Back to All Events

When We Perceive the Personal

  • SFU Goldcorp Centre for the Arts 149 West Hastings Street Vancouver, British Columbia Canada (map)

When We Perceive the Personal

Presented with Festival Supporter SFU Live

Saturday November 7 | 6:30-8:00 PM | Doors: 6:00 PM

Location: SFU - Djavad Mowafaghian Theatre, 3rd floor

Spanning experimental documentaries and poetic embodied explorations, a collection of nine films coalesce to share personal reclamations of physical, social, and ancestral spaces. 

Moments of falling make way for instances of personal memories to be shared as individuals become the agents of their own stories. Against ethereal evening backdrops, our expectations of binary frameworks of purpose and gender are suspended. Narratives continue to reveal themselves through firsthand accounts of diasporic coming of age, migration, disability, and colonization spanning the remaining collection of works featured in When We Perceive the Personal. We are left to feel the imprints of these intimate moments. How have our attunements to our world shifted?

individual screening ticket
weekend festival pass
digital screening pass
2026 Films
Fallen Day 受难日
Fallen Day 受难日

Xiaolu Wang (USA) Emerging
Canadian Premiere
Duration: 9:06
Content warning: flashing and dizzying images

A dragon dance troupe, an aikido class, an ice skating rink. Three scenarios or scenes through which the sensation of falling, or learning to fall, become metaphysical ruminations on modes of existence that draw strength from letting go.

Director: Xiaolu Wang
Cinematographer: Xiaolu Wang
Editor: Xiaolu Wang
Sound Designer: Dominic Bonelli*
Dialogue in Mandarin Chinese: Feifei Zhang* and Xiaolu Wang
Ice Skater: Kenji Yee*
Lion Dance Troupe: Hoàng Phúc Lion Dance*
Aikido Dojo: Chicago Aikikai*

Read more →
When the Chair Fell Into the Void
When the Chair Fell Into the Void

Julia Kushnarenko (Belgium) EMERGING
Canadian Premiere
Duration: 25:00

When the Chair Fell into the Void is a hybrid film blending documentary and dance. Anonymous migrants, forced to flee their countries, express their feelings of disconnection and question notions of identity and belonging. Their untold stories emerge in an urban landscape, while the movements of masked dancers are guided by emotions and cathartic memories.

Director: Julia Kushnarenko
DOP: Victoire Bonin
Choregrapher : Manuel Ronda
Sound engineer: Anastasia Koutsonanou, Montserrat Mancilla, Zlata Veresniak
Editing: Julia Kushnarenko
Sound editing/design: Julia Kushnarenko
Mixing: Aurélien Lebourg
Color grading: Xavier Dockx

Read more →
Ko Wai Au 
Ko Wai Au 

Jude Caudeville (New Zealand) YOUTH
Canadian Premiere
Duration: 3:44

A short film directed by 17 year old Jude Caudeville that explores the themes of human connection and the significance that the natural environment has on everyday life. The film explores these concepts through a physical conversation between two young Māori dancers to further visualise the friction between the modern cityscape and the natural land that surrounds them.

Director/DOP: Jude Caudeville
Writers: Jude Caudeville, Ehetere Rua and Sheldon Rua.
Dancers: Ehetere Rua and Sheldon Rua
Composer: Nils Bourotte

Read more →
Sheltering Gestures
Sheltering Gestures

Adrián Villa-Dávila & Andrés Prado (Columbia) EMERGING
Canadian Premiere
Duration: 10:50

Sheltering Gestures traces the ritual and spiritual movements revived by a group of young dancers who witnessed the gradual disappearance of the traditional Danza de las Tabliteras. Determined to bring it back to life, they learned its rhythms and choreography from the four remaining elders who still carried the dance in their bodies. Once again, these gestures echo the movements that decades ago filled the community of San Antonio, Bolívar, with pride, vitality, and collective spirit.

Director, Cinematography, Editor: Adrián Villa-Dávila & Andrés Prado
Production: TRAGALUZ
Dancers: Danzas y enseñanzas de mis abuelos
Director of the dance group: Javier Serpa Toloza
Art and Costumes: Mónica Bastos Baldrich, Ana Días
Musicians: Bernardo Toloza, José de la Rosa Mejía, Carlos Ardila

Read more →
Amazina Mbuyaga
Amazina Mbuyaga

Kizza Teflon Moses (Uganda) EMERGING
Vancouver Premiere
Duration: 17:00

“Amazina Mbuyaga" which translates from Luganda as "dance is a wave," is a poignant dance film that delves into the profound and transformative power of dance, particularly as experienced by Joseph Tebandeke, a contemporary dance artist with a disability. The project aims to challenge ingrained societal norms and misconceptions surrounding dance, advocating for its inherent universality and boundless potential for self-expression, irrespective of an individual's physical structure or ability. The film's central theme revolves around inclusivity and the breaking of barriers. It posits that dance is an art form that transcends professional boundaries, making it accessible to everyone.

Director: Kizza Teflon Moses
Cinematographer: Bukenya Mathias
Dancer: Tebandeke Joseph

Read more →
tennis girl
tennis girl

Abbey Richens (Canada) YOUTH
World Premiere
Duration: 4:33

tennis girl is a film about accepting yourself, your competitive nature, your clumsiness, your insanity. She misses the ball, fucks up and feels like she’s gonna hurl. So much intensity, so much upheaval - and what for? Who for? This packaged up, dolled up, tied in a bow girl - is that who should be playing on the court? Or the raw, unabashed, awkward one? The one who doesn’t always get along with others or appear graceful, the girl on the inside dying to get out. What would she want?

Director: Abbey Richens
Cinematographer: Shako
Dancer: Griffy Crespeigne
Editor: Abbey Richens

Read more →
nocturna
nocturna

Paweł Weremiewicz (Poland) YOUTH
Duration: 3:06

Nocturna is a visual essay about the nocturnal state of our desires and minds. It was not crafted to change lives, or hope for a better future, or make any clear statement. It was created simply to express what it feels like to be lost.

Dir and DP - Paweł (pablo) Weremiewicz ⁨
⁩
Costumes and makeup - Wiktoria Mirosz
1AC - Piotr Hałas
1AD - Hanna Siodłak
“nocturn” apparition 1 - Agata Hübner
“nocturn” apparition 2 - Nicole

Read more →
Once Upon a Time in Stockholm
Once Upon a Time in Stockholm

Parmida Hamdollazadehkive (Sweden) EMERGING
World Premiere
Duration: 9:51

ONCE UPON A TIME IN STOCKHOLM is a coming-of-age dance film about diaspora, identity, and freedom. Through movement and music by Mansa, dancers navigate Stockholm’s unspoken social demands, tracing the tension between conformity and self-expression in an intimate journey toward liberation.

Director: Parmida Hamdollazadehkive
Cinematographer: Malin LQ
Dancers: Marvin Kouassi, Vera Lundell, Binta Bojang, Claudia Cassibba Cunningham, Amah Gilmore, Sebastian Holmström, Amir Faradji, Mambegay Joof, Amanda Rodriguez
Choreographer: Mona Namér
Costume Design: Emma Dock
Producer: Feven Kiflom

Read more →
RHINO: Diary of a Krumper
RHINO: Diary of a Krumper

Glo Romy (Canada) EMERGING
Vancouver Premiere
Duration: 7:53

RHINO traces a Black Krumper's journey, navigating the space between vulnerability and strength. Following Jamari “Rhino” Whittaker in Toronto, the film reveals how raw movement becomes both armor and confession, turning lived experience into shared Black expression.

Read more →
Earlier Event: November 7
Grant Writing Workshop
Later Event: November 7
Panel: After Perceiving, What Happens Next?