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604.683.FILM
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Grand Unified Theory
Canadian Film Week
Limited Runs
Join the Vancouver International Film Festival in celebrating the filmmaking talent of Canadian creators with a weeklong program of Canadian-made films.
Black Code
Menorca
FRI APR 14 - 7:40PM • SAT APR 15 - 4:30PM
SUN APR 16 - 4:50PM
SAT APR 15 - 8:15PM • THU APR 20 - 6:30PM
NICK DE PENCIER, CANADA, 2016, 89 MIN. TRUE NORTH
JOHN BERNARD, CANADA, 2016, 81 MIN. TRUE NORTH
We are only just beginning to understand the dark side
of the internet: Edward Snowden, WikiLeaks, Gamergate,
Trump, these are all symptoms of virus that has run far
ahead of social democracy watchdogs. This timely and
alarming documentary takes a global view of the new era of
universal state surveillance and introduces us to the techsavvy activists and “internet sleuths” who are using new
media to circumvent oppression.
Writer-director John Bernard lobs a Molotov cocktail in the
direction of Canadian suburbia in this provocative, stylish
drama about a rebellious soccer mom, Claire (the extraordinary Tammy Gillis), who won’t settle for domestic banality
when casual sex is much more fun. Stealing a minivan for
an impromptu road trip, and picking up the nearest available
hitcher for cheap thrills, the self-declared “worst mom ever”
is still shocked when her seven-year-old announces she
need not come back home.
Skype Q&A w/ Professor Ron Deibe
Q&A w/ star Tammy Gillis, Saturday April 15
Contemporary Color
BILL ROSS IV, TURNER ROSS, USA, 2017, 107 MIN. M/A/D
THU APR 6 - 9:00PM • FRI APR 7 - 2:45PM
In a strange turn of events, David Byrne, the genius behind
Talking Heads and Stop Making Sense, fell in love with the
Color Guard, high school students’ quirkier, more egalitarian answer to cheerleaders: flag- and rifle-spinning dance
troupes. Recruiting musical support from indie acts like St
Vincent, Nelly Furtado, Ad Rock and tUnE-yArDs, and enlisting documentarians Bill and Turner Ross to record the
event, Byrne pulled off another one-of-a-kind celebration of
specialness.
Silence
MARTIN SCORSESE, USA, 2016, 141 MIN. PANORAMA
Sensitive Parts
Grand Unified Theory
SUN APR 16 - 6:40PM • TUE APR 18 - 8:30PM
SUN APR 16 - 8:30PM • THU APR 20 - 8:10PM
The latest from up-and-coming BC indie auteur Brendan
Prost is a deft relationships comedy about an insecure
young woman who is horrified to discover that her new boyfriend once slept with her BFF. To be fair, they're also pretty
upset. But the most optimistic character is an imaginary
friend modelled on Beyonce. Prost is all about emotional
integrity and his modest, unassuming film makes up in sympathy what it lacks in expansiveness.
During one fateful weekend, the family of brilliant North
Vancouver astrophysicist Albert (Scott Bellis) has a complete meltdown, setting in motion a raucous and hilarious
series of events that mirror his radical theories of the behaviour of the universe. "One of the most purely enjoyable and
impressive local films in recent memory." Georgia Straight
BRENDAN PROST, CANADA, 2016, 69 MIN. TRUE NORTH
DAVID RAY, CANADA, 2016, 101 MIN. TRUE NORTH
Q&A w/ Filmmaker David Ray
Q&A w/ Filmmaker Brendan Prost
Drone
The Stairs
MON APR 17 - 8:20PM
FRI APR 21 - 7:30PM • SUN APR 23 - 6:15PM
MON APR 24 - 6:20PM • TUE APR 25 - 4:45PM
THU APR 27 - 8:30PM
JASON BOURQUE, CANADA, 2017, 105 MIN. TRUE NORTH
Neil (Sean Bean) is oblivious to the fact that his wife Ellen
(Mary McCormack) is having an affair, and doing his best
to keep his teenage son on track. What sets Neil apart is
that he is a drone operator for the US military. It's only when
the kindly, genteel Imir (Patrick Sobongui) shows up at their
door that he realizes the repercussions of what his actions...
With sharply etched characters and fine performances, this
engrossing suspense drama from Jason Bourque (Black Fly)
brings the War on Terror right back home.
HUGH GIBSON, CANADA, 2016, 95 MIN. TRUE NORTH
Marty, Greg and Roxanne use their decades of streetknowledge to ease the paths of others. Each works in public
health in their old neighbourhood of Toronto's Regent Park
while struggling to maintain their newly-found stability. Told
over five years, The Stairs defies stereotypes about drug
use, sex work and homelessness through an intimate portrait that is by turns funny, surprising and moving.
Panel discussion led by Filmmaker Hugh Gibson (Friday April 21)
Q&A w/ Hugh Gibson (April 23, 24, 25)
World Premiere
SUN APR 9 - 3:00PM • MON APR 10 - 12:30PM
WED APR 12 - 7:00PM
Perhaps the most underrated film of 2016, Martin Scorsese’s spiritual epic is simultaneously a work of finesse,
subtlety, and matter-of-fact violence. It is a faithful adaptation of Shusaku Endo’s novel about 17th Century Catholic
missionaries, interlopers in a country (Japan) that has
decided to shut its doors on foreign influence, and which
has resorted to brutal repression and torture to stamp out
heretical beliefs.
In English, Japanese with English subtitles.
Intro by the Rev Gary Paterson of St Andrew’s Wesley
Church (Wed Apr 12).
Strangers on the Earth
TRISTAN COOK, SPAIN/USA, 2016, 90 MIN. PANORAMA
FRI APR 14 - 5:45PM • SAT APR 15 - 6:20PM
SUN APR 16 - 3:00PM • MON APR 17 - 6:30PM
TUE APR 18 - 6:30PM • MON APR 24 - 4:30PM
In the footsteps of Walking the Camino, Tristan Cook’s
lively portrait of modern pilgrims and fellow travelers winding their way on the Camino de Santiago muses on the
psychological and spiritual dividends of a 30-day hike. The
landscape is beautiful but brutal, the dorms are packed and
the bunks are hard. Some find solace in solitude; others discover kinship and community en route. The case of Dane
Johansen is remarkable: he embarks on the nearly 600-mile
journey carrying his cello on his back.
In English, Spanish, German with English subtitles.
Best Canadian Film 2016 (Toronto Film Critics Association)
Canadian Film Day
On April 19, in partnership with REEL Canada, we celebrate National Canadian Film Day with FREE screenings and
events. Award-winning Canadian director, Atom Egoyan will introduce his Academy Award-nominated film, The
Sweet Hereafter to mark its 20th Anniversary. Fans are invited to join Atom and actor Bruce Greenwood for a Creator
Talk following the screening. Atom’s 1994 film Exotica will screen on the same day, along with 1977’s Skip Tracer, a
Vancouver-made cult classic chosen by Atom himself.
Citizen Jane:
Battle for the City
MATT TYRNAUER, USA, 2016, 92 MIN. IMPACT
FRI APR 21 - 5:40PM • MON APR 24 - 8:30PM
TUE APR 25 - 7:00PM • WED APR 26 - 6:30PM
THU APR 27 - 6:30PM • SAT APR 29 - 5:30PM
The Sweet Hereafter
(20th Anniversary Screening)
ATOM EGOYAN, CANADA, 1997, 112 MIN. TRUE NORTH
Creator Talk with
Atom Egoyan
50 MIN.
WED APR 19 - 7:00PM
WED APR 19 - 9:00PM
Adapted from the novel by Russell Banks, and filmed in
Golden, BC, this luminous, piercing drama remains one of
the finest Canadian films ever made. Ian Holm stars as an
enigmatic lawyer who arrives in a remote northern town
after a devastating accident and stirs up painful memories
and resentments. He wants to persuade the bereaved citizens to join together in a civil suit, not simply for financial
restitution, he insists, but also to exorcize the collective guilt
that shrouds the community.
VIFF is delighted to welcome one of our most accomplished
and celebrated filmmakers to mark National Canadian Film
Day. Over the course of a career now in its fourth decade,
Victoria-raised Atom Egoyan has turned his hand to all manner of stories and worked across the industry spectrum,
but always imparting his own distinctive stamp of cerebral
and sensual curiosity to create a fascinating, multilayered
and substantial body of work. Atom is joined by actor Bruce
Greenwood featured in both The Sweet Hereafter and Exotica.
Introduced by Atom Egoyan.
Nearly 60 years since the publication of Jane Jacobs’ seminal work, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, this
radical urban planner/activist/philosopher remains a vital
touchstone for today’s planners and politicians. “Fascinating... pulses with contemporary resonance... explores the
scope and meaning of that overly familiar thing — the city
— in ways that will box open your thinking. It’s a finely woven tapestry that feels as relevant and alive as the place you
live.” Owen Gleiberman, Variety
Panel discussion (Tue Apr 25).
Additional Guests: Bruce Greenwood
Karl Marx City
PETRA EPPERLEIN, MICHAEL TUCKER, USA, 2016, 89 MIN. PANORAMA
SUN APR 30 - 7:45PM • WED MAY 3 - 6:30PM
Exotica
WED APR 19 - 4:30PM
WED APR 19 - 10:00PM
We asked Atom Egoyan to nominate a favourite Canadian
film to show on Canadian Film Day, and he chose this lowbudget gem, a nearly forgotten film shot on the mean
streets of Vancouver in 1977 by then newcomer Zale Dalen.
A portrait of a disaffected repo man/debt collector, Skip
Tracer is a taut, tough-minded movie with a proto punk
flavour. "A first feature of considerable force, power and
poignancy." Gerald Pratley, A Century of Canadian Cinema.
Set in and around the titular strip club, Exotica is particularly
interested in the strange, intense bond between a middleaged customer, Francis (Bruce Greenwood) and one of the
table dancers, Christina (Mia Kirshner). It’s not what we
imagine... DJ and emcee Elias Koteas gets pulled in, and so
do several more of the club’s denizens, strangers to each
other but also kindred spirits, lost souls who need each
other more than they know. “Surprises, delights, and heartbreaking as well.” Roger Ebert
ATOM EGOYAN, CANADA, 1994, 103 MIN. TRUE NORTH
ZALE DALEN, CANADA, 1977, 95 MIN. TRUE NORTH
Fifteen years after her father killed himself, Petra Epperlein
returns to her hometown in former East Germany to investigate his rumoured links with the Stasi (the East German
Secret Polic) and how the apparatus of state control maintained Communist rule. Stylized in the form of a Cold War
espionage thriller this fascinating documentary is a potent
reminder of how the politics is always, ultimately, personal.
Filmmaker Q&A, Sunday.
FILM
FESTIVAL
Skip Tracer
Director Q&A.
LIFE, ANIMATED
April 2 - May 6, 2017
What’s on
at the
Vancouver
International
Film Centre
Reel 2 Real
International Film Festival for Youth
APR 2 - 8, 2017 Visit r2rfestival.org for more.
Vancouver International Film Festival’s Year-Round Showcase
April 2 to May 6, 2017
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
The Art Of Film
Lecture Series
APR 2
4
WEDNESDAY
5
THURSDAY
6
7
10:30am Music
and The Emotional
Connection
Reel 2 Real Festival
Apr 2 - 8
r2rfestival.org
6:45 The Seasons in
Quincy: Four Portraits of
John Berger
6:45 O Brazen Age
9:10 Personal Shopper
8:35 After the Storm
9
10
SATURDAY
8
1:00 David Lynch: The
Art Life
12:30 There Will Be
Blood
Reel 2 Real Festival
Apr 2 - 8
r2rfestival.org
FRIDAY
RENTAL
10:30am Directing and
The Auteur Theory
3:00 Silence
12:30 Silence
9:00 1984
Reel 2 Real Festival
Apr 2 - 8
r2rfestival.org
11
12
2:45 Contemporary
Color
Reel 2 Real Festival
Apr 2 - 8
r2rfestival.org
9:00 Contemporary
Color
13
Reel 2 Real Festival
Apr 2 - 8
r2rfestival.org
14
4:00 David Lynch: The
Art Life
Reel 2 Real Festival
Apr 2 - 8
r2rfestival.org
10:15 Eraserhead
15
5:45 Strangers on the
5:50 David Lynch: Short 2:20 Spring, Summer,
Films
Fall, Winter... and Spring
5:00 David Lynch: Short
Earth
Films
4:30 Black Code
Cinema Salon
5:00 David Lynch: The
6:30 David Lynch: The
7:30 Spring, Summer,
Art Life
Art Life
7:30 INLAND EMPIRE
a Film - A Project by
Mathieu Copeland
Canadian Film Week
Apr 14 - 21
viff.org
7:00 Silence
8:20 INLAND EMPIRE
7:40 Black Code
8:15 Menorca
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
5:40 David Lynch: The
7:00 The Exhibition of
Art Life
Fall, Winter... and Spring
6:20 Strangers on the
Earth
Canadian Film Day
RENTAL
4:30 Skip Tracer
3:00 Strangers on the Earth
4:50 Black Code
6:40 Sensitive Parts
RENTAL
7:00 The Sweet
Hereafter
RENTAL
6:30 Strangers on the
6:30 Strangers on the
9:00 Creator Talk with
6:30 Menorca
8:30 Grand Unified
Earth
Earth
Atom Egoyan
8:10 Grand Unified
5:40 Citizen Jane: Battle
for the City
Theory
8:20 Drone
8:30 Sensitive Parts
10:00 Exotica
Theory
7:30 The Stairs
RENTAL
23
24
26
27
28
29
RENTAL
25
RENTAL
4:30 Wapikoni
4:30 Strangers on the
Earth
RENTAL
6:15 The Stairs
6:20 The Stairs
4:45 The Stairs
RENTAL
8:30 Down to the Sea on
Drugs
8:30 Citizen Jane: Battle
for the City
7:00 Citizen Jane: Battle
for the City
6:30 Citizen Jane: Battle
for the City
30
MAY 1
3
2
6:30 Cezanne et moi
7:20 Cezanne et moi
8:30 The Stairs
8:45 Afterimage
9:30 Afterimage
4
5
6
TBA
DOXA Documentary
Film Festival
May 4 - 14
doxafestival.ca
4:00 Cezanne et moi
RENTAL
7:45 Karl Marx City
6:30 Afterimage
6:30 Cezanne et moi
6:30 Karl Marx City
8:30 Cezanne et moi
8:45 Afterimage
8:20 Afterimage
5:30 Citizen Jane: Battle
for the City
6:30 Citizen Jane: Battle
for the City
DOXA Documentary
Film Festival
May 4 - 14
doxafestival.ca
David Lynch Series
David Lynch: The Art Life
JON NGUYEN, DENMARK/USA, 2016, 89 MIN. M/A/D
FRI APR 7 - 1:00PM • SUN APR 9 - 5:40PM
TUE APR 11 - 4:00PM • WED APR 12 - 5:00PM
THU APR 13 - 6:30PM
Revered for films like Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive, David Lynch began his creative explorations through art, originally training as a painter in Philadelphia. David Lynch: The
Art Life grants viewers unparalleled, intimate access to the
enigmatic auteur while he works in his painting studio. Early
memories and reflections on his formative years through
the triumph of Eraserhead reveal eerie connections to his
body of work, making this portrait an indispensable look at
an artist and his process.
"Nominally focused on the celebrated filmmaker’s lesserknown dabblings in fine art, The Art Life emerges as a more
expansive study of Lynch’s creative impulses and preoccupations, as he relates first-hand the formative experiences
that spurred and shaped a most unusual imagination.
Essentially a feature-length interview with the man himself,
with no other on-screen contributors, the doc’s simplicity of
form belies the kinks and curves of its portraiture. It’s certainly indispensable for Lynch-heads." Guy Lodge, Variety
David Lynch: The Art Life
Eraserhead
Inland Empire
David Lynch: Short Films
SAT APR 8 - 10:15PM
SUN APR 9 - 7:30PM • THU APR 13 - 8:20PM
TUE APR 11 - 5:50PM • THU APR 13 - 5:00PM
“A dream of dark and disturbing things”, according to the
director. Filmed in high contrast black and white, with a
cacophonous industrial soundtrack and stark, decrepit
design, Lynch’s first feature reeks of alienation, sexual revulsion and domestic horror. He filmed it over five years on a
shoestring budget as a he struggled to adjust to fatherhood
and life in the big city. It became a famous midnight movie,
a cult that propelled him to Hollywood.
A very rare screening of David Lynch’s most experimental
and truly surreal film, shot on DV but presented here on Mr
Lynch’s personal 35mm print. Laura Dern plays film actress
Nikki Grace, but the lines between Dern, Grace, her character Sue, and the Polish actress who previously played the
role soon blur in a mind-blowing hall of mirrors as Lynch
digs deep into the metaphysics of cinema.
David Lynch was an art student first. His film work grew out
of painting, not cinephilia, and his first film, Six Men Getting
Sick (1967) is in a very real sense a “motion picture”. Lynch’s
remarkable early shorts are hybrids of animation and live
action, explorations of shape and light, texture, form and
sound, and they open up the first crack into the feverish
anxieties, the abiding sense of dread and disgust that runs
as a malevolent undercurrent throughout Lynch’s cinema.
DAVID LYNCH, USA, 1977, 99 MIN. ALT
DAVID LYNCH, USA, 2006, 172 MIN. ALT
Rare 35mm screening
DAVID LYNCH, USA, 52 MIN. ALT
Art On Screen
The Exhibition of a Film
Cezanne et moi
Afterimage
MATHIEU COPELAND, FRANCE, 2015, 100 MIN. M/A/D
FRI APR 28 - 6:30PM • SAT APR 29 - 7:20PM
MON MAY 1 - 8:30PM • TUE MAY 2 - 6:30PM
WED MAY 3 - 4:00PM
FRI APR 28 - 8:45PM • SAT APR 29 - 9:30PM
MON MAY 1 - 6:30PM • TUE MAY 2 - 8:45PM
WED MAY 3 - 8:20PM
French impressionist Paul Cezanne and the realist novelist Emile Zola were lifelong friends, though not without
a few bumps along the way. This relationship is the cue
for Thompson’s vivid flashback to the France of the Belle
Epoque, and the not so belle years leading up to it. This is
sensuous, romantic portrait of bohemian angst and struggle, lushly appointed, with several delightful recreations of
famous paintings like Dejeuner sur l’herbe.
Avant-garde painter Wladyslaw Strzeminski refused to comply with the socialist realism doctrine ruthlessly enforced by
Communist regime in post-war Poland. The tragic consequences of a struggle for artistic freedom in the totalitarian
system gradually lead a charismatic, defiant man into the
abyss. Andrzej Wajda’s last film, Afterimage becomes a
multilayered contemplation of the perennial battle on the
vital role of art and freedom of expression.
In French with English subtitles.
In Polish with English subtitles.
A Project by Mathieu Copeland
Screening & Artist Talk
DANIÈLE THOMPSON, FRANCE, 2016, 117 MIN. M/A/D
MON APR 10 - 7:00PM
The Exhibition of a Film brings together visual artists, filmmakers, musicians, performers, choreographers and writers around the question “Can an exhibition take place in a
cinema theatre rather than a gallery space?” The screening
will be preceded by a talk by Copeland and followed by a
reception. Movie posters and trailers by participating artists and musicians will be installed in the cinema lobby. A
co-production initiated by Presentation House Gallery with
support from the Embassy of France.
ANDRZEJ WAJDA, POLAND, 2016, 99 MIN. M/A/D
Co-presented by The Vancouver Foreign Film Society
Cinema Salon
Special Presentations
Spring, Summer, Fall,
Winter... and Spring
Wapikoni Roadshow
Down to the Sea on Drugs
SUN APR 23 - 4:30PM
ANDREW STRUTHERS, CANADA, 2017, 75 MIN. ALT
VARIOUS, CANADA, 2017, 90 MIN. TRUE NORTH
KIM KI-DUK, SOUTH KOREA, 2003, 102 MIN. GATEWAY
TUE APR 11 - 7:30PM • WED APR 12 - 2:20PM
A universal story about life, death, murder and redemption
that unravels with ethereal beauty in a small temple floating
on a still lake. Told in five vignettes, the story of a boy’s unsettled journey into old age unfolds as we learn that a spirit
doesn’t have to be pure to be worthy. This is a film about
finding inner peace and reason. Kim has a cult reputation
for taboo-breaking and violent films. Here he finds grace in
simplicity and restraint. 35mm print
An Evening with Andrew Struthers
Visiting Indigenous communities across Canada, Wapikoni
Mobile’s travelling audio-visual studios offer youth the training and resources to reflect their realities through the medium of film. A showcase of just some of the accomplished,
affecting and revelatory short films spawned from these
stopovers, this special event will also be the official launch
of Wapikoni’s national “Cinema on Wheels” tour that will roll
eastward in a caravan doubling as a pop-up theatre.
SUN APR 23 - 8:30PM
Tickets can be purchased in advance on-line at viff.org or in person
60 minutes before showtime. Call 604.683.3456 for the latest info and
listings. Double bill tickets available in-person only.
Film Centre Basic Members $2
Cinemagician Struthers (viral hit Spiders on Drugs) conjures
a fever dreamt fantasia set in a supernatural BC stocked
with magic salmon and explosive lovers. Rife with absurdist
flourishes and reminiscent of Madden and Murnau, the
serial is truly an un(der)discovered treasure. Hosted by the
inimitable Struthers, this evening also features a reading
from his tell-all, sativa-scented memoir, The Sacred Herb/
The Devil’s Weed, and an exhibition of handcrafted props.
Guest presenter: Haida artist Jim Hart (Tuesday only)
Tickets and Membership
SINGLE
BILL
Adult
Student &
Senior
VIFF+
Members
12
$
10
$
$
9
DOUBLE
BILL
ALL
SEATS
$
18
(For Vancity
Theatre
|members)
CINEMA
SALON
14
$
12
$
$
11
Ticket sales are final and refunds are only offered in exceptional circumstances at the discretion of our box office. If you have made an error with your booking, please email [email protected]. Exchanges cannot
be made for missed screenings. A fee of $1 per ticket exchange will
apply to a maximum of $4 for exchanges done in person.
To see films at the Vancity Theatre, you must—with a few
exceptions—be age 19 or older and be a member of our
registered non-profit society.
For more membership details, please visit viff.org.
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1181 Seymour St. / Vancouver BC / V6B 3M7
Film Info 604.683.3456 / Office 604.685.0260 / Email [email protected]
viff.org