny Lee. She’s great at doing the comically side of the story as well as some of the more serious moments. She may not be Sook-Yin’s twin as far as personality goes but she knows how to do it well. Dan Beirne was also great as Chester Brown. I myself never knew Chester or read his works so I’m judging his performance for how well Dan did his role. Beirne was very good at playing an introvert engaging in a sexual activity most introverts wouldn’t normally try and it changes him. His awkward traits made the character and the story. The addition of the other supporting characters like Chester’s writer friends or Sonny’s ‘other men’ also added to the storytelling and the comedy of the film.

Paying For It isn’t just a sex comedy full of sex humor and some shock humor. It’s also quite a smart comedy about a couple that could no longer be but have a special bond. It’s even a comedy that tells about our own idiocies when it comes to love.