Public Screens

Jiwoo Park (Canada) YOUTH

Duration: 3:31 

Content warning: harsh language

JP, a jaded restaurant worker, is working her usual shift until she realizes this isn't the life she wants to live. She decides to go on a lunch break.

She heads to a local park and listens to some of her favourite music. Once she starts listening, she fades into a world of dance and freedom of expression.

Suddenly she wakes up from her boss' phone call, and realizes the dancing was all a dream. This however gives her the confidence to finally quit her mundane job she hated, to pursue what she actually loved doing: dancing.

Director & Writer: Jiwoo Park

Co-Producers: Jiwoo Park, Huzaifa Sheikh

Cinematographer & Editor: Huzaifa Sheikh

Cast: Jiwoo Park as JP, Huzaifa Sheikh as Boss

Music: Outkast Type Beat - "Talk" By Bailey Daniel

Vianney Rodríguez (Mexico) EMERGING

Canadian Premiere

Duration: 4:59

Punto de fuga refers to the journeys, feelings and difficulties experienced during the migration phenomenon, where people leave their homes to flee violence, social exclusion and poverty in search of a more dignified life. The idea for this video dance was born in 2018, the year in which the migrant caravan, made up of people from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, began its journey north.

Director: Vianney Rodríguez

Cinematographer: Vianney Rodríguez 

Dancers: Vianney Rodríguez y Edén García 

Choreography: Vianney Rodríguez 

Camera: Nadia Kareli Rodríguez 

Music: Omar Urbina

Maylis Arrabit (France) EMERGING

Canadian Premiere

Duration: 9:50

Written by Maylis Arrabit, with Carolina Kzan bringing her vision to the screen, Les Chaussures Rouges (The Red Shoes) follows Maylis as she faces an imminent separation in her life. The relationship she shares with a key partner in her daily life compels her to revisit her journey and emotions. Through dance, this film explores feelings of change, transition, emancipation, and the invisible bonds that resonate within us.

Original concept, Script, Choreography: Maylis Arrabit

Director Editor: Carolina Kzan

Original score: Wolf Kroeger

Text and voice over: Maylis Arrabit

Production: Compagnie In(-)Between

Executive Production: Irene van Zeeland - Omaro Productions

Assistant Choreography: Alba Fernandez Gonzalez, Irene van Zeeland

Costumes: Evelyne Arrabit, Sander Verbeek (SAND-R)

Access Worker: Bernadette Arrabit

Theater support and Technician: Jokin Agirrezabalaga Aginaga

Supports: Donostia Kultura, Gaztezsena ; Gipuzkoako Dantzagunea

Image Description:

Tyler Quincy Yan & Ian Simon (Canada) EMERGING

Duration: 7:31

Content warning: depiction of mental health struggles, light strobe lighting

Initially a private personal project, “they shoot horses” depicts how feelings of hopelessness and despair can be paralyzing, but human connections remind us that life is worth seeing through, if you’re willing to accept a hand. This film draws on the lived experience of a crippling diagnosis, “if I am broken and irreparable, is it worth the struggle of living?” The film responds through a mantra, “if it’s meant to be, then it will be.”

Directors: Tyler Quincy Yan, Ian Simon

Cinematographer: Ian Simon

Choreographer: Tyler Quincy Yan

Editor: Ian Simon 

Dancers: Tomiwa Adetoyese-Olagunju, Vincent Cezar, Candace Choi, Jennifer Choi, Kailey Huang, Paul Ji, Phil Kim, Ho Seok Lee, Kaman Carmen Lee, Bithanya Lemma, Neil Lordson Tangcuangc, Ben Luu, Kaylee McCullough, Marissa Nuñez, Nathan Parian, Eric Pinkerton, Emma Powell, Aashnin Rashid, Pauline Rivera, Yciar Santos, Krista Shepard, Mikayla Sinnott, Han Szeptycki, Brianna Tam, Kim Vuong, Tyler Quincy Yan, Nicole Yen

Production Assistants: Omar Afuni, Ghazal Bigdeli, Marion Kang, Ryan Palattao

Special Thanks: Community Space at 131 McCormack, Lavender Creek Loft, Cassidy Barnes, Safa Ali Mudei, Tina Lee

Yahya Ibrahim Eshun (Ghana) YOUTH

World Premiere

Duration: 3:00 

Amissaba finds herself in a melancholic worlds, who struggles to keep relationships. Self discovery, re-invention and submission, used the cinema language with no rules but a way of expressing a vision through the medium.

Director: Yahya Ibrahim Eshun

Producer: Emmanuel Fenyi 

Talent: Afua Amissaba 

Cinematopher: John kojo Eshun

Voice over: Judith Sormah 

Text Editors: Richard de-graft Tawiah and Benjamin

Yifan Li (Canada) YOUTH

World Premiere

Duration: 7:24

Content warning: course language 

She Wants to Cry explores how a woman lives under unspoken pressures by transforming her bodily response into a poetic act. Set in a forest near Paris, the video captures a physical theatre performer’s spontaneous reactions to both text and nature. The artist uses her body as a site to process, resist, and reinterpret expectations imposed by society and language.

Director: Yifan Li

Performer: Xiaoyue Xiao

Text: Yifan Li

Cinematographer: Linjing Wang, Yifan Li

Editor: Yifan Li

Music: Émile Savoie

Narration: Anan Xu

Maxx Sadler (Canada) YOUTH

World Premiere

Duration: 4:26

Syncopate is an experimental short film that explores the feeling of tension through the use of audio, sound mixing and no spoken dialogue. Using movement, paralleled by a game of chess, the film investigates body language, pacing and repetition to portray the tension that builds up and later dissolves throughout the duration of the chess game.

Production Team: Maxx Sadler, Abby Zinken, Una Yu

Cast: Divine Obiajunwa, Naomi Mor

Movement Artists: Lamont, Elstana Blair

Naomi Watkins (Canada) YOUTH

Duration: 7:13

While traveling to their nation, Naomi Watkins reflects on the stories that have shaped them—those passed down and encountered along the way. Revisiting these memories reveals a shift from self-doubt to a deeper understanding of spirit and the care held by the land when one listens closely. Created as a guest on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations, the work engages video and text to trace a journey marked by reconnection and reflection. As someone who grew up away from their nation, Watkins navigates the complexities of displacement, belonging, and the ongoing relationship between self, story, and place.

Director: Naomi Watkins