Each year for a long time now, VanRamblings has most looked forward to the Vancouver International Film Festival’s Shorts Programme, as curated by VIFF programmer Sandy Gow, a person of immense humanity and goodness, a man of heart, wit and intelligence, and a man who loves film.
Whether a Short be five minutes in length, like British filmmaker Chris Ullens’ Leanne Womack’s “Hollywood”, or 14 minutes in length, as is the case with Taiwanese director Clifford Liu’s moving, muted yet powerful Grandpa, the 35 films Sandy Gow has curated into the four International Shorts programmes in 2019 are punch-in-the-gut films of the first order, or as Sandy was telling VanRamblings last week, “Each of the 35 filmmakers included in this year’s Shorts programme have more to say in six minutes than most feature filmmakers do in two hours.” And so it is, and so it is.
According to Sandy, in 2019 shorts submissions hit record numbers …
“We were up close to 90% in submissions this year, with over 1320 shorts made available to VIFF in 2019. Although there’s a team of six people who assist in the screening of the shorts, at the end of the day, the final choice is mine. Before handing films off to the screening team, I watched all or part of 950 films, watching 250 all the way through — after having done this for as long as I have, you come to know what works and what doesn’t. Out of the 1320 submissions only 35 films were chosen for the VIFF 2019 International Shorts programme, and as per usual the selected shorts were placed into four themed shorts programmes.”
Those four themed 2019 International Shorts programmes are as follows …
A Matter of Identity | | 8 shorts | 112 minutes
Thursday, October 3rd, 6pm, International Village 8
Saturday, October 5th, 12:30pm, International Village 8
“In A Matter of Identity we have the world première of flush from Sheridan O’Donnell, a filmmaker who was here last year,” says Sandy Gow, “when I introduced him to Squamish-based cinematographer Todd Duym. The two of them got together, and the result is the world première of flush. Todd also shot Tolerance, which is part of another one of our shorts programmes, Modern Tales from a Conflicted World.”
“We also have the world première of O Holy Ghost, a delightfully surreal comedy along the lines of The Lobster, from a few years back.”
Modern Tales from a Conflicted World | 10 shorts | 111 minutes
Friday, October 4th, 3pm, International Village 8
Monday, October 7th, 6pm, International Village 8
In a world defined by unrelenting, unforgiving change, in spite of and perhaps because of social media and the daily announcements of technical innovations that are supposed to make our lives easier and create a sense of connection, loneliness and isolation in societies across the globe remains rife. From the experimental documentaries to animation and almost everything in between, the shorts in Modern Tales from a Conflicted World mean to help us break down our pervasive sense of anomie, while delivering thought-provoking insight into the questions which besiege us, spanning the spectrum of our existence, and perhaps a few answers, too.
Troubled Voices, Teen Lives | | 8 shorts | 106 minutes
Tuesday, October 1st, 11am, International Village 9
With apologies to Sandy for not publishing our International Shorts Programme column earlier, the teen shorts programme is always the most popular of each year’s four shorts programmes Sandy curates, with a packed house for the initial screening yesterday, and only standby tickets available for tomorrow’s 11am screening of Troubled Voices, Teen Lives.
Each year, the international teen shorts programme presented by VIFF explores the breadth and complexity of teen lives, and the challenges teens face at school, in their homes, and in the larger world. While teens often struggle to both express their feelings and be heard, especially when their perspective challenges the conventional norm, each year this international shorts programme has always managed to capture the full range of teen lives, comedic, dramatic, revealing, that should you attend tomorrow’s screening will surely more fully inform your perspective on teen lives.
Somebody Dies | | 8 shorts | 107 minutes
Friday, October 4th, 6pm, International Village 8
Sunday, October 6th, 12:15pm, International Village 8
Says Sandy Gow, “Most of the films submitted to VIFF this year had featured, in some measure, a perspective on death. That’s true, surprisingly, of each of our four international shorts programmes this year, the tenuousness of our existence. As I wrote in the programme …
Death is the common denominator, often forcing difficult choices, emotional upheaval and a more philosophical understanding of life on those who are left behind.
Somebody Dies is my favourite of the four programmes this year, each of the eight films included in the programme stunningly beautiful and heartbreaking in their realization, a coterie of films that while spanning the filmic form gives a sense of meaning to each life lived.”
Sandy is wont to point out that there are many more Shorts Programmes than the four programmes he creates, totaling some 100+ films overall, that are included in VIFF 2019’s schedule this year, all worth checking out.
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