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As part of the European Union Film Festival (EUFF), The Cinematheque presents director and screenwriter Jörgen Scholtens’ Fathers & Sons, a darkly compelling and emotional tale about the lasting impacts of parenting – and finding family in the most unexpected way. “[Fathers & Sons] is about how parenting shapes you as a person,” says Scholtens. “The…
Documentary film festival DOXA returns for its 23rd annual iteration, bringing with it a breadth of films which aim to reflect perspectives from across Canada and around the world. This year’s program includes dozens of films covering themes such as identity, humanity and community, like Mustafa Uzuner’s La Cancha, showcasing a community of basketball players in…
Robert Albanese is excited to share the best that cinema has to offer without being constrained by some of the more restricting expectations of running a film festival. Above all else, the executive artistic director of the Vancouver Jewish Film Centre wants to showcase the best stories from Jewish culture and community that he and…
It’s not often that children’s stories depict the realities of being a refugee and healing from trauma. Saleem, an animated feature film from Jordan directed by Cynthia Madanat Sharaiha, tackles this difficult yet important story. The film will make its Canadian debut at the 26th annual Reel 2 Real International Film Festival For Youth this April.…
For Régis Painchaud and Lorraine Fortin, being smaller players in a big budget industry is a challenge – but one that is well worth the effort. They’re the co-founders of Visions Ouest Productions, a B.C.-based organization that has hosted numerous cultural and educational events highlighting French film in the province, including their annual Rendez-Vous French…
In celebration of Black History Month, the National Film Board is shining a spotlight on three crucial artists that brought Black stories and perspectives to the big screen in the 1970s and 1980s. Claire Prieto, Roger McTair, and Jennifer Hodge de Silva all made their mark on Canadian cinema as leading directorial figures, putting a…
As the MENA Film Festival approaches its fifth year of production, many of its films focus on the theme of time, shedding light on diasporic bodies as they navigate the passage of time through uniquely experimental cinematic perspectives. The film festival highlights a wide breadth of experimental and traditional styles in filmmaking by Middle East…
Inspired by the connection between Sámi people, an Indigenous and often-marginalized people of Scandinavia, and their land, known as ‘Sápmi’ or sometimes ‘Lapland,’ Petteri Saario produced Rap and Reindeer, a documentary that follows the life of an 18-year-old Sámi rapper Mihkku Laiti. The film aims to take the audience on a journey with Laiti as…
The Vancouver Turkish Film Festival (VTFF) returns for its 10th anniversary, and will be showing 10 award-winning films from Nov. 24 to 26 at the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts. Co-presented by the Turkish Canadian Society and SFU Woodward’s Cultural Programs, the festival looks to allow Vancouver cinephiles to connect with contemporary Turkish cinema and…
What kind of stories are people drawn to? Are they ones about hope, change, spiritual connections? Or are they the kind that make people laugh out loud or hold their head in between their hands asthey cringe? Taran Kootenhayoo’s White Noise is all of these things. “All of the stories that I tell are those on the…
Violation is a suspenseful revenge film that never strays too far from its emotional core and centers around how difficult it can be to talk with those who you are supposed to be the most intimate, be it siblings or life partners. Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli’s debut feature film has been available to watch…
Showcasing 23 films from 15 countries, the second edition of Vancouver’s Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Film Festival launched Nov. 20 virtually and runs till Nov. 27. Arman Kazemi, of Persian heritage, founded the festival last year with a group of like-minded people after seeing a lack of centralized representation of Persian or Middle…
The DOXA Documentary Film Festival offers over 40 films you can view from the comfort of your living room until June 26. One of them is Dope is Death, a story decades old yet strikingly prescient, directed by Montreal-based filmmaker Mia Donovan. The film examines racial politics and activism in 1970s New York City through the…
