Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) is delighted to announce the complete film lineup for Insights, Spectrum, and Portraits, three series focused on documentary and nonfiction work. Insights showcases documentaries that change the way we see the world; Spectrum presents a collection of innovative nonfiction filmmaking; and Portraits offers a kaleidoscope of films on ground-breaking artists, great performances, and cultural icons. All films will be presented in-cinema, with a select number of titles available across BC via VIFF Connect.

“Insights offers flash points of what ails our world, offering extraordinary perspectives, deep feeling, rallying calls, and most importantly for VIFF documentaries, exceptional cinematic artistry,” says Alan Franey, International Programmer and Festival Director Emeritus.

Highlights from Insights include: the world premiere of Unarchived, a National Film Board documentary that uncovers the neglected and untold histories of traditional, marginalized, and excluded communities in BC; The Klabona Keepers, the fierce account of the Tahltan Nation’s struggle to protect the Klabona Sacred Headwaters in northwest BC from commercial mining; the North American premiere of A Fire Inside, a clarion call about climate change and an inspirational tale of camaraderie set in the midst of Australia’s apocalyptic bushfires in 2019–2020; the Canadian premiere of Adam Ondra: Pushing the Limits, which follows one of the world’s best rock climbers as he prepares to participate in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games; and the Canadian premiere of Last Flight Home, Ondi Timoner’s highly personal, vérité record of her father’s last few weeks on earth.

“Exploring inventive approaches to nonfiction filmmaking, each of our Spectrum selections proves itself a cinematic journey,” says Curtis Woloschuk, Director of Programming. “Through these eclectic films, we’re transported to remote islands, turning points of the past, and the inner workings of the human body.”

Highlights from Spectrum include: Riotsville, U.S.A., a transfixing essay film consisting entirely of government and TV news footage from the 1960s that reveals what widespread civil unrest in the US truly put in motion; the Canadian premiere of See You Friday, Robinson, a contemplative examination of the role of the artist that follows the correspondence between Iranian filmmaker and author Ebrahim Golestan and influential French film director Jean-Luc Godard, who died at 91 earlier this week; Geographies of Solitude, an immersive look at the stunning ecosystem of remote Sable Island of the coast of Nova Scotia; De Humani Corporis Fabrica, which employs custom cameras to give us front row seats for various surgical procedures; and Day After…, a kinetic and artfully chaotic film that takes viewers across the shallow rivers of Bangladesh on a two-day journey beset with sociopolitical cross-currents, fog, sandbars, songs, and scenes.

“In an artform that can literally bring us the world, there is something deeply special about zooming the lens in on a single artist,” says Franey. “In our Portraits series, we step into the beautiful, complex worlds of rare individuals whose important work and personal journeys contain meaning, provocation, and aesthetic pleasure for us all.”

Portraits highlights include: the world premiere of Marie Clements’ Lay Down Your Heart, a touching tribute to Niall McNeil, a multi-talented Vancouver theatre artist who happens to be a person living with Down Syndrome; the North American premiere of The Melt Goes On Forever: The Art and Times of David Hammons, an astonishing documentary about the elusive and provocative African-American conceptual artist who constantly defies the establishment and remains subversive at every turn; the Canadian premiere of Soviet Bus Stops, a joyous film that follows Canadian photographer Chris Herwig’s journey to commemorate the surprisingly whimsical, eccentric, and audacious roadside way stations of the former Soviet Bloc; the Canadian premiere of Music Pictures: New Orleans, a four-part documentary that features Irma Thomas, Little Freddie King, Ellis Marsalis, and The Tremé Brass Band; and the international premiere of The King of Wuxia, a deeply poignant tribute to master filmmaker King Hu.

Films streamed on VIFF Connect will include a selection of recorded Q&A’s from filmmakers and creators, supported by Creative BC and with Community Broadcast Partner TELUS STORYHIVE.

INSIGHTS: Documentaries that change the way we see the world

1341 Frames of Love and War dir. Ran Tal (Israel/UK/USA) | Canadian Premiere
Adam Ondra: Pushing the Limits dirs. Jan Šimánek, Petr Záruba (Czech Republic/Italy) | Canadian Premiere | Streaming on VIFF Connect
All That Breathes dir. Shaunak Sen (India/USA/UK)
A Fire Inside dirs. Justin Krook, Luke Mazzaferro (Australia) | North American Premiere | Streaming on VIFF Connect
Framing Agnes dir. Chase Joynt (Canada/USA)
Good Night Oppy dir. Ryan White (USA)
If You Are a Man dir. Simon Panay (France/Burkina Faso) | North American Premiere | Streaming on VIFF Connect
The Killing of a Journalist dir. Matt Sarnecki (Denmark) | Streaming on VIFF Connect
The Klabona Keepers dirs. Tamo Campos, Jasper Snow-Rosen (Canada) | BC Feature | Streaming on VIFF Connect
Last Flight Home dir. Ondi Timoner (USA) | Canadian Premiere
Love Will Come Later dir. Julia Furer (Switzerland) | North American Premiere
My Imaginary Country dir. Patricio Guzmán (Chile/France)
Rebellion dirs. Maia Kenworthy, Elena Sánchez Bellot (UK) | Canadian Premiere | Streaming on VIFF Connect
Retrograde dir. Matthew Heineman (USA) | Canadian Premiere
Unarchived dirs. Hayley Gray, Elad Tzadok (Canada) | World Premiere | BC Feature | Streaming on VIFF Connect

SPECTRUM: Innovative nonfiction filmmaking

8 Stories About My Hearing Loss dir. Charo Mato (Argentina/Uruguay) | Canadian Premiere | Streaming on VIFF Connect
Day After… dir. Kamar Ahmad Simon (Bangladesh/France/Norway) | Canadian Premiere | Streaming on VIFF Connect
De Humani Corporis Fabrica dirs. ​​Véréna Paravel, Lucien Castaing-Taylor (France/USA/Switzerland)
The Eclipse dir. Nataša Urban (Norway) | Canadian Premiere
Geographies of Solitude dir. Jacquelyn Mills (Canada)
The Hermit of Treig dir. Lizzie MacKenzie (UK) | Canadian Premiere | Streaming on VIFF Connect
Riotsville, U.S.A. dir. Sierra Pettengill (USA)
See You Friday, Robinson dir. Mitra Farahani (France/Switzerland/Iran/Lebanon) | Canadian Premiere

PORTRAITS: Ground-breaking artists, great performances, and cultural icons
With fine art films presented by the Audain Foundation

Cesária Évora dir. Ana Sofia Fonseca (Portugal) | Canadian Premiere | Streaming on VIFF Connect
Dancing Pina dir. Florian Heinzen-Ziob (Germany) | North American Premiere
Ever Deadly dirs. Tanya Tagaq, Chelsea McMullan (Canada) | Streaming on VIFF Connect
Goya, Carrière and the Ghost of Buñuel dir. José Luis López-Linares (France/Spain/Portugal) | International Premiere
Hopper – An American Love Story dir. Phil Grabsky (UK/USA) | World Premiere | Streaming on VIFF Connect
The King of Wuxia dir. Lin Jing-jie (Taiwan) | International Premiere
Lay Down Your Heart dir. Marie Clements (Canada) | World Premiere | BC Feature
The Melt Goes On Forever: The Art and Times of David Hammons dirs. Judd Tully, Harold Crooks (USA/Canada) | North American Premiere | Streaming on VIFF Connect
Music Pictures: New Orleans dir. Ben Chace (USA) | Canadian Premiere
OKAY! (The ASD Band Film) dir. Mark Bone (Canada)
Soviet Bus Stops dir. Kristoffer Hegnsvad (Denmark/Canada/UK/Sweden/Latvia) | Canadian Premiere | Streaming on VIFF Connect