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| Janis Ian: Breaking Silence Varda Bar-Kar, USA, 2024 In the mid-60s, Janis Ian, a tiny teenage Jewish singer-songwriter from New Jersey, scores a controversial hit single called Society’s Child, about an interracial love relationship. The song launches her illustrious career but also ignites death threats, plunging her into an emotional tailspin—only to emerge from the ashes in the 1970s with an even bigger hit, At Seventeen. Janis overcomes embezzlement, record industry misogyny, and heartbreak to find love and produce an indelible body of searingly honest songs. Fri. Apr 18, 2:30 pm, LOC; Sat. Apr 19, 5:30 pm, LOC; Sun. Apr 20, 3:45 pm, LOC; Mon. Apr 21, 5:00 pm, LOC The Long Good Friday John MacKenzie, UK, 1980 It’s 1979 and Margaret Thatcher has just become Prime Minister. London’s answer to Little Caesar, Harold Shand (Bob Hoskins) is already thinking about the Docklands redevelopment and bringing the Olympics to the East End. All he needs is a little seed money from our American friends. Unfortunately for Harold, his bid to wine and dine the Mafia over Easter weekend coincides with a gang war he never saw coming. This is the great British gangster film, a juicy, brutally funny and prescient thriller with a star-making performance from Hoskins. “Hoskins’ bullish, black-comic Napoleonism makes this movie: pugnacious, sentimental, a cockney Cagney.” Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian Fri. Apr 18, 8:45pm, VC; Sun. Apr 20, 7:30pm, VC The Luckiest Man in America Samir Oliveros, USA, 2024 In 1984, an airconditioning repair man named Michael Larson went on the popular TV game show Press Your Luck and did just that. Never taking the cash, he wagered and won again, and again, and again, and again, sending the network execs into a meltdown. Admittedly, luck had little to do with it… Produced by Pablo Larrain, The Luckiest Man in America shares a couch with Scorsese’s King of Comedy and Jonathan Demme’s Melvin and Howard, baleful critiques of the American Dream mediated through the boob tube. “A delightfully sleazy ensemble thriller that goes down easy in 90 minutes — and yet another reminder that Hauser is one of his generation’s most interesting movie stars.” Christian Zilko, IndieWire Fri. Apr 18, 7:00 pm, LOC; Sat. Apr 19, 7:45 pm, LOC; Mon. Apr 21, 7:30 pm, LOC; Tue. Apr 22, 8:30 pm, LOC African Cinema Now: Our Lady of the Nile Atiq Rahimi, France/Belgium/Rawanda, 2019 Rwanda, 1973. Veronica and Virginia are inseparable friends at an elite Catholic boarding school, Our Lady of the Nile, but what binds them together is the very thing that separates them forever. Months before graduation, the students’ lives are rocked by the venomous atmosphere that clouds the country. What comes first, sisterhood or politics? Screening in our African Cinema Now series curated by the Akojo Collective. “Rahimi’s film is a heart-breaking look at the corruption of innocence: breathtaking cinematography and a sprightly jazz-infused score bring out how sweet that innocence was, so it’s all the more devastating to see it cruelly snatched away.” Orla Smith, Seventh Row Wed. Apr 23, 6:30 pm, LOC; Fri. Apr 25, 8:00 pm, LOC; Sun. Apr 27, 2:30 pm, LOC Secret Mall Apartment Jeremy Workman, USA, 2024 In 2003, Michael Townsend and several of his friends created one of the most original guerilla art projects of the 21st century: they built and furnished a hidden 750 sq. foot apartment inside the Providence Mall in Rhode Island, remaining undetected for four years. Secret Mall Apartment strikes a balancing act between the absurdity of its story and surprisingly profound questions about gentrification, the nature of social art, and what truly makes a home. Fri. Apr 18, 5:00 pm, LOC; Sat. Apr 19, 1:30 pm, LOC; Sun. Apr 20, 1:45 pm, LOC; Mon. Apr 21, 2:00 pm, VC; Wed. Apr 23, 8:50 pm, LOC; Sat. Apr 26, 2:30 pm, LOC; Sat. Apr 26, 9:00 pm, LOC; Sun. Apr 27, 6:45pm, LOC; Tue. Apr 29, 4:00 pm, LOC Shepherds Sophie Deraspe, Canada/France, 2024 Advertising man Mathyas (Félix-Antoine Duval) quits his job in Montreal with the romantic notion of becoming a shepherd in the French Alps. Of course the reality is less bucolic than he imagines: hunger, loneliness, wolves… And yet, and yet, , there is life on the Alps, and love too…. Based on a true story, Sophie Deraspe’s follow up to Antigone (2019) effectively plays spiritual uplift off against some 3000 sheep, one donkey, assorted hens, goats, and several valiant dogs. “Majesterial… as rejuvenating to watch as the effect of being in nature.” Stephen Saito, The Moveable Feast Fri. Apr 18, 6:20 pm, VC; Sat. Apr 19, 1:10 pm, VC; Mon. Apr 21, 4:00 pm, VC; Tue. Apr 22, 4:00 pm, VC; Fri. Apr 25, 5:00 pm, LOC; Mon. Apr 28, 7:00 pm, LOC The Hermit of Treig Lizzie MacKenzie, UK, 2022 In this rather special film, Lizzie MacKenzie trains her camera on octogenarian Ken Smith, who has lived more than four decades off-the-grid on the shores of Loch Treig, in the Scottish Highlands. This cheerful hermit is a personable storyteller and you can sense the warm bond that is forged between the filmmaker and her unusual subject. “Winner of the audience award at the Glasgow film festival, Lizzie MacKenzie’s tender documentary debut about the simplicities of life far from so-called civilisation proves especially poignant in our hyper-connected time.” Phuong Le, The Guardian Fri. Apr 18, 4:30 pm, VC; Sat. Apr 19, 3:45 pm, LOC; Sun. Apr 20, 12:00 pm, LOC; Mon. Apr 21, 3:00 pm, LOC; Tue. Apr 22, 4:30 pm, LOC; Sat. Apr 26, 4:40 pm, LOC; Mon. Apr 28, 4:40 pm, VC; Tue. Apr 29, 8:15 pm, LOC That They May Face the Rising Sun Pat Collins, Ireland, 2023 An Irish reverie, based on a 2002 novel by John McGahern but effortlessly evoking reams of Irish literature from James Joyce to JM Synge and Samuel Beckett, Pat Collins’ film is about nothing but the rain, the sun, the grass growing, the normal stuff of everyday lives… which is to say it’s also about life and death, fleeting happiness, friends and foes. Lyrical, lovely, and perfectly judged, this one will haunt you. Fri. Apr 18, 2:00 pm, VC; Sat. Apr 19, 3:30 pm, VC; Sun. Apr 20, 5:00 pm, VC; Mon. Apr 21, 8:45 pm, VC; Tue. Apr 22, 6:10 pm, LOC; Sat. Apr 26, 2:00 pm, VC; Sun. Apr 27, 4:40 pm, LOC; Mon. Apr 28, 4:20pm, LOC; Tue. Apr 29, 6:00 pm, LOC. VIFF Live: Zappostrophe + Frank Zappa’s 200 Motels Tony Palmer, Frank Zappa, USA, 1971 A prodigious and prolific talent, Zappa (1940-1993) composed, recorded and produced more than 60 albums; music that brought to rock the complexity and sophistication of classical composition, drawing on jazz, blues, pop and music concrete, but leavened with a surreal and satiric wit. Enjoy an electrifying set of Zappa tunes resurrected and reimagined by the eclectic 8-piece band Zappostrophe, followed by a rare screening of Zappa’s cult movie 200 Motels, with Keith Moon and Ringo Starr. “Zappostrophe…dares to take on Zappa’s weird and wonderful world – recreating his tunes with jaw-dropping musicianship, and a wink to his irreverent humour.” CHEK TV, 2024 Sat. Apr 19, 8:00 pm, VC Our Blue World: A Water Odyssey Ruán Magan, Ireland, 2024 Connecting ancient wisdom with practical 21st century solutions, Our Blue World is a spectacular and eye-opening film about our deepest and most precious resource. As anthropologist Wade Davis points out, every culture holds water sacred. Ecologist and philosopher Li An Phoa experienced an epiphany drinking water directly from the Rupert River in northern Quebec… She now campaigns to (re-)create drinkable rivers all over the world. The film takes us to the Mississippi, to Cambodia, Europe, Burundi, China and Peru. Join film lovers on Tuesday, April 22 (Earth Day) for a post-screening discussion with author and anthropologist Wade Davis, Paul O’Callaghan (BlueTech Research, producer, Our Blue World) and others. Sun. Apr 20, 3:00 pm, VC; Tue. Apr 22, 6:30 pm, VC Pantheon: The Ascent Larisa Shepitko, USSR, 1977 During the darkest winter of WWII, two Soviet partisans venture through the backwoods of Belarus in search of food. But the nearest village has already been looted, so they are forced to head further through snowy terrain, and eventually fall into enemy hands… Shot in black and white, this is not simply an action-adventure film, rather the harrowing environment is inscribed with philosophical and spiritual themes. Tragically this would be Larisa Shepiko’s final film, she died in a car accident at age 41 in 1979. Golden Bear, Berlin Film Festival: “Spiritually harrowing and visually stunning.” Glenn Kenny, rogerebert.com Sunday’s Pantheon screening will feature a 20-minute introduction and talkback. Sun. Apr 20, 11:00 am, VC; Mon. Apr 21, 6:30 pm, VC VIFF Live: Night Moves: Street Photography, Poetry and Music with Rodney DeCroo Rodney DeCroo is a singer-songwriter, playwright, poet and screenwriter. To mark the publication of his first collection of street photography, Night Moves (Anvil Press), this will be a multimedia event with slides, poetry, music, film and conversation. Night Moves is a gritty, touching and truthful portrayal of contemporary urban life, largely shot in and around Commercial Drive. 7:00 pm – Social mixer (atrium); 7:30 pm – Introduction and slide show: Images from Night Moves 7:45 pm – Conversation with Mike Usinger on the art and ethics of street photography, followed by Q&A and intermission 8:30 pm – Poetry, Music and Short Films with Rodney and his band, The Wise Blood Wed. Apr 23, 7:30pm, VIFF Centre 1181 Seymour St. Vancouver, BC Book tickets: viff.org Box Office 604-683-3456 General Inquiries info@viff.org 604-685-0260 |