A program of the Vashon Film Institute, the Vashon Island Film Festival (“VIFF”) is held on picturesque Vashon Island, WA, every second week of August, celebrating independent film through curated screenings of notable and award-winning films from the preceding festival season.
The Vashon Film Institute is a nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering and supporting independent filmmaking in the Pacific Northwest.
These films played in competition at the Vashon Film Festival from 8-11 Aug. My access was provided through press screeners. You can find full details of the 2024 festival at https://vashonislandfilmfestival.com/.
Remember, Broken Crayons Colour Too (dir Shannet Clemmings &
Urša Kastelic) Switzerland 2023
Shannet is a Black transgender woman. This is her story, about her friends in Jamaica, about her own kife and identity as she walks the empty streets.
Of course, there are dangers to face at every corner, and these are the dangers going through Shannet’s mind every time she sets out to start her day. Always being on watch. Finding the menace in a silent space.
It’s a story of being broken, but not beyond repair. Of being accepted when just being is enough to offend in some places, to some people.
It’s an innovative way to present a personal story of strength, of holding our gaze and challenging us to look away. Of finding empathy within yourself for others and seeing it in them for you.
****
Goodbye First Love (dir Shuli Huang, wr Shuli Huang, Simu Chen) USA 2024
A past relationship, as one man meets another in the shadow of what their love used to be. A break-up recalled and repeated.
The remembrance, the realisation, and the what ifs and if onlies. Different people, but still the same. One apartment but it may as well be a world apart, A touch on a shoulder, a glance, a pause that leads into mundanity, the weighty words unsaid.
Recalling the little things, what they liked about each other, what makes them smile if they reach into their memory boxes and click the pieces together. When us becomes we, becomes me.
The writer/director and co-writer are the stars as well. It’s a sequel of sorts to Shuli Huang’s 2022 short Will You Look At Me in which he appeared with his mother Yang Yang. It’s very sweet, very raw, very real.
****
Bob’s Funeral (dir Jack Dunphy, wr Jack Dunphy) USA 2014
Jack had one relative he never liked, his grandpa Bob. In acknowledging the death of Bob, we meet his other family members and with video footage and animation, the story is light, strange, weird, and well, realistic.
It’s a wider issue and deeply original and personal. We certainly get deep into Jack’s physical and psychological identity and that of the other males in his life.
We also see into the ritual of Bob’s funeral service and whether we really say what we mean once a person has passed. Later, we watch as Jack’s father, Mark, is celebrated in his family eulogies.
I liked the execution of this, especially the animation which is cardboard cut-out, but this was a bit too weird for me to really connect to, with too much going on that is really about one family alone.
Fathers, sons, conflict, connection, and the end of life. There are some powerful moments, but the tone needs a bit more unity.
***.5
Wander to Wonder (dir Nina Gantz, wr Daan Bakker, Steinette Bosklopper, Nina Gantz, Simon Cartwright) Netherlands 2023
This is definitely … odd. A children’s programme whose creator dies, leaving the tiny human characters trapped in the house, where they continue to make episodes.
The animation is excellent and the premise is bizarre, Someone help these little guys and save them from a slow starvation, or a violent demise.
It’s quite horrific and definitely disturbing, in a way that echoes the work of the Quay Brothers but – if it’s possible – makes it even more strange.
I hope Mary, Billybud, and Fumbleton are OK. And remember – don’t have nightmares!
****.5