VIFF Indie Spirits and Creator Talks feature thought-provoking spring lineup of documentary , feature, and TV innovators
The makers of Stray and Some Kind of Heaven offer insights, while creative forces behind The Wilds share stories
Lance Oppenheim and Elizabeth Lo appear in an Indie Spirits Talk on March 30, via VIFF Connect.
Breakout indie documentary directors and the mavericks behind the TV series The Wilds are some of the guests in VIFF’s roster of online talks this spring. All are available to book now at VIFF Connect.
First up, on March 30 at 6 pm as part of VIFF’s year-round Indie Spirits Talks series, Debut Docs features directors Elizabeth Lo and Lance Oppenheim in discussion with Vancouver filmmaker Kevin Eastwood. You can register and find more info here.
Oppenheim’s Some Kind of Heaven is a dizzying odyssey into the sprawling surreal wonderland that is The Villages, America’s largest retirement community. Winner of Best Documentary Feature at the Philadelphia Film Festival, Heaven strikingly captures Central Florida’s ambiance and offers a nuanced look at the never-ending quest to find meaning and love in life’s final act.
Meanwhile, Lo’s Stray heads to Istanbul, Turkey, for an enlightening dogs’-eye view of that city’s streets, allowing us to run with the canines who roam them. A critical observation of human nature through the unfamiliar gaze of dogs, the film is also a sensory voyage that invites us to embrace new ways of seeing things. Elizabeth’s feature debut won the Best International Documentary Award at Hot Docs 2020.
Sarah Streicher
Amy Harris
The next night, March 31 at 6 pm, as part of VIFF’s Creator Talks, two of the predominantly female creative forces behind genre-crossing TV series The Wilds are on hand: Sarah Streicher, creator/executive producer, and Amy Harris, showrunner/executive producer. You can register your spot and find more info here.
They’ll speak about the show’s cross-genre storytelling and its adrenaline-laced cocktail of drama, mystery and tension. The show has broken new ground as a mashup of survival drama and coming-of-age story, following a group of teenage girls from radically diverse backgrounds after an airplane crash leaves them stranded on a deserted island.
And finally, mark your calendar for another Indie Spirits Talk on April 12 at 6 pm, when Emma Seligan, writer-director of Shiva Baby is featured. Her darkly comic, utterly chaotic coming-of-age story is about Danielle, who’s grappling with issues around sex, family, Jewish tradition, and independence. An audience favourite at several major festivals, the film has particularly struck a chord with young queer women.
Seligan will talk with VIFF associate director of programming Curtis Woloschuk about her process of orchestrating claustrophobic comedy while creating space for representation on screen. Register and find info here.
Post sponsored by VIFF.