VIFF 2024 Talks host Abenaki filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin in conversation with Métis artist Amanda Strong, October 5

Another highlight of the series on the same date features Shōgun VFX supervisor Michael Cliett

Alanis Obomsawin (left) and Amanda Strong.

THERE ARE TWO VIFF 2024 Talks left to catch this year.

Across Generations with Alanis Obomsawin & Amanda Strong on October 5 at 2 pm at Vancity Theatre will showcase Abenaki filmmaker Obomsawin in conversation with Métis artist Strong.

The talk will feature a sneak peek of Obomsawin’s latest short film, “My Friend the Green Horse”. Often feeling lost and lonely, the young Alanis found companionship and comfort in the animal world. Filled with the spirit of happy childhood memories, the joyful release offers a rare glimpse into the early life of one of the world’s greatest documentary directors through a mix of live-action footage and stop-motion animation.

Strong’s animated short “Inkwo: For When the Starving Return” tells the story of Dove, a young, mysterious, gender-shifting warrior, who discovers the benefits and burdens of their inkwo (medicine) to defend against an army of hungry, terrifying monsters.

The two filmmakers will discuss their artistic practices, the importance of intergenerational connection, and storytelling, as well as the beauty and challenges of creating films for youth. Youth are encouraged to attend the VIFF Talks.

Also taking place on October 5 as part of VIFF Talks, at 6 pm at the Annex, is Designing the World of Shōgun with VFX Supervisor Michael Cliett.

The Vancouver-based visual-effects expert and his team earned an Emmy for their work transforming B.C. into feudal Japan for Shōgun, which won a record-setting 18 such awards in a single year.

Cliett will give a VFX masterclass on the creation of 17th-century Japan with all of its accurate historical elements and comprehensive details.

Featured

Gail Johnson

Gail Johnson is cofounder and associate editor of Stir. She is a Vancouver-based journalist who has earned local and national nominations and awards for her work. She is a certified Gladue Report writer via Indigenous Perspectives Society in partnership with Royal Roads University and is a member of a judging panel for top Vancouver restaurants.

Articles

Des jours meilleurs takes women in rehab on the drive of their lives, at Alliance Française on July 23

Copresented with Visions Ouest, new comedy mixes unvarnished look at alcoholism with desert adventure

Season 2 of Killjoy Comedy subverts the status quo with laughs, starting July 25

Created by Vancouver’s Shana Myara, docuseries available for streaming on OUTtv.com highlights racialized and queer comedians

To a Land Unknown takes a timely look at what happens when people have nothing left to lose, at VIFF Centre from July 18 to 24

Filmmaker Mahdi Fleifel’s compelling portrait of two Palestinian refugees trying to escape hardscrabble limbo in an unrecognizable Athens

Film review: In Ghosts of the Sea, filmmaker takes a riveting look back at family tragedies on the waves

In Virginia Tangvald’s haunting new NFB documentary, she unravels the mysteries of a father and brother who lost their lives to the oceans that called them

Film review: Apocalypse in the Tropics’ dissection of Brazilian politics is a chilling warning for the rest of democratic world

At VIFF Centre, Petra Costa’s compelling new documentary ties the rise of right-wing politician Jair Bolsonaro into the boom in Christian fundamentalism

The Cinematheque presents Tsui Hark: Everything Is Unreal, July 10 to August 3

Titles in store span Green Snake on opening night and a special co-presentation of Once Upon a Time in China II with the Chinese Canadian Museum

At The Cinematheque, MENA Film Festival presents a timely look at Iran through women's eyes, July 5

Five short films take on deeper meaning against a backdrop of armed conflict and women’s rights struggles

Deckchair Cinema kicks off “Summer of Sci-Fi” with an electrifying farewell from Ziggy Stardust, July 3

With highlights such as “Space Oddity” and “Moonage Daydream”, the 1970s documentary about one of David Bowie’s greatest shows lights up The Polygon Gallery’s series of starlight screenings

Angela's Shadow screenings and marketplace mark National Indigenous History Month at VIFF Centre, June 20 to 26

Jules Arita Koostachin’s feature, set in the 1930s, centres a young pregnant woman who discovers she is of Cree ancestry

Allan Moyle's counterculture classic The Rubber Gun gets the 2k restoration it has so long deserved

Put away your degraded VHS dub and celebrate: the 1977 story of dying, drug-addled Montreal counterculture soon screens at the Cinematheque

Fairy Creek documentary goes behind the barricades, June 6 to 16 at VIFF Centre

Film gives a front-row view of complex fight to protect old-growth forests, in largest act of disobedience in Canadian history

Film reviews: From claustrophobic horror to kayaking calamity, VSFF delivers big impact with small format

At the 15th annual event, here are six titles festival director Duncan Carr calls “a full experience in the briefest amount of time”

Stir Q&A: Me + Her writer-star Michelle Addison talks motherhood and letting go

In new film at Vancouver Short Film Festival, the well-known influencer and stylist digs movingly into what it means to raise a teen girl these days

Nechako: It Will Be a Big River Again brings struggle over B.C.’s Kenney Dam to VIFF Centre, June 6 to 21

Lyana Patrick’s NFB documentary, recounting the Stellat’en and Saik’uz Nations’ ongoing fight for justice, returns for local screenings

The Cinematheque spotlights Robert Bresson in Secret Laws of the Cinematograph, to July 2

Series includes all 13 of the French director’s films, including A Man Escaped, Pickpocket, Au hasard Balthazar, and more

The True Story of Tamara De Lempicka & The Art of Survival digs beneath Art Deco painter’s glossy surfaces

Julie Rubio’s extensive new documentary, making its local debut at the VIFF Centre, reveals a trailblazing woman who was an outsider on several counts

Vancouver Short Film Festival unveils lineup for 15th annual edition, June 13 to 15

HATCH, Clementine, One Day This Kid, and Beyond the Salish are among the 47 Canadian shorts screening this year

Cinematheque celebrates the spare, transcendent vision of Robert Bresson

In the retrospective Secret Laws of the Cinematograph, the enigmatic French director’s hugely influential career comes into intense focus

DOXA Documentary Film Festival names 2025 award winners

Saints and Warriors, #skoden, and Sudan, Remember Us are among the titles that secured wins

Queering Cinema series brings five form-pushing features to the VIFF Centre, May 15 to June 12

Moonlight, Tehran: City of Love, and more explore themes of loneliness, belonging, and desire in program curated by Fay Nass

Love and monsters stalk the backwoods of Kourtney Roy's macabre Kryptic

Ahead of a special live-scored screening, the renowned photographer and director reflects on “liminal spaces” and gore-filled supernatural encounters

Film reviews: At DOXA, haunting exposés, off-grid hermits, and meaningful cooking

Mr. Nobody Against Putin takes an urgent look at Russian indoctrination; Spare My Bones, Coyote! finds horrors at the U.S. border; Eight Postcards From Utopia runs weird commercials from free-market Romania; and more

Stir Q&A: At DOXA, Baljit Sangra throws a spotlight on an undersung Canadian jazz songstress

In Have You Heard Judi Singh?, Vancouver director interweaves archival footage, re-created moments, and mesmerizing music in tribute to late Punjabi-Black artist

At DOXA, Paul explores the loneliness and anxiety of a “cleaning simp”

Montreal filmmaker Denis Côté started out making a portrait of a shy BDSM worker and ended up capturing a generation’s encounter with the endless recursions of social media

Nechako: It Will Be a Big River Again follows the flow of a multigenerational legal battle at DOXA

In NFB documentary, Lyana Patrick chronicles the environmental harm caused by the Kenney Dam

At DOXA's Justice Forum, The Pickers follows migrant workers on European farms, May 2

A panel discussion with workers and community advocates takes place after the VIFF Centre screening

Tea Creek and Firma Aquí take top awards at Sundar Prize Film Festival

Mareya Shot Keetha Goal: Make the Shot won a spot as best B.C. feature, plus much more as Surrey-based event hands out cash and development support

Film review: Carl Bessai travels through time and midlife crisis in Field Sketches

Moving from architectural marvel to frozen cabin, the film mixes bitter humour with a poetic fugue fuelled by familial trauma

Are We Done Now? is a bittersweet exploration of the way lockdown changed us all

Vancouver director Ben Immanuel drew from his acting students’ real experiences to craft a funny and poignant collaborative film that was years in the making