Vancouver International Film Festival gives small preview of Special Presentations, with Cannes and Berlin award-winners on the roster
At fest September 26 to October 6, Jeremy Dutcher, Eiko Ishibashi, and more are also on deck for screening-and-performance VIFF Live series, curated by Jarrett Martineau
All We Imagine as Light.
Caught by the Tides.
THE VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL Film Festival has just released a sneak preview of five buzz-worthy Special Presentatons at its event September 26 to October 6—including a Mumbai story that took this year’s Grand Prix at Cannes, and a Benin-set documentary that took the Golden Bear at Berlinale 2024.
At the same time, organizers of the 43rd-annual event have announced curator Jarrett Martineau’s lineup for this year’s VIFF Live series of performance-screening fusions.
Amid the Special Presentations screening at this year’s VIFF, Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light, a coproduction of France, India, Netherlands, and Luxembourg, is a dreamlike story of three nurses and their relatonships; the Guardian praised its “enriching humanity and gentleness”, “fervent, languorous eroticism”, and “epiphanic” finale when the film scored the Grand Prix at Cannes this year.
Also joining the just-announced quintet, Mati Diop’s Golden Bear-earning Dahomey (France, Senegal, and Benin) is a documentary that follows the return of African treasures, looted by French troops in the 1890s, to Benin—exploring colonialism and the tensions between past and present along the way.
Chinese director Jia Zhangke’s poetic Caught by the Tides also makes the roster, with its love story of small-town Qiaoqiao and Bin, and the way their relationship ebbs and flows over time.
The bittersweet Iranian tale My Favourite Cake is another title just released at the fest, with directors Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha behind the story that follows a lonely Tehran widow who opens herself up to love again. Variety called it a “rich, frequently hilarious tragicomedy”, praising its exploration of the obstacles Iranian women face to breaking out of prescribed roles.
And Gints Zilbalodis’s animated Flow (coproduced in Latvia, France, and Belgium) follows a lovable black cat who snatches a fish away from a pack of dogs—leading to the animals adapting to a watery new world.
Jarrett Martineau, curator of VIFF Live’s programming.
Jeremy Dutcher. Photo by Kirk Lisaj
VIFF Live program, curated by Indigenous scholar, music artist, and media maker Martineau, is a series of performances blending cinema with live music or storytelling. This year’s program will feature a two-part performance by the Abenaki filmmaker-musician Alanis Obomsawin and superstar Wolastoqiyik tenor Jeremy Dutcher, who recently sang at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival; Dutcher appears with his trio and Obomsawin performs a rare live performance of her only full-length album, Bush Lady. It takes place October 4 at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, in collaboration with its Chan EXP series, in partnership with the Vancouver Art Gallery.
In a second show on September 28, JUNO Award-winning Inuk artist Elisapie leads a performance that incorporates film shot by Émilie Monnet, at the Chan Shun Concert Hall, in partnership with the Chan Centre.
Over at the Rio Theatre as part of VIFF Live, Japanese singer-songwriter Eiko Ishibashi appears in GIFT on October 1, accompanying a new silent film by Ryusuke Hamaguchi (the force behind the Oscar-winning 2021 film Drive My Car). The next night, in Arcadia Archive, avant-garde composer William Basinski plays artfully with analog technology and 40-plus-year-old tape loops, with longtime collaborator and filmmaker James Elaine.
Today marks the launch of the VIFF+ Members’ Early Bird Day, offering advance access to tickets, with general festival passes, ticket packs, and VIFF Live tickets on sale here to the wider public tomorrow, August 9 from 12 pm. 
Flow.
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