VIFF Podcast

In this episode of the VIFF Podcast, BC-based film producer Mike Johnston talks about his his transition from directing to producing with VIFF Director of Programming, Curtis Woloschuck. He highlights the complexities of financing and managing co-productions, with Beehive and Wild Goat Surf as turning points, and an upcoming international co-production with Colombia, Memoria. Together, Mike and Curtis reflect on the resilience and future of the Vancouver film community.

This conversation was recorded remotely during VIFF 2023.

This podcast is brought to you by the Vancouver International Film Festival.

Presented on the traditional and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.

In this episode of the VIFF Podcast, filmmaker Zarrar Kahn talks about his debut feature film, In Flames, with VIFF Director of Programming Curtis Woloschuk.

In Flames, which premiered at Cannes 2023 and screened at VIFF 2023, follows a mother and daughter navigating loss and supernatural forces in Karachi, Pakistan. After the death of the family patriarch, a mother and daughter's precarious existence is ripped apart. They must find strength in each other if they are to survive the malevolent forces that threaten to engulf them.

This conversation was recorded remotely.

This podcast is brought to you by the Vancouver International Film Festival.

Presented on the traditional and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.

In this episode of the VIFF Podcast, documentary filmmakers Jeremy Schaulin-Rioux and Kirk Thomas along with legendary streetball player Joel Haywood talk with VIFF Director of Programming Curtis Woloschuk.

Handle With Care: The Legend of The Notic Streetball Crew chronicles the rise, fall and rebirth of The Notic, an upstart streetball collective. While their creative basketball moves brought them global fame as teenagers, it set them at odds with the status quo in a battle involving self-expression, race and rejection. Driven by a twenty year quest to finish their mixtape trilogy, the documentary charts how a group of friends from Vancouver, Canada played outside the confines of the NBA but left an imprint on the game forever.

This conversation was recorded remotely.

This podcast is brought to you by the Vancouver International Film Festival.

Presented on the traditional and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.

In this episode we welcome filmmaker Kim Albright, director of With Love and a Major Organ, and producer Madeleine Davis in  conversation with VIFF programmer Tom Charity.

Struggling artist by night, virtual insurance broker by day, Anabel has a heart problem: it’s just too big for this world. Rejected and derided by her more sophisticated “friends”, Anabel falls for George, a stranger with a penchant for reading yesterday’s newspaper with all the bad news redacted. But George still lives with his overly protective mum, and both will take some persuading that Anabel is his heart’s desire. Filmed right here in Vancouver, Kim Albright’s directorial debut strikes a lo-(sci-)fi surrealist vibe vaguely reminiscent of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It’s whimsical, unpredictable, but more than anything it’s true enough to hit close to home.

This conversation was recorded as part of VIFF's Year Round programming.

This podcast is brought to you by the Vancouver International Film Festival.

Presented on the traditional and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.

In this episode we welcome Canadian filmmaker Pier-Philippe Chevigny, director of Richelieu in  conversation with  VIFF Director of Programming Curtis Woloschuk.

Drawing from neo-realist traditions, beautifully photographed and elegantly constructed, Richelieu paints an undeniable portrait of a crisis unfolding across North America. Director Pier-Philippe Chevigny avoids didacticism and delivers an assured, emotionally resonant first feature which announces the arrival of a new Canadian talent.

This conversation was recorded during the 2023 Vancouver International Film Festival.

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This podcast is brought to you by the Vancouver International Film Festival.
Presented on the traditional and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.

This podcast is brought to you by the Vancouver International Film Festival.

Presented on the traditional and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.

In this episode we welcome Mark Mangini, sound designer of films such as Blade Runner 2049, The Fifth Element, and Gremlins in conversation with film producer Matt Drake

Mark Mangini has made it his life’s work to create the unimagined worlds and fabricated sonic realities of the most epic films you can imagine. Known for films including Blade Runner 2049, Star Trek I, IV and V, The Fifth Element, and Gremlins, Mark is a six-time Oscar nominated sound designer, winning twice for Dune and Mad Max Fury Road.

We go behind-the-scenes as Mark shares the secrets behind creating the most memorable sound art of these monumental films.

This conversation was recorded during the 2023 Vancouver International Film Festival.

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This podcast is brought to you by the Vancouver International Film Festival.
Presented on the traditional and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.
 
The Greater Vancouver International Film Festival Society is a not-for-profit cultural organization that operates the internationally acclaimed Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF), and year-round programming at VIFF Centre. See what's playing now at viff.org.

This podcast is brought to you by the Vancouver International Film Festival.

Presented on the traditional and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.

In this episode we welcome Meredith Hama-Brown, director of the feature film Seagrass, in conversation with Sonja Baksa, Programmer + Program Lead at VIFF

Having decamped to a Gabriola Island couples’ retreat in a last-ditch attempt to save their crumbling marriage, preoccupied Judith (Ally Maki) and Steve (Luke Roberts) leave their young daughters to their own devices. In turn, 11-year-old Stephanie (Nyha Breitkreuz) quickly ditches six-year-old Emmy (Remy Marthaller) in favour of a pack of unruly teens and their accompanying temptations. Abandoned and adrift, the introverted Emmy grows fixated with an eerie cave and convinced that her late grandmother has been conjured as an unseen ghost.

Drawing from her own childhood experiences, writer-director Meredith Hama-Brown demonstrates a profound talent for eliciting unspeakably nuanced, frequently heartbreaking performances from Breitkreuz and Marthaller. Likewise, she deftly investigates the unique tensions of Judith and Steve’s interracial marriage (including her infatuation with another man). All the while, Norm Li’s highly observant cinematography provides a practically mesmerizing degree of intimacy. A deftly orchestrated, deeply moving portrait of a family at the brink of implosion, Seagrass sees Hama-Brown exude compassion and conviction in an accomplished debut.

Meredith Hama-Brown is an actress, producer, and director. She is best known for her short Broke Bunny (2018), which won the Telus Sea to Sky Award at the Vancouver International Film Festival. With this short, she also won Best Narrative Film Award at Las Cruces International Film Festival and Best Film Award at the Future of Film Show. In 2020, Brown was selected for the TIFF Filmmaker Lab and was awarded the Canada Goose Fellowship for her first feature film, Seagrass (2023).

This conversation was recorded remotely in March 2024.

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This podcast is brought to you by the Vancouver International Film Festival.
Presented on the traditional and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.
 
The Greater Vancouver International Film Festival Society is a not-for-profit cultural organization that operates the internationally acclaimed Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF), and year-round programming at VIFF Centre. See what's playing now at viff.org.

This podcast is brought to you by the Vancouver International Film Festival.

Presented on the traditional and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.

In this episode we welcome Corey Payette, director of the movie musical Les Filles du Roi, in conversation with the film’s editor Christian Díaz Durán.

Adapted from Urban Ink’s stage production, this locally-shot film screened at VIFF 2023. Les Filles du Roi tells through song the powerful story of the young Kanien’kehá:ka girl Kateri and her brother Jean-Baptiste, whose lives are disrupted upon the arrival of the “Daughters of the King” in ‘New France’ (now Montreal) in 1665.

Corey Payette is an interdisciplinary storyteller, writer, composer, producer, and director in film and theatre. Since 2014, he has been the Artistic Director of Urban Ink, a position first held by Marie Clements, at one of Canada’s most ambitious theatre companies. Payette wrote the music, lyrics, and directed the acclaimed musicals Children of God, Les Filles du Roi, and Starwalker, among others. He is a member of the Mattagami First Nations, with French-Canadian and Irish ancestries. Les Filles du Roi is his first feature film.

This conversation was recorded at VIFF Centre in March 2024.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

This podcast is brought to you by the Vancouver International Film Festival.
Presented on the traditional and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.
 
The Greater Vancouver International Film Festival Society is a not-for-profit cultural organization that operates the internationally acclaimed Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF), and year-round programming at VIFF Centre. See what's playing now at viff.org.

This podcast is brought to you by the Vancouver International Film Festival.

Presented on the traditional and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.

In this episode, we’re featuring a conversation with Sierra Teller Ornelas –  co-creator, showrunner and executive producer of the critically-acclaimed, native-centred comedy series Rutherford Falls.

Ornelas had written for Superstore, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Selfie and Happy Endings before coming on board with Mike Schur and Ed Helms to bring Rutherford Falls to life, becoming the first Native American showrunner in history.   

Speaking to writer/producer Duana Taha at the 2021 festival, Ornelas chatted about the process of creating a sitcom that breaks down Indigenous stereotypes through humour, having one of the largest Indigenous writers rooms on television and how her museum background informed her writing on the show.

This conversation was recorded on October 5, 2021.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

This podcast is brought to you by the Vancouver International Film Festival.
Presented on the traditional and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.

The Greater Vancouver International Film Festival Society is a not-for-profit cultural organization that operates the internationally acclaimed Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF), the year-round programming of the theatres at the VIFF Centre and the online streaming platform, VIFF Connect. See what's playing now.

As a nonprofit cultural organization, VIFF relies on community support to help make everything we do possible.  You can show your love of cinema by making a tax-deductible gift to VIFF. goviff.org/donate

This podcast is brought to you by the Vancouver International Film Festival.

Presented on the traditional and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.

In this episode, we’re featuring a creator talk from the 2021 Vancouver International Film Festival with Craig Zobel – the director behind the wildly popular HBO crime drama, Mare of Easttown, starring Kate Winslet.

The Emmy-nominated director spoke to host Zach Lipovsky about crafting a crime series that leaves room for soulful human drama and humour, shooting emotional and technically daunting scenes, and working with Director Of Photography Ben Richardson on letting characters guide the shot styles.

This conversation was recorded on October 4, 2021.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

This podcast is brought to you by the Vancouver International Film Festival.
Presented on the traditional and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.

The Greater Vancouver International Film Festival Society is a not-for-profit cultural organization that operates the internationally acclaimed Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF), the year-round programming of the theatres at the VIFF Centre and the online streaming platform, VIFF Connect. See what's playing now.

As a nonprofit cultural organization, VIFF relies on community support to help make everything we do possible.  You can show your love of cinema by making a tax-deductible gift to VIFF. goviff.org/donate

This podcast is brought to you by the Vancouver International Film Festival.

Presented on the traditional and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.