2022’s lineup takes inspiration from the world around us. With long-standing events like Amp, which explores the roles of music and sound in film, VIFF has always prioritized honouring stories where music is a lens through which to look at the world. And from Tanya Tagaq and Chelsea McMullan’s Ever Deadly to cine-poem short Mariposa, clocking in at just six minutes, this year is no exception. Keep reading for RANGE’s musical picks of the fest!
EVER DEADLY
Directed by Tanya Tagaq, Chelsea McMullan (Canada, Ontario)
Proudly co-presented by RANGE, Ever Deadly is a visceral, beautifully-crafted, and multi-sensory portrait of renowned Inuk throat singer, author, and icon Tanya Tagaq. A collaboration between Tagaq and documentary filmmaker Chelsea McMullan (My Prairie Home), the film was filmed on location in Nunavut and combines performance, interviews, animation, landscape, and archival material with verses from Tagaq’s novel, Split Tooth, to take an intimate look at the artist with an eye on pain, healing, and resistance. | SHOWTIMES
I THOUGHT THE WORLD OF YOU
Directed by Kurt Walker (Canada, British Columbia)
Not much is known about Vancouver musician Lewis. He recorded two albums in the 1980s, which were mostly lost until a record collector picked up one of them, L’Amour, at a flea market. Light in the Attic Records released it in 2014, but, still, Lewis—who he really was, or is—has remained a mystery. Part of VIFF’s Short Forum program, I Thought the World of You is an “enigmatic mosaic built on the lore existing” around Lewis and L’Amour. | SHOWTIMES
MARIPOSA
Portia White
Directed by John Greyson, Bongani Ndodana-Breen (Canada, Ontario)
Another VIFF Short Forum entry, “operatic cine-poem” Mariposa is only 6 minutes long, but the impact it makes endures for much, much longer. Interposed over shots of nature, faces, protests, and more, the film combines the stories of African-Canadian singer Portia White (who, in 1944, was the first Black Canadian to make her debut at New York’s Carnegie Hall), South African chef Phelokazi Ndlwana, and the Black lesbian organization and activist group, Free Gender. | SHOWTIMES
AN EVENING WITH MICHAEL ABELS
Michael Abels
Critically acclaimed and Emmy-nominated composer Michael Abels, a frequent collaborator of Jordan Peele and who composed the scores for Get Out, Nope, and Us, is the opening keynote of this year’s VIFF Amp Music in Film Summit. The evening will feature Abels sharing insight around his career and creative process, as well as performances of his music by the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, John Littlejohn, and Tiffany Townsend. | SHOWTIMES
NOSFERATU 100 BY BIG KILL: A SYMPHONY OF HORROR
2022 marks the 100th anniversary of Nosferatu, the iconic—and first—vampire film that helped shape horror culture and forever changed the movies. To mark the occasion, destructive pop duo BIG KILL (We Are the City’s Cayne McKenzie and Andrew Huculiak) will perform a fitting set of eerie hyperpop at 89-year-old gothic revival St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church. | SHOWTIMES
OKAY! (THE ASD BAND FILM)
Director: Mark Bone (Canada, Ontario)
Okay! follows the ASD Band, a group of musicians all on the autism spectrum, as they begin to record their first album and prepare to perform their first live show. The film, which won the Rogers Audience Award for Best Canadian Documentary and was a Hot Docs 2022 official selection, explores the band’s collaborative creative process and shines a light on their individual experiences with autism. | SHOWTIMES
