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VIFF 2025 Review: Death Does Not Exist (La mort n’existe pas)

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment
Activist Helene is given a second chance in her life after a failed heist in Death Does Not Exist.

The only feature-length animated film I saw at this year’s VIFF is the Canadian French-language film Death Does Not Exist. It is not your typical animated film as it defies expectation.

Helene is part of a group of young radical climate activists. They have the goal of attacking a rich family and brought guns along to make their message heard and to encourage others to follow their act. The attack becomes full-fledged a hail of gunfire on between both the radicals and the family’s bodyguards follow. People on all sides are killed. Helene’s colleagues, the rich family members, the bodyguards, no one is safe. Just as Helene appears to be the only one of the radicals who survives, she runs off into a forest and is completely lost.

The forest she runs into, which is immediately outside the mansion, is treacherous and wild wolves chase her. Lost in the woods, she comes across many wild creatures. The ground is covered with red leaves, resembling the blood of her comrades. In the woods, she comes across wolves chasing after sheep. She senses it’s telling her a message about herself. As she runs away, she falls and knocks herself unconscious.

As she wakes up, she comes across a childhood version of herself. It’s possible she can start a new life. However, she finds Manon: one of her activist comrades who was gunned down. How is she not dead? As Manon makes meat of a rabbit she killed, she makes Helene confront her own cowardice for leaving them all behind to die. She may be unhappy with Helene leaving them behind, but she offers a second chance.

The moment reoccurs again. Helene’s activist group and the rich family are all alive as if the massacre never happened. Will things change? Again, the massacre blows up and all of Helene’s comrades are gunned down. Again, few from the rich family in the golden mansion survive. The grandmother from the wheelchair, the survivor of the rich family Helene noticed most, survives again.

Instead of running into the woods, Helene goes into the mansion. Will shooting the woman be what she needs to do? It is there that the mansion becomes a forest or jungle of its own with the animals themselves also resembling characters of Helene. Helene soon confronts the grandmother in the wheelchair and has a message to give to her that stuns her. Soon after, Helene confronts an older version of herself and received messages from her. She then moves into images of the future, including one of the mansion being swallowed by the ground and flowers growing where it once stood. The film ends with message Manon delivers at the end.

The film does have a message. It’s that we’ve always lived in a world full of opposites, especially in terms of beliefs and convictions. It’s just now people on either side don’t talk. They just promote their belief and vilify those that believe otherwise. The massacre at the beginning is symbolic of such a situation as incidents that have happened in the past and what could happen in the future if we’re not careful. The world may be in crisis right now, but violence is simply making things worse.

Often the point of this film is that you should stand for what’s right but be cautious about your own actions at the same time. With Helene as the central character, it’s Helene’s consciousness that needs to be examined and exposed to her as she runs away. She’s exposed to her moral weaknesses and what she failed to become, but she also is shown enlightened images of what could happen, if she gets a second chance.

The film does a good job of being picturesque and telling in its imagery. Its images do catch your eye and can captivate the audience, but it can also lead them astray as they watch the story. Often there’s too much imagery happening and it doesn’t always make sense of whether the film is trying to tell a story or dazzle the viewer. Often, the audience can be led astray and become confused of what the whole message is. It does have a lot to say in both dialogue and imagery. It just doesn’t do it in too orderly of a fashion.

This is a good feature-length film directed by Felix Dufour-Laperriere. He’s had over 20 years of experience directing and producing animated film with 2021’s Archipelago being his biggest. Here, he creates a film that is so full of imagery, it took four years to complete. A lot of the imagery works in telling the story, while a lot of it can also lead the viewer astray. It is well done, but its imperfections are noticeable. Zeneb Blanchet does an excellent job in voicing Helene. She is good at capturing Helene’s confusions and insecurities well. She’s also great at making the character of Helene one of the best qualities of the film.

Death Does Not Exist is a slow and confusing animated film, but it’s also very picturesque. It deals with a deep subject matter and a deep message and allows the audience an escape to the beyond as images most tell its intended message.

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 Review: Calle Málaga

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment
Carmen Maura (left) plays a mother who refuses to let her daughter sell her flat in Tangier, Morocco in Calle Málaga.

For this year’s Academy Awards, Morocco’s official submission for the Best International Feature Film category is a Spanish-language film: Calle Málaga. It presents a tense story set among beautiful scenery.

In Tangier, Maria Angeles is an elderly Spanish woman. She’s of descendants of Spaniards who fled to Tangier to evade the Franco dictatorship of Spain. After Franco died and democracy was introduced, many Spaniards returned back to Spain, but Maria remained with her husband and daughter. Over time, her daughter Clara returned back to Madrid, married, and had a family of her own as Maria stayed in Tangier at the Calle Malaga flats. Having her daily coffee, talking with her best friend who’s a nun who’s taken a vow of silence, watering her plants, and embracing the horizon at night, her life in Tangier is all she asks for.

One day, Clara returns to Maria. It first appears that it would be a happy family visit, but it’s something else. Since her divorce, Clara has been cash-strapped. Especially since she has to both work and raise her two children. It’s gotten so dire, Clara thought it best to sell Maria’s flat. Maria is crushed, but Clara thinks she did the right thing. Clara feels Maria will have a better quality of life being around her daughter and grandchildren. Besides Maria’s husband died 20 years ago and most of the people she’s known her life have either died or migrated back to Spain.

Maria protests but Clara reminds her the flat is in her name and she can do what she chooses. Clara states the only other option is for Maria to go to the Spanish nursing home in the city. Maria first chooses the nursing home. As she’s transported there, the house’s old belongings go for sale or for pawning so the empty flat can sell. Maria is not happy with her life at the nursing home. It’s missing all the vitality of her own life and she’s also very able to take care of herself.

One day, she fakes a situation where she’s flying to Spain to be with her daughter. The only other person who knows this is the cab driver who’s to pick her up. What Maria really does is move back to the flat that used to be hers. She returns and the neighbors are happy to see her back, but all her furniture is gone. To add to the frustration, the tenant holding the flat for sale lives on the floor below.

Her first goal is to make enough money to get all her furniture back. Her pension doesn’t pay her enough. What she decided to do is turn her flat into a café for friends to watch La Liga football games. In turn making a new friend with the young Khalid who’s helping her out with new visitors. It becomes a popular hangout. One day, she catches the tenant at the suite and puts him in a situation that she is to hold fort until it’s sold. She reminds him she’s in control. She gives her friend the nun quite the story.

Over time, she learns of the antique shop selling her furniture. She confronts the salesman named Abslam about getting her furniture back. She also tries to use her makeshift café as a chance to coax him into helping her further. Over time, it becomes more and she starts to feel love for the first time since her husband’s death. She learns that Abslam was never married. The romance grows and she has quite the story to tell Sister Josefa.

As time passes, it becomes evident Maria’s secret will run out. During one of her games, the tenant comes to visit and tells her the place is sold. She’s brokenhearted and doesn’t know what to do. Also that day, Sister Josefa dies. Maria sees her in her deathbed to tell her last feelings. The following day, the day before the new owners are to move in, Clara arrives and is surprised as she sees one of her mother’s parties. It’s there Maria confronts Clara tells of her choice. The film ends with no telling what happens the next day, but telling of how it appears things should be.

This is one story that’s not too heavy on its core social topic. The topic here is ageism. The daughter who has the flat in her name feels she can make decisions for the mother, but the mother is able to decide her life for herself. Maria wants Clara to know this but is afraid to at first. It’s over time she’s able to amass the courage to tell her. This is a common problem among families.

I’ve seen films or shorts of people who don’t want things to change at first and are unwilling to accept change, only to accept it and eventually embrace it in the end. Maria is different. This life in Tangier and her flat is the only life she’s ever known and the only life she wants to know. One would find this a bad thing for her not to accept change, but it’s her choice. Mind you the film is more about Maria’s refusal to change. It’s also about Maria finding vitality in her own age. Most people Maria’s age would feel they’re at the end of their life. Instead, Maria sees a chance for a new beginning. She may refuse to change her living situation but the changes she makes like her makeshift football café, her new young friend Khalid and her new love with Abslam add to her vitality.

This is a great film by director Maryam Touzani. The story she co-wrote with husband Nabil Ayouch is a nice calm story where the intensity is in the moments of heated discussions. It makes for a nice story about a woman and the life she feels she was meant to live. Instead of this story being a super-heated story about ageism, it’s a calm story about what is meant to be and is given a nice calm vibe.

Carmen Maura owns the film. Outside of Spain, Maura is most famous for her frequent collaborations with Pedro Almodovar. Here in this film, she handles her role with immense class and her personal charm adds to the film. Ahmed Boulane is also great as Abslam. Playing a man who feels love for the first time also adds well to the film. Also great is Maria Alfonsa Rosso as the mute Sister Josefa. Her performance with her body language adds to the comedic elements of the film. The best technical element has to be the cinematography of Virginie Surdej. The cinematography of the city images and the panoramic nature of Tangier adds to the story as it’s one of the best elements at telling the audience why Maria can’t leave her old life behind.

Calle Malaga tells a story about a woman who finds a purpose in her life in her age and finds a new life. It’s also a cinematographic delight to watch with the scenery adding to the storytelling.

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 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 2025 Review: Free Leonard Peltier

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment
Free Leonard Peltier is about the accused crime of Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier, his imprisonment and his fight for freedom that lasted half a century.

The first documentary I saw at this year’s VIFF was Free Leonard Peltier. At a time when Canada has been made to face the music of what they’ve done to Indigenous people, Leonard’s story will remind you that the plight of the people is not strictly a Canadian problem.

The film begins with a group of American Indigenous activists on a travel. They are traveling to Florida in hopes that fellow activist Leonard Peltier be pardoned and freed just as Joe Biden is about to leave the presidency on January 20, 2025. Trying to get Peltier freed from a double-murder from 1975 he denies and most believe he’s wrongfully accused for has been going on for the last half-century. Many believe it’s Leonard’s last chance at any freedom as he just turned 80 years old and he’s ailing.

The story of the Leonard Peltier case is told through friends, family and allies of Peltier from the American Indian Movement (AIM). Footage of a 1989 news interview is also shown where Leonard states his own case. Leonard’s early life was like that of many American Indigenous people for over a century. He was born on a reserve in North Dakota to a large family and forced into a Residential School 150 miles away from his place of birth where he and others were taught to assimilate. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) dictated his life and the lives of American indigenous peoples. After he left his schooling behind in 1965, he became a man of various trades doing welding, construction or auto work.

In the late-1960’s, Indigenous activism was growing and the group AIM was founded. Leonard first started with local activism where he was elected tribal chairman of a reservation and he was introduced to AIM from a colleague. His biggest activism in that time was his appearance at 1972’s Trail Of Broken Treaties. Over time, activism became more violent and a group called the Guardians Of the Oglala Nation, or GOON, was founded. Peltier was also involved in violent conflicts and was even charged with attempted murder for an unrelated incident.

During his wait for the trial, FBI agents entered the Pine Ridge Reservation in pursuit of a man named Jimmy Eagle on June 26, 1975 wanted for theft and assault. Two FBI agents named Ronald Williams and Jack Coler were pursuing a Chevrolet with AIM members Peltier, Norman Charles and Joe Stuntz. Charles had met with the two FBI the day before and they told him of their intended pursuit. As the Chevrolet entered the ranch, the three men quickly parked the car and ran out, and that’s when a firefight between the three men and the two FBI ensued. Williams and Coler were shot to death in the shootout. Stuntz was shot to death later that day by a BIA agent. Peltier took Coler’s pistol after he died. The shootout would come to be remembered as the Battle At Wounded Knee.

In the aftermath, the FBI went to arrest three AIM members who were present at the shootout at the time: Dino Butler, Peltier and Robert Robideau. All three were AIM members and all three stole the firearms form the two FBI agents after they were killed. After Peltier was bailed out, he sought refuge in Canada, but it was unsuccessful as Hinton, Alberta RCMP agreed to extradite him back to the United States. In the end, Butler and Robideau were acquitted on grounds of self-defense but Peltier was found guilty. He was sentenced to two life terms and seven years.

In the years that followed would be a long arduous process from friends, family, Indigenous activists, human rights foundations and AIM members to get Leonard Peltier free from a crime he insisted he was innocent of. Over the decades, there was evidence proving that Peltier did not shoot any of the officers. At the same time, the FBI appeared to be playing games as they had one Indigenous women sign an affidavit claiming she was his girlfriend and he confessed to her the shooting. Truth is she didn’t even know him. They also withheld evidence and shred important documents clearing Peltier.

In later decades, Peltier would make pleas of clemency with active Presidents of the United States. Rays of hope first came in 1999 when President Bill Clinton said he would be looking into the Leonard Peltier case and have him cleared and freed. This case for clemency received support from many world leaders like Bishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama. The hope faded as the FBI held a backlash where family of FBI and their allies staged a demonstration claiming that freeing Peltier would do a dishonor to the FBI agents. Their manipulation of making this a Leonard Peltier vs. the FBI case succeeded in keeping him in prison. Peltier continued to make please with clemency with presidents in the years that followed. All would be unsuccessful.

In the 2020’s, Peltier’s health was failing. Painting and drawing, one of his passions he was able to do for decades in prison, was something he could no longer do. Joe Biden was seen as his last chance for clemency in his lifetime, especially since his friends and family knew he would not get any clemency from Trump when he re-enters the White House. Friends and family built a house for Peltier at the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in Belcourt, North Dakota where he could live after his release. January 19, 2025 was the last day of Biden’s presidency and the supporters at the beginning of the film are waiting to hear the news they hope to hear. Biden reduces Peltier’s sentence from life imprisonment to house arrest. They celebrate knowing he will soon stop being a prisoner.

This is a good documentary as it reminds you of a common problem in the world. Not just in Canada, in the US or in the Americas, but the whole world. The problem is nations being unable to deal with their indigenous peoples or tribal peoples well. Living in Canada, I am very familiar with news stories of how badly the Canadian government has mistreated the Indigenous peoples and how they’re doing a lackluster job to make amends and right past wrongs. The United States is just as guilty of that. They had a residential school system too, they have most of them living on reservations, they have a government that appears unable to listen to them and they’ve even had ‘Indian Wars.’ One can see how the story of the struggle of Leonard Peltier can be something all American Indigenous people can understand and relate to.

The story itself is well-told. I was first introduced to the Leonard Peltier case in 1994 through the music video of “Freedom” by the American band Rage Against The Machine. Peltier’s case has been an inspiration for many songs and films and this documentary is only the latest. In this documentary, we have news footage of the events involving the shootout, arrest, imprisonment and an interview from Peltier in 1989. We also have interviews from surviving friends and family members, Indigenous activists and even attorneys and paralegals who have worked with the Peltier case. The story becomes clear that Peltier’s imprisonment appears to have been used by the FBI just to simply give resolve to the deceased officers’ families and to protect the FBI from looking bad in the eyes of the public. The film’s inclusion of Peltier’s statement of his case makes the shootout look like a case of self-defense. Even though he has always maintained he never shot the officers, he has also stated he would defend himself and his people. One can see why the FBI would fear someone like him.

This is a very informative documentary by Jesse Short Bull and David France. They not only show the Peltier story, but they show how important the Peltier case is to his friends and allies. This is a case that’s taken so long to resolve and it’s at the point friends are even willing to travel from North Dakota to Florida by car in hopes of hearing the good news they’ve been waiting since 1976 to hear. Having AI recreate the incident with film appearing like satellite images re-enacting the heist will get you thinking of the case itself and have you try to make up your own mind about it.

This documentary has received a lot of renown this year. It got a lot of attention at the Sundance festival in January and its biggest acclaim came at the Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival where it won three awards including the FIPRESCI Prize and the Amnesty International Award.

Free Leonard Peltier is a story about the common racism felt by Indigenous peoples in North America. It’s also a story of hope that what’s wrong can be corrected over time.

VIFF 2025 Review: A Poet (Un poeta)

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment
Ubeimar Rios plays an aging poet who is a troubled man who can’t seem to do anything right in A Poet.

I started my film watching at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival with the Colombian film A Poet. It is a very bizarre story of not just the poet but the people in his life and who he intersects with.

Poetry has been Oscar Restrepo’s life but as he’s aging, he needs to face the fact he can’t make a living off it. He’s written two books of poetry as a young adult, but stopped after. Any job he’s tried, he’s been down on his luck. The guild of poets he’s with look down upon him, his 15 year-old daughter Daniela has no real relation with him, and even his ailing mother wonders what’s wrong with him. It’s gotten to the point his siblings want him to change his life around and get a job. He still has that dream in him of being as great of a Colombian poet as Jose Asuncion Silva.

One day, the guild of poets offer him a teaching job at a high school. As he’s teaching a class, he learns one of his students, a girl named Yurlady, has a gift for writing poetry and drawing. As he looks at her notebook, he is astounded by her work and sees a lot of promise in her. He looks at it as an opportunity to be a mentor to her to get a poetry scholarship. As he tutors her, he spends time outside of classes with her and tries to get to know her, her family, her bad living conditions, and her works. He sees a lot of potential in her to be the renowned poet he never could be.

Over time, problems arise with Oscar and his tutelage. A lot of students say he taught classes after he had been drinking. The guild notices him spending too much outside time with Yurlady and reminds him that could harm his reputation in his new job and even provoke nasty rumors. Even Yurlady questions Oscar in making a career in poetry. Especially since she has a huge extended family to support in the future.

Soon Oscar helps Yurlady get a spot on a national talk show to promote an upcoming meeting of young poets. The appearance is a success for her. Then the night of the poetry reading features a group of young and established poets from various backgrounds. The meeting is attended by Yurlady and some of her classmates. Yurlady’s reading goes well. In the evening, Oscar gets drunk with his colleagues and forgets about Yurlady. Later that evening, Oscar finds out Yurlady got sloppy drunk and is vomiting nonstop. Instead of staying with her at the hotel all night, he takes a cab and drops her off at her home’s doorstep.

That’s when the rumors get worse. That Oscar was careless, that he copulated with her. Oscar is fired from his job. The guild of poets will offer an out-of-court settlement for what happened provided Yurlady does a video explaining everything. Just in the middle of shooting, Oscar blockades and insists it not happen for personal reasons. The problem Oscar causes is so embarrassing, they give the family a cash payment settlement. Oscar is so defamed after that, Daniela wants nothing to do with him.

Just when it appears all is lost and as his mother’s health condition is deteriorating, Daniela finds something at her home. It’s her missing notebook that Yurlady found in Oscar’s car weeks earlier. Daniela sees Yurlady used the book to do poetry and drawings of her own. She also notices Yurlady wrote a letter to her specifically telling the whole truth of what did and did not happen that night. The letter also mentions about how she really feels about poetry. She loves doing it, but it’s not the passion Oscar wants her to have. It’s after that Daniela welcomes Oscar back into her life, but demands he smarten up. It’s at the very end with a family tragedy that the full reconciliation happens.

This film is both a drama and a comedy. Oscar and his character is what gives the film the biggest comedic elements. He’s a poet and a fail of a person. He’s like a lot of people in the arts in which they’re good at their craft, but they’re their own worst enemy. Often you will find them failing at everything else. Even making an alcoholic of themselves. That’s Oscar. The funny things is as you watch Oscar, you will see a lot of personality traits and habits that will remind you of a lot of poets in the past. I’ve even joked that poets are ‘too suicidal.’

Oscar is not as suicidal as your common poet but he is his own worst enemy, can’t think properly, can’t succeed at anything else, and finds himself back on the bottle again and again. He feels since he failed as a father to his daughter and as a poet, he can be seen as a mentor to at least one person in his life. He feels he can mentor a promising poet and share his dream of poetry with her and help her become a great. It first appears he failed at that too as he continues to make dumb decisions like making a minor part of the poetry scene. In the end, he made things worse for him and those around him. That appears to be the common theme of the film: Oscar feeling like a failure. We see it in how he messes up time and time again. We also see it as he looks at images of the poet Silva and the writer Bukowski of how he laments over his failure at literary greatness.

The film also has drama as it’s about his strained family relations and his own desire to want to be liked and admired. It’s also of his complicated redemption. It’s through Yurlady and his daughter’s notebook that he gets his unlikely redemption. It’s like the flower blooming out of a ground of ashes. It’s like the mess-up Oscar had with Yurlady eventually becomes what starts the path of the resolve between Oscar and Daniela. It is right at the ending it appears Oscar has the chance to redeem himself and really turn his life around for his family and his daughter.

This film is a great work from director/writer Simon Mesa Soto. His first feature film, 2021’s Amparo was an impressive breakthrough for him. Here, he follows it up with another great story about a troubled man who appears to be art itself in all of its triumphs and devastations, despite struggling to better himself as a poet and constantly messing up as a person. It’s a film that will impress you when and where you least expect it. Also it will become the story you didn’t expect it to be.

Possibly the most surprising thing of this film is that for the lead actors, this is their first-ever film roles. You wouldn’t notice it! Ubeimar Rios was great as Oscar. Playing a poet who is a man-child and makes life hard for everyone is quite an accomplishment for a first role. Also great is Rebeca Andrade for playing Yurlady. She did well not only as the young girl with dreams, but as the one person who could be a solution to Oscar in an unexpected way. Great performances also include Allisson Correa as the teenage daughter caught in the middle of this mess and Margarita Soto as the mother who tries to get Oscar’s head together.

This film is Colombia’s official entry for this year’s Oscar race in the category of Best International Feature Film. Additional awards the film has won are the Cannes Film Festival Jury Award of Un Certain Regard, Horizon’s Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival, the CineCoPro Award at the Munich Film Fest, and winner of the Bright Horizons Award at the Melbourne Film Festival.

The film A Poet is a unique comedy that’s also a sad comedy. It’s about a man who appears to be a poor excuse for a human being, but gets an unlikely redemption.

VIFF Is Back For 2025

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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

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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: The End

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment

I find it quite fitting that the last film of VIFF I saw was titled The End. It’s also interesting that there would be an attempt to create a musical on a subject one would not normally create a musical about.

The musical begins in what appears to be a home of a wealthy family. The son is happy with the diorama of America he has. The father and mother consider it the idea life or the dream life. Or is it? Is it the dream life when all people need to participate in emergency raids? Turns out this ideal place of the family is a bunker underneath a salt mine they need to live in because the planet is unlikeable. The mother, father and son are among the lucky few to survive this ‘end of the world’ and this bunker is their refuge. The three aren’t the only ones living in the bunker. Also ‘lucky’ to be living there is a family friend, a doctor, the butler and the son’s ex-wife Mary. They’re the only other people the parents were willing to trust while still living on Earth’s ground. The father was an oligarch who faced death threats in his lifetime on Earth.

It should appear like they have it all in their underground bunker. They have all the luxuries they need for themselves, the friends they could trust the most on Earth living with them, samples of plants and species to keep, grow and breed for themselves, and there’s even a diorama of Earth’s site for the son to marvel at. Actually the son feels something missing in his life as he spent almost all of it below ground. Then one day, an ‘intruder’ is detected in their shelter. The intruder is a young African-American woman. She was one of the few that managed to survive the devastation as her family have all been killed. The son is attracted to her as he sees something captivating in her. Possibly because she’s the only person in his life who has lived recent time at the surface.

The romance between the son and the girl kindle, but the mother and father are not happy about it. She’s an outsider. She’s an interference to the ideal life they envisioned having once the apocalypse happened. The mother even suspects her of having an ‘agenda.’ Soon awful truths begin to unravel from the girl as she has the most knowledge of the devastation at the surface. All the pollution that was caused killed her family. Soon the news hits Mary as she learns the pollution is what caused her son’s terminal cancer and she neglected him in the end by bringing him to the surface to die. She soon dies in heartbreak. Then the parents learn of the hurt they caused. Mostly the father as on Earth, he bribed corruption in developing countries to happen for his gain, his company caused massive pollution around the world and his political ties allowed his influence and policies to be adopted around the world. A world he did his part to destroy. The mother tries explaining to her son she did all this to protect him, but he doesn’t buy it. The parents wonder is there any way they can find any redemption or forgiveness for what they’ve done? They do find it, but not in the way anyone expects.

It shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that there would end up being an ‘end of the world’ musical. Creativity is just waiting to happen. I’m sure this is not the first apocalyptic musical ever done. The story itself is an ambitious story. An oligarch family live in a bunker below the devastated Earth and live happily with themselves and the people they want. Suddenly they find an outsider in their area. The parents don’t know what to do with her. The son falls in love with her. Meanwhile as the two become closer, ugly truths about the parents and the choices they enforced caused much of this earthly destruction and they are finally facing the music about it. This musical does touch on a lot of things such as environmental damage, blood money and people who ‘ruled the world’ facing the music for the devastation they cause.

The thing about this musical is that it doesn’t feel all that together. I know it’s a musical that has most of the activity taking in one small place and it doesn’t lead too much outside, but one does get the sense a musical like this could have been done much better. Its biggest flaw is there are many times in which during many dialogue parts of the song, you forget it’s a musical until a song is thrown in. Now don’t get me wrong. Cinematic musicals are as hard to create for the big screen as stage musicals are hard to adapt to the big screen, but one can’t help but think as they watch along that this could have been a way better musical. I’ve often sensed that if Adam McKay were to do an ‘end of the world’ musical like this, it would be a lot angrier and with humor that delivers a lot more hard blows as McKay is known to do.

Despite its flaws, I give credit to Joshua Oppenheimer for his ambitious attempt to create such a musical. This film is not only Oppenheimer’s first attempts at a big-screen musical but also his first attempt at a feature-length film that isn’t a documentary. His two documentaries The Act Of Killing and The Look Of Silence have both been nominated for Oscars in the Best Documentary Feature category. In this film he directs and co-wrote the screen play with Rasmus Heisterberg, his lack of experience in directing live action shows as it’s not all together. Mind you those that know the story know it’s not an easy story to direct and set. Never mind throw in songs ever now and then. Some critics have labeled such a film an ‘experiment.’ If this film is a successful experiment, it’s an uneven success where the flaws are noticeable. The songs composed by Marius de Vries and Joshua Schmidt are good but there aren’t as many as there should be in a musical.

By the looks of screen time, it looks like George Mackay is the lead actor in this film. I’m unfamiliar with his experience at singing or musical theatre but he does a very good job in this film. He plays the naive son clueless about the outside world very well. His chemistry with the girl is often because she symbolizes the outside world he craves to live in. Also playing the role well is Moses Ingram. She’s most famous for playing Jolene in The Queen’s Gambit. She does a great job at playing the survivor of this catastrophe who’s able to capture the son’s love. Michael Shannon and Tilda Swinton do a good job of playing the parents. Curiously, Shannon is only 17 years older than Mackay. I didn’t think Michael looked that old! They both do a good job who are first in love with what they have and then learn this paradise is an illusion and they confront the truth of what they caused. Also great is Danielle Ryan who plays the first love of the son who soon confronts her role in the responsibility of her son’s death.

The End attempts to create a musical that attempts to be like a sad comedy. The energy and overall mood are not as fluid as they should be. The acting and singing are both good, but the film doesn’t seem to be all together.

And there you have it! Finally the last of my reviews of films from the Vancouver Film Festival of 2024. You’ll be getting my wrap-up blog soon.