A line-up of docs from Canada and around the world touch down in Vancouver this week as the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) welcomes its 2024 edition. The festival kicks off on Thursday with the opening night screening of Ari’s Theme, a deeply moving portrait of Vancouver musician Ari Kinarthy who defied the odds after receiving a diagnosis for the rare motor neuron disease type-2 spinal muscular atrophy and wowed music buffs with his unique compositions.
“I want to inspire and impact people in a large meaningful way. Hopefully this film can do that,” Kinarthy told POV’s Rachel Ho in an interview. “There’s a lot of things that I wanted from this film. Family was a big important part, and I hope that reminds people how important family is. Whenever my time is that I leave this earth, I’ll have more peace knowing that I left something meaningful behind.”
VIFF also includes some favourites from the festival circuit, including The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal, which offers the definitive portrait of “Canada’s band.” (The doc’s on Prime Video, but worth seeing on a big screen if you can.) The fest also includes the offbeat housing tale Secret Mall Apartment and the very Gen X story of cohabitation in Living Together, diving doc 7 Beats per Minute, the walk on the wild side of Realm of Satan, hippo history with Pepe, and music doc highlight Luther: Never Too Much, among other docs we can’t wait to see. But to give readers a handy guide, here are 10 doc picks–in random order–for VIFF.
The Stand
Programme: Northern Lights (World premiere)
Haida filmmaker Christopher Auchter makes his feature directorial debut after helming acclaimed shorts like Now Is the Time and The Mountain of SGaana. This NFB doc offers an archival portrait of a fateful fall day in 1985 when the Haida people erected a blockade on Lyell Island. Their act of protest sought to end a century of colonial rule that had stripped the land of its resources and nearly decimated Haida communities along with their language and culture. This story of land defenders revisits the stand-offs between figures like television pundit Jack Webster and Haida leader Miles Richardson as Auchter observes how a people fought to survive after nearly being wiped out. The film finds contemporary parallels in which the stand continues to this day.
Ninan Auassat: We, the Children
Programme: Insights (World premiere)
After her film Call Me Human won Best Canadian Documentary at VIFF 2020, Kim O’Bomsawin returns to the festival with another deeply empathetic work. Her latest doc offers an intimate portrait of Indigenous youths. O’Bomsawin respects the kids’ agency and lets them speak for themselves. The voices of children and teenagers from the Atikamekw, Eeyou Cree, and Innu First Nations share their perspectives about growing up in their communities. There are stories of hardship, but also hope in this NFB doc that shows a new generation inspired to fight for a brighter future.
Soundtrack to a Coup d’État
Programme: Showcase (Canadian premiere)
An invigorating tapestry of history and jazz, Johan Grimonprez’s unique take on music doc convention tells a slice of history in a singular fashion. This densely layered archival epic looks at a moment during the Cold War in which musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach crashed the UN Security Council to protest the murder of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba. The film weaves between fragments of history with archival recordings, videos, and layers of text superimposed top the images. The many facets of the film combine to interrogate the ways in which the CIA used popular jazz musicians like Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie to overthrow a nation. “Grimonprez’s video art techniques guide him to employ archive footage, extensive text transcriptions, and oral histories like notes on a score, clusters of information that harmonize at some intervals and provide dissonance both intellectual and emotional at others,” wrote Jason Gorber while reviewing the film during Sundance. “This is a highly composed work, of course, and its deeper impact is how its flurries echo the varying musical inputs, as African American jazz legends respond in ways subtle and overt to what’s occurring an ocean away.”
Blink
Programme: Insights (Canadian premiere)
A family’s bittersweet tour around the world inspires this documentary from Edmund Stetson and Oscar winner Daniel Roher. Blink follows the adventures of Édith Lemay, Sébastien Pelletier, and their four children as they travel the globe. Three of the kids have been diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a rare genetic disorder that means they will soon lose their vision. Édith, refusing to feel helpless in the situation, picks up on a doctor’s advice to build her kids’ visual memory banks so that they can recall images in their minds after they go blind. The family therefore embarks on a bucket list vision quest to soak up all the visual wonders the world has to offer. They see elephants and giraffes on safari, catch a sunset in the desert, and drink juice while riding a camel. It’s a touching reminder to cherish the world before our eyes. (Check back soon for our interview with Stetson!)
A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things
Programme: Portraits (Canadian premiere)
Mark Cousins’ latest documentary won the top prize at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival earlier this year, and it’s a remarkable feat for the prolific director who shows no signs of slowing down. Cousins has a habit of alternating between docs about movies and docs about other subjects, and with A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things coming on the heels of Cinema Has Been My True Love: The Work and Times of Lynda Myles, fans of the film-on-film oeuvre for which the director is known may have to wait a bit longer for another movie-movie, but it should provide continuity with another arts story. This doc offers a portrait of the life and work British modernist painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham as viewed through the lens of a pivotal 1949 experience on a Swiss glacier that shaped her artistic outlook. Frequent Cousins collaborator Tilda Swinton voices Barns-Graham in this appreciation of a distinct artistic vision.
Pol Pot Dancing
Programme: Portraits (North American premiere)
Audiences looking for a supervillain origins story will find an unexpected tale of darkness in Pol Pot Dancing. Director Enrique Sánchez Lansch takes audiences into the backstory of Khmer Rouge leader and dictator Pol Pot. Long before he led the notorious massacre in Cambodia that took over two million lives, Pol Pot was Saloth Sar, a boy who was raised by his brother and was an ardent fan of the arts before his regime put artists in the crosshairs. This challenging film questions the origins of evil and asks how one person, who seemingly comes from a loving background, can grow into a monster that wipes out a quarter of his country’s population.
No Other Land
Programme: Showcase
Is it fair to call No Other Land the documentary sensation of the festival circuit this year? There may be no better film that captures the pulse of the political climate this year, but also the state of the industry. As Variety recently noted, the film’s an audience favourite that’s winning accolades at festivals around the world, but no distributor will touch it. That’s the state of affairs for political docs, and one of many reasons why No Other Land is a VIFF must see. This feat of citizen journalism sees Palestinian Basel Adra join forces with Israeli Yuval Abraham, along with Israeli Rachel Szor and Palestinian Hamdan Ballal to chronicle the history of forced house demolitions in the West Bank, and a shared call for peace. “The collective refuses to look away from the hardships that residents of Masafer Yatta endure.” They keep their cameras rolling with bracing immediacy as run-and-gun filmmaking becomes a fact of life in Basel’s own backyard,” I wrote while reviewing the film at TIFF. “This film, simply put, is not an easy watch. But it’s essential to follow the filmmakers’ lead and refuse to look away. Read more about the film in our interview with Adra and Abraham.
At Averroès and Rosa Parks
Programme: Insights (North American premiere)
Is VIFF quickly becoming the preferred festival of French filmmaker Nicolas Philibert? After his Golden Bear winning On the Adamant got its Canadian debut at VIFF last year, Philibert’s follow-up lands its North American premiere at Vancouver. The film continues the observation of mental health care in France. After capturing the unique space of the Adamant and its arts-forward approach to therapy, this doc takes audiences inside psychiatric units of the Esquirol Hospital in Paris. Philibert’s camera offers another empathetic lens towards mental health and the diverse forms of institutional care that provide for citizens as it chronicles day to day conversations, therapy practices, and exercises that allow patients to find wellness however best suits them.
Dahomey
Programme: Showcase
Speaking of Golden Bears, documentaries scored back to back at Berlin with Dahomey following the celebration of non-fiction set by On the Adamant. Mati Diop’s poetically provocative documentary follows the repatriation of art stolen from the Kingdom of Dahomey. Voiced by “26,” one of the 26 artifacts being returned to the Republic of Benin from France after being seized from their homeland during an invasion, the film considers the enduring impact of colonialism on culture and identity. Diop lets residents of Benin ask tougher questions of their own once the artifacts come home. “Dahomey takes back the colonial gaze through this disembodied narrator,” I wrote while reviewing the film at TIFF. “26 functions akin to an elevated audio guide on a museum tour as Diop first lets the camera linger on the art and then asks the bigger questions the their display and context represent.”
So Surreal: Behind the Masks
Programme: Portraits
Fresh off a premiere at TIFF where it proved a Canadian highlight of the festival, So Surreal: Behind the Masks actually makes a striking conversation piece with Mati Diop’s Dahomey for its artful consideration of the repatriation of stolen work. Director Neil Diamond plays host in this doc co-directed by Joanne Robertson that considers the hunt for and the repatriation of Indigenous masks. There’s a novel twist, though, as Diamond discovers that the Yup’ik masks that fuel his quest were actually adored and coveted by artists in the Surrealist movement. What follows is an offbeat odyssey through art history and cultural appropriation, but also a fascinating exploration of cultural exchange and the power dynamics entailed within the art market. Diamond pulls it all of nicely with his signature laid-back approach that invites people into the conversation for a collective lesson in art history. Read more about the film in Marc Glassman’s interview with Diamond and in Liam Lacey’s story in issue #122!
Want to see So Surreal at VIFF? POV is co-presenting the screenings on Sept. 29 (6:00pm) and Oct. 1 (12:45 pm).
Email us at info@povmagazine.com and let us know your preferred screening for your chance to win tickets!
