Articles — Stir

Film reviews: Two B.C.-shot standouts, Ken Loach's latest, and more from VIFF

Wild Goat Surf carves out a new kind of coming-of-age tale; Seagrass summons ghosts of history; plus The Old Oak, Rapture, and much more

SCREEN, FESTSJanet SmithSeptember 29, 2023VIFF, VIFF 2023, Vancouver International Film Festival, Homepage feature

Stir Q&A: VIFF short Master of the House calls Michelin-star restaurant Kissa Tanto its backdrop

Director Dylan Maranda talks chaotic cinematography, family history, and meeting chef Joël Watanabe for his food-critic-centred narrative

CULINARY, SCREEN, FESTSStir VancouverSeptember 29, 2023VIFF, VIFF 2023

At VIFF, Logan Red Crow shows ups and downs of bareback horse relay racing in Aitamaako'tamisskapi Natosi: Before the Sun

Documentary shows young Siksika woman’s journey competing in the dangerous male-dominated sport with the love and support of her family

SCREEN, FESTSJanet SmithSeptember 29, 2023VIFF, VIFF 2023

Three artfully scary VIFF films that explore the nightmare of adolescence

My Animal blends poetic horror and hockey; Bitten is a dark and gorgeously shot fairy tale; Octopus Skin finds fear in an eccentric family

SCREEN, FESTSJanet SmithSeptember 28, 2023Vancouver International Film Festival, Horror

Stir Q&A: PIANOFORTE captures all the agony and ecstasy backstage at the renowned Chopin Piano Competition

Filmmaker Jakub Piątek’s compelling new documentary follows a handful of charismatic young keyboard stars through the world’s most prestigious classical-music contest

MUSIC, SCREENJanet SmithSeptember 27, 2023VIFF, Vancouver International Film Festival

At VIFF, I'm Just Here for the Riot takes a nuanced look at the fallout of the Stanley Cup mayhem of 2011

Kat Jayme and Asia Youngman’s new documentary humanizes figures who met with social-media-fed vigilantism and snitching

SCREENAdrian MackSeptember 27, 2023VIFF, Vancouver International Film Festival, VIFF 2023, Homepage feature

Film review: Mutiny in Heaven: Nick Cave & The Birthday Party takes a stage dive back into legendary band's chaotic rise and fall

Through a wild mix of rare concert footage, animation, and interviews, new documentary revisits Aussie group that “annihilated” its audiences

SCREENJanet SmithSeptember 14, 2023VIFF, Vancouver International Film Festival, Nick Cave

Film review: What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? casts a spell in The Cinematheque's ode to Georgian films

Beautiful characters and old-world enchantment make it a great introduction to a country’s cinema that has only recently been rediscovered by Western viewers

SCREENJanet SmithSeptember 14, 2023The Cinematheque

Vancouver International Film Festival announces full program for September 28 to October 8

Opening with Aki Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves and closing with Tran Anh Hùng’s The Pot-au-Feu, it’s a year of complexity and striking imagery

SCREEN, FESTSJanet SmithSeptember 6, 2023VIFF, VIFF 2023

At VLAFF, Edgardo Moreno's The Firefly Project grapples with living between the Chile of memory and present-day Canada

Multimedia storytelling meets live performance and film screening

MUSIC, FESTS, SCREENJanet SmithSeptember 5, 2023VLAFF, Vancouver Latin American Film Festival, Chile

Film reviews: Cumbia to camgirls, a look at 3 Vancouver Latin American Film Festival offerings

Peru’s La Danza de los Mirlos, Mexico’s Love and Mathematics, and Brazil’s Rule 34

SCREEN, FESTSJanet SmithAugust 31, 2023Vancouver Latin American Film Festival, VLAFF, Homepage feature

Film review: Scrapper's buzzy father-daughter story rides on gritty performances behind candy-coloured surface

Fresh-feeling debut from Britain’s Charlotte Rega is as moving as it is deadpan-hilarious

SCREENJanet SmithAugust 31, 2023VIFF, Vancouver International Film Festival

The Image Before Us wraps up with Strathyre and My American Cousin, August 30 at The Cinematheque

The history of B.C. film series celebrates finale with Sandy Wilson’s beloved summertime nostalgia trip

SCREEN, WHAT'S STIRRINGJanet SmithAugust 28, 2023The CInematheque

Film review: Iron Butterflies takes a deeply unsettling look at Russia's downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17

Ukrainian filmmaker Roman Liyubyi’s experimentally poetic collage of evidence is by turns absurd, frightening, and enlightening

SCREENJanet SmithAugust 25, 2023Ukraine

Vancouver filmmaker Antoine Bourges's Concrete Valley explores displacement and unease

New feature follows an immigrant Syrian family, with an entire cast of non-actors and an eye for “the weird pace and unexpectedness of real life”

Vancouver Latin American Film Festival to spotlight Cuba's Pavel Giroud, Argentina’s Santiago Mitre, and more, September 7 to 17

Event kicks off with Brazil’s provocative Rule 34 and closes with Pinochet-era-set Chile ‘76

FESTS, SCREEN, CULTUREJanet SmithAugust 17, 2023VLAFF, Vancouver Latin American Film Festival, Latinx

Out of the Past conjures dark film noir magic at The Cinematheque August 18 and 24

Robert Mitchum’s jaded P.I., Jane Greer’s enigmatic femme fatale, and a swirl of cigarette smoke

WHAT'S STIRRING, SCREENJanet SmithAugust 16, 2023The Cinematheque

1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture uncovers damage of a single word, at the Vancouver Playhouse August 16

Documentary traces introduction of the term “homosexual” to Bible in mid-20th century, spurring decades of prejudice, at Vancouver Queer Film Festival

SCREENJanet SmithAugust 14, 2023Vancouver Civic Theatres, Vancouver Queer Film Festival, LGBTQ+