Vancouver – The 30th edition of the Victoria Film Festival (VFF) will showcase a BC premiere and award-winning documentary and animation from the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) during a 10-day celebration of cinema in the British Columbia capital, from February 2 to 11, 2024.
VFF is presenting two NFB feature-length documentaries:
- WaaPaKe (Tomorrow), by Vancouver-based filmmaker Dr. Jules Arita Koostachin—winner of the Best BC Film Award at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival;
- The BC premiere of the NFB/Intuitive Pictures co-production Stolen Time, the latest film by distinguished documentarian Helene Klodawsky.
The festival is also screening two NFB shorts:
- The Girl with the Red Beret by Janet Perlman—just named Best International Short at the Los Angeles Animation Festival;
- Winnipeg director Karsten Wall’s Modern Goose, an exquisitely observed film essay that embeds audiences in the daily life of these iconic animals.
More about the films:
WaaPaKe (Tomorrow) by Jules Arita Koostachin (80 min)
Produced by Teri Snelgrove and executive produced by Shirley Vercruysse
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/waapake
- For generations, the suffering of residential school Survivors has radiated outward, impacting Indigenous families and communities. Dr. Jules Arita Koostachin’s deeply personal documentary WaaPaKe (Tomorrow) moves beyond intergenerational trauma, with an invitation to unravel the tangled threads of silence and unite in collective freedom and power.
- Jules Arita Koostachin (Attawapiskat) is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, performance artist and academic. Koostachin honours her Cree-speaking grandparents who raised her, and her mother, a residential school Survivor/warrior. She holds a Ph.D. in Indigenous documentary and protocols and processes, through UBC’s Institute of Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice.
Stolen Time by Helene Klodawsky (85 min)
Produced by Ina Fichman for Intuitive Pictures inc.; Ariel Nasr for the NFB
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/stolentime
- A compelling call for justice, Stolen Time follows charismatic elder rights lawyer Melissa Miller as she takes on the corporate for-profit nursing-home industry—an industry notorious for its lack of transparency and accountability. As the legal battle unfolds, families, frontline caregivers and change-makers chronicle an urgent crisis with ramifications—and inspiration—for us all.
- Helene Klodawsky has explored the documentary art form for over 35 years. The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, Hot Docs and the Rendez-vous du Cinéma Québécois are among the many festivals that have honoured her work.
The Girl with the Red Beret by Janet Perlman (5 min 35 s)
Produced by Marc Bertrand and executive produced by Christine Noël and Julie Roy
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/beret
- This joyful, heartwarming animated film portrays Montreal in all its vitality, creativity and diversity, with plenty of humour and good cheer, to the tune of Kate and Anna McGarrigle’s timeless hit “Complainte pour Ste-Catherine.”
- In addition to its latest prize in LA, The Girl with the Red Beret received an honourable mention for the DGC Award for Best Canadian Animation at the Ottawa International Animation Festival.
- Montreal-born Janet Perlman is a director of short and funny animated films. She completed Lady Fishbourne’s Guide to Better Table Manners in 1976 at the age of 22. Her film The Tender Tale of Cinderella Penguin (1981) earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short Film.
Modern Goose by Karsten Wall (23 min)
Produced by Alicia Smith and executive produced by David Christensen
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/moderngoose
- Able to navigate by reading the Earth’s magnetic field, fiercely loyal to flock and family, at home on land, air and water, geese straddle the territory between ancient instincts and the contemporary world. Combining beauty, humour and profound empathy, Modern Goose flips the usual nature-film perspective to offer a deeper message of continuity and connection.
- The film had its world premiere in the Short Cuts program at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.
- Karsten Wall is a Winnipeg-based editor and filmmaker whose first directorial credit, The Seven Wonders of Manitoba, received a Golden Sheaf Award at the 2020 Yorkton Film Festival. He studied motion picture production at Capilano University in North Vancouver in 2006.