Victoria International Jewish Film Festival
Captivating Cultural Cinema
Movies, Music, Nosh, & More!
Vic Theatre, 808 Douglas Street
October 17-22, 2023
more info!
9th Annual VIJFF
The 2023 VIJFF will be held at the Vic Theatre and online from October 17th to 22nd. Each Film Event—all free of charge—will be a special cinema experience with live music and nosh!
Community engaging events include a Sunday afternoon Family Program and a 60-Second Short Film Competition.
Early Sunday evening, at the Bengal Room at the Empress Hotel, the VIJFF will hold its Closing Reception—for festival attendees ($10/ticket) and donors to the VIJFF of $150+ (complimentary).
VIJFF Program
Film Events
AMERICA
Watch The Trailer
Date: Tuesday, October 17
Doors/Music: 6:30pm
Film: 7:15pm
Music: Georgiy Matviyiv, bandura
Nosh: Black Forest Parfait from La Roux Patisserie
America, a poignant German-Israeli co-production in which the lives of three people intersect with sudden brief intensity.
Exodus 91
Watch The Trailer
Date: Wednesday, October 18
Doors/Music: 6:30pm
Film: 7:15pm
Music: Dana Sipos Trio
Nosh: Cardamom Knot from Fry’s Bakery
Exodus 91 examines Operation Solomon, the airlift of 15,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel using historical footage, interviews, and reimaginations.
March ’68
Watch The Trailer
Date: Thursday, October 19
Doors/Music: 6:30pm
Film: 7:15pm
Music: Jazz with Elliot Freedman (baritone guitar), Nick Apivor (vibraphone), and Ryan Oliver (sax & flute)
Nosh: Polish-style Paczki Donut from Yonni’s Doughnuts
Inspired by a moment in time that shaped the social consciousness of Polish director Krzysztof Lang, the film depicts the momentous collision of history and romance.
Where life begins
Watch The Trailer
Date: Saturday, October 21
Doors/Music: 7:15pm
Film: 8:00pm
Music: Cascadia Strings, violin & cello duo
Nosh: Italian Cookie Duo from The Italian Bakery
The relationship between and the learnings of two lost souls, the French daughter of an ultra-Orthodox rabbi and the Calabrian farmer who hosts the family’s citron picking.
Matchmaking
Watch The Trailer
Date: Sunday, October 22
Doors/Music: 2:30pm
Film: 3:00pm
Music: Avram McCagherty Trio
Nosh: Chocolate Babka from Mensch Catering
An amusing romantic comedy with an ultra-Orthodox twist on tolerance and love to the Romeo and Juliet tale.
Online Films
sHTTL
Watch The Trailer
Start Date: Tuesday, October 17
End Date: Sunday, October 22
The story of the inhabitants of a Yiddish-speaking Ukrainian village on the border with Poland, 24 hours before the Nazi invasion, portraying conflict between the secular and modern and the religious and traditional.
silent
Watch The Trailer
Start Date: Tuesday, October 17
End Date: Sunday, October 22
A film about a controversial TV host back from suspension in the height of the Israeli, prime ministerial election campaign, caught in the whirlwind of silence, and on a path to his own reckoning.
Egypt A love song
Watch The Trailer
Start Date: Tuesday, October 17
End Date: Sunday, October 22
Director Iris Zaki embarks on a journey with her father, exploring the story of her legendary, Egyptian singer grandmother Souad Zaki, and brings her story to life in a project that crosses cultures, religions and cinematic form.
Songs for a lost pod
Watch The Trailer
Start Date: Tuesday, October 17
End Date: Sunday, October 22
This film uses music, storytelling, and shadow puppetry to juxtapose cetacean histories with one Jewish family’s experience of surviving the Holocaust.
Special Events
Matinee screening
FArewell Mr. Haffmann
Watch The Trailer
Venue: Vic Theatre, 808 Douglas Street
Date: Friday, October 20
Doors: 1:30pm
Film: 2:00pm
Farewell Mr. Haffmann, with moral twists and turns set in 1941 Nazi-occupied Paris, is a deftly crafted tale of complex contradictions at the edge of the Holocaust.
Family Event
The TaTtooed Torah
Venue: Vic Theatre, 808 Douglas Street
Date: Sunday, October 22
Doors: 1:00pm
Music: Avram McCagherty
Nosh: Popcorn & Juice Box
Families will enjoy a short, animated film (The Tattooed Torah, the true story, narrated by actor Ed Asner, of the discovery and restoration of a small Torah in Brno), with storyteller Shoshana Litman, and with a musical program by Avram McCagherty.
Closing Reception
VIJFF Film Goer Mixer
Venue: Bengal Room, Empress Hotel
Date: Sunday, October 22
Doors: 4:30pm
Mingle and nosh with fellow VIJFF supporters! Re-connect with community! Talk amongst yourselves—about VIJFF-screened films, upcoming JCCV events, and any & all things Jewish and/or adjacent. Passed canapés, cash bar, and casual conversation! ($10/ticket).
Principles
01
INTER-CULTURAL CONNECTIONS
02
DIVERSITY AND ITS INTERSECTIONS
03
CINEMA AESTHETICS
Thanks!
Donate to the VIJFF!
Donations support the VIJFF beyond the few grants it receives. Donors of $36 or more receive a charitable tax receipt. VIJFF movie lovers our, super-appreciated donors of $150 or more, receive VIP access to films and to food, folks, and fun at at the Sunday Closing Reception–‘Film Goer Mixer’.
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