At the Vancouver International Film Festival, Portraits series highlights cultural icons and ground-breaking artists
Screenings taking place from September 26 to October 6 include Luther: Never Too Much, Disco’s Revenge, So Surreal: Behind the Masks, and nine others
SPONSORED POST BY VIFF
Disco’s Revenge.
At this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival, taking place from September 26 to October 6, the Portraits series is offering audiences a kaleidoscope of ground-breaking artists, great performances, and cultural icons.
Music takes centre stage in Portraits, with profiles of pioneering artists like Luther Vandross and Iranian singer Googoosh, and a liberating take on the rise of disco. Time and again, viewers are reminded that remarkable art is often entangled with complicated histories. This is particularly evident in So Surreal: Behind the Masks, which investigates the complex connections between the European surrealists and Indigenous ceremonial masks from Turtle Island. Yet more titles explore art’s relationship with the natural world, touching upon how the spontaneity of the city can inspire indelible photography.
Modernism, Inc.
Among the first titles screening in the special series is Modernism, Inc., director Jason Cohn’s insightful look into the heart and soul of modernism in postwar America through the artistic legacy of Eliot Noyes—a trailblazing industrial designer, architect, and lifelong innovator who spent four decades introducing modern design to American life. Catch it at The Cinematheque on September 26 and Fifth Avenue Cinemas on September 28.
The dazzling career of legendary American R&B singer-songwriter Luther Vandross gets revelatory reappraisal in Dawn Porter’s moving biographical documentary Luther: Never Too Much; and director Nada Riyadh’s Draw Me Egypt: Doaa El-Adl, a Stroke of Freedom is an eye-opening exposé of the inherent dangers and challenges—daily critique, censorship, intimidation, and death threats—faced by a prominent female Egyptian cartoonist (screenings of the latter on September 26 and 30 will be preceded by two short films).
Draw Me Egypt: Doaa El-Adl, a Stroke of Freedom.
Elsewhere, directors Peter Mishara and Omar Majeed’s vivacious documentary Disco’s Revenge chronicles the trajectory of disco’s origins, repudiation, and rebirth through beautifully assembled interviews, needle drops, and a treasure-trove of archival footage.
Eight more titles will screen as part of the Portraits series, including A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things, Uncropped, Viva Niki—The Spirit of Niki de Saint Phalle, Pol Pot Dancing, John Singer Sargent: Fashion & Swagger, Googoosh—Made of Fire, and A Stranger Quest.
For tickets to the Portraits series and more details, visit the VIFF website.
Post sponsored by VIFF.