The Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) returns this week with a bigger swing than ever. VIFF may be gunning for the title of Canada’s most aggressive festival as the event arrives with many world and North American premieres—including some top-tier award winners from the circuit. The line-up has reason to demand attention: there’s a healthy roster of documentaries and Canadian films worth a look, especially among the slate of competition titles for local and international films. To help audiences navigate films to see at this year’s festival, here are 10 documentary picks for this year’s festival including world premieres, personal favourites, and hidden gems waiting to take cinephiles to different corners of the world when VIFF runs October 2 to 12.
The Painted Life of E.J. Hughes
One of several Canadian documentaries having its world premiere at VIFF, The Painted Life of E.J. Hughes offers a portrait of the renowned Canadian painter. Director Jenn Strom chronicles the life and work of an artist who committed himself to captivating the world with the landscapes of beautiful British Columbia. The documentary connects Hughes’ personal story and shares the isolated nature of his practice, inviting audiences to explore facets of an artist who typified the starving artist until breakthroughs landed him wide acclaim and space in Canada’s top museums. The film uses audio interviews with Hughes and perspectives from other experts in the field to illuminate why the painter merits his place in Canada’s cultural legacy.
The Art of Adventure
Another artist portrait having its world premiere at VIFF is The Art of Adventure, Alison Reid’s tenderly offbeat look at artist Robert Bateman and biologist/filmmaker Bristol Foster. While Hughes has his work housed in the National Gallery of Canada, Bateman has yet to receive such a distinction even though his very popular art displays an equally significant attention to landscapes and natural environments. The Art of Adventure explores the genesis and evolution of this art by revisiting Bateman and Foster’s global tour as they visited Africa and Asia in their Land Rover the Grizzly Torque while the former painted the splendid sights of the world and the latter captured them on film. The documentary observes as the friends seek to reclaim the Grizzly Torque decades later with new perspectives about their responsibilities as artists.
The Track
Audiences looking for an upbeat and visually dynamic sports movie should head on over to The Track. This engaging documentary observes members of the Bosnian luge team as they train for the Olympics. Their stomping ground is the somewhat decaying luge track from the 1984 Games in Sarajevo. The track, marked by cracks and graffiti, serves a striking symbol for the history that scars the region, but also the hope for a new generation as they seek to repair the landmark and, in turn, make their community proud. “In capturing the obstacles, both personal and sports related, the young men and their coach face over the course of numerous summers, Sidhoo constructs a fascinating meditation on the lingering impact of war. The reverberations of the past echo loudly to this day for a community still trying to figure out how to properly heal,” Courtney Small wrote in his review at Hot Docs. “Managing to be equally engaging and touching, The Track is a true crowd-pleaser in every sense of the word.”
In the Room
VIFF-goers looking for a compelling human rights saga will find one in Brishkay Ahmed’s inspiring documentary In the Room. The film offers a multifaceted perspective of five Afghan women fighting for the rights of women and girls back home. The participants, comprising of Afghan women in Canada from diverse walks of life, share with Ahmed how their work as filmmakers, journalists, models, and students motivates them to use their freedom to advocate for others—m—with the latter pursuit underscoring the urgency of the conversation when many young women in Afghanistan still lack access to education. This NFB doc, which has its world premiere at VIFF, builds upon the resilience of five women to offer a portrait of hope for many.
Cover-Up
Speaking of fearless women, festival circuit favourite Laura Poitras returns in top form with Cover-up, a portrait of the cantankerous and iconoclastic investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. Working with co-director Mark Obenhaus, Poitras gets remarkable insights from Hersh as he revisits his headline-making stories that shaped history, from the news of the My Lai massacre to evidence of torture at Abu Ghraib prison. But Hersh’s prickliness as an interviewee tells its own story as Poitras asks about sources and gaining access to information. Hersh butts heads with the filmmakers and acts suspicious of colleagues who’ve been equally courageous in their efforts to bring important stories to light, making for a timely portrait of the need for dogged reporters to preserve the integrity of journalism today. Read our review from TIFF here.
Treasure of the Rice Terraces
After his 2020 short documentary Kalinga (Care) drew impressive notices given the blind eye the media usually turns on shorts, Kent Donguines makes his feature directorial debut with this documentary premiering at VIFF. Treasure of the Rice Terraces continues the empathetic eye for Filipina elders as Donguines follows his portrait of caregivers in Vancouver with this look at an 108-year-old Indigenous tattoo artist in Buscalan Village. Donguines’ years-in-the-making film brings him to the Philippines where his observation of the artist’s traditional ways considers the parts of our heritage that risk being lost in an increasingly globalised world that often embraces change and doing away with practices handed down over generations.
Hemela
For a golden age double bill, consider adding fellow VIFF world premiere Hemela to the schedule. This documentary marks the feature directorial debut of Pirouz Nemati, who recently won a Canadian Screen Award for co-writing Universal Language and scored a leading performance nomination for his turn as the offbeat tour guide leading sightseers through Winnipeg’s beige maze of nondescript landmarks. Hemela offers a slice of life portrait of its titular star, who left Iran when she was a young woman and landed in Montreal. Now getting on in years, Hemela keeps Iranian traditions and cultures alive in her kitchen where people from all corners of the community are invited to share a meal, a laugh, or memories of life back home. Bonus point: the film includes a cameo by Denis Villeneuve, proving the Dune director hasn’t forgotten his own home despite the allure of Hollywood.
Everest Dark
Most festivals include a hearty mountain movie, and VIFF delivers one this year with Everest Dark. Director Jeremy Watt takes audiences to the world’s tallest beast of a mountain with Mingma Tsiri Sherpa as our guide. Like POV favourite Mountain Queen, Everest Dark follows a veteran climber making a milestone ascent up the mountain. The circumstances in this case, however, are markedly different: Mingma Tsiri, a veteran mountaineer, returns to Everest with a mission to recover the bodies of fallen climbers. His quest seeks to honour the spiritual power of the mountain and restore the balance that’s been shifted as it’s become a deadly site for worldwide adventurers who can afford the financial cost of Everest, but sometimes lack the experience—or luck—to survive the journey.
With Hasan in Gaza
Stories from Palestine continue to move audiences at festivals as they bring evidence of the deadly and violent conflict amid Israel’s ongoing attacks, but the experience of life under occupation receives a compelling snapshot in With Hasan in Gaza. This film shot over years uses the power of durational cinema to great effect. The observational feat by Kamal Aljiafari gives a moving portrait of life in Gaza that’s at once both the most simple and complex film yet about the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Quotidian vignettes capture the escalating violence as Aljiafari visits Gaza in search of a friend he met in prison. Views of a beautiful city yield to a scarred cityscape in which death and violence become gradually normalized, like the dropping of the temperature as days go from summer to fall to winter. Read the POV review of the film here.
The Great North
Themes of art, place, time, and belonging collide as British filmmaker and artist Jenn Nkiru considers Manchester, England as a site of diasporic memory. Audiences who caught docs like Assembly and BLKNWS: Terms and Conditions (also screening at the festival) might find an equally enlightening cinematic experiment in The Great North, which has its Canadian premiere at VIFF. Using her signature “cosmic archaeology,” Nkiru unites diverse movements, art forms, and modes of expression in a transnational collision of cultures and generations. The film mixes elements of sociology and musicology with a funky beat, offering a celebration of Blackness and an invitation to remember through artistic expression.
