Powerful stories from across British Columbia and beyond are featured in a selection of 10 new works at the 2019 Vancouver International Film Festival, September 26 to October 11.
As a new liquefied natural gas plant in Kitimat promises to bring increasing tanker traffic, VIFF is presenting the North American premiere of Mirjam Leuze's The Whale and the Raven (Busse & Halberschmidt/Cedar Island Films/NFB/ZDF/ARTE/TOPOS Film/Vizion), illuminating the issues that have drawn whale researchers, the Gitga'at First Nation and the BC government into conflict.
Making its Vancouver premiere in VIFF Immersed is East of the Rockies, an augmented reality story from acclaimed Vancouver author Joy Kogawa, produced by Jam3 and the NFB, which follows the experiences of a 17-year-old girl forced to live in BC's Slocan Japanese internment camp.
Three local short works make their BC debuts: Christopher Auchter's Now Is the Time revisits a day 50 years ago that signalled a cultural rebirth on Haida Gwaii, while Sandra Ignagni's Highway to Heaven: A Mosaic in One Mile is a poetic look at an utterly unique place of multifaith worship on Richmond's No. 5 Road. Vancouver director Ann Marie Fleming, whose 2016 Window Horses was named Best BC Film and Canadian Feature at VIFF, is back at the festival with her short Question Period, in which recently settled Syrian refugee women in Vancouver have questions about life in their new home.
