A roster of acclaimed Canadian, international, and local documentaries are heading to the 2022 Windsor International Film Festival (WIFF). The festival announced the line-up for this year’s programming, including a number of high profile award winners from the circuit. Acclaimed docs heading to WIFF include To Kill a Tiger, directed by Nisha Pahuja, which won the Amplify Voices Award for Best Canadian Feature at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. The doc offers an intimate window into a young survivor and her young family’s perseverance while holding men accountable for sexual assault. The film is one of two documentaries competing for the WIFF Prize in Canadian Film, along with Canada’s Oscar bid for Best International Feature, Eternal Spring. Rounding out the competition are dramas Brother, Falcon Lake, I Like Movies, Norburg, North of Normal, Riceboy Sleeps, Something You Said Last Night, and The Swearing Jar. The competition carries a $25,000 purse.
Other Canadian docs at the festival include Barri Cohen’s Hot Docs award winner Unloved: Huronia’s Forgotten Children. The film is a touching and personal account of children lost the inhumanity of an Ontario hospital for children with disabilities. Laura Rietveld’s Family of the Forest, meanwhile, offers a portrait of a Belgian couple that discovered a life of self-sufficiency in Quebec. On the local front, WIFF docs include Reset by Min Bae, which examines a ferry accident in South Korea that claimed over 300 lives. Nicholas Shields’ Walkerville’s Willistead Manor, meanwhile, offers a portrait of a local landmark that’s withstood 100 years of tradition and development plans. Other Canadian docs include festival favourites like Okay! The ASD Band Film, Geographies of Solitude, Framing Agnes, Ice-Breaker, Handle with Care, and Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On.
International doc highlights at WIFF include Museum of the Revolution, in which director Srdan Keca poetically observes stillborn dreams in Belgrade by chronicling the lives of a homeless mother and child who reside in the abandoned site of a museum. WIFF also features Sundance directing award winner A House Made of Splinters. The film by Simon Lereng Wilmont examines the plight of children “orphaned” by survivors of the war in Ukraine who can no longer care for their families due to PTSD. Sundance’s Audience Award winner for World Cinema, The Territory, also comes to WIFF with its thrilling portrait of the Uru-eu-wau-wau tribe’s fight to save the Brazilian Amazon.
The festival features several American docs including Accepted, directed by Dan Chen. The film takes audiences inside a prep school for underprivileged high school graduates. The Pez Outlaw, meanwhile, offers a rollicking tale of crime and candy, while The Return of Tanya Tucker: Featuring Brandi Carlile gives a country icon her due. Jeannette brings a portrait of a Pulse nightclub survivor to the festival and joins Mama Bears, about mothers who advocate for their LGBTQ+ children, among a slate of queer films at the festival. Additional international festival favourites at WIFF include Fire of Love and Good Night Oppy.
This year’s Windsor International Film Festival opens with Sam Mendes’ drama Empire of Light. The film starring Olivia Colman, Michael Ward, and Colin Firth draws loosely from the director’s life and the seaside movie theatre where his mother worked. WIFF runs from October 27 to November 6.
