Once again, more VQFF! Writer Liam Siemens explores themes of queerness and self-reflection through Andrew Ahn's Spa Night and its immersive cinematic effect. "The movie does the good work of a good movie—it crafts a unique character you probably haven’t seen in cinema before, and it helps you empathize with David so closely it veers on total immersion, which turns out to be awkward, painful, but completely worthwhile."
Read MoreMore from VQFF! Becca Plucer's In Particular, barbara findlay gives credit and respectful adoration to a woman tirelessly fighting for betterment in her community. The poignant documentary “makes a hero out of someone in a profession made up of tiny print and footnotes and clauses and subclauses and sub-subclauses, something that is by definition almost impossible to make entertaining, but is undeniably important.”
Read More"Later, nursing their hangovers, she’s ready to tell him her news. Clifton is all set for Annie to confess her feelings and slip him the tongue, but—record scratch—in the tradition of romcom best friends since time immemorial (or at least John Hughes’ day), Anne just doesn’t like him like that." Outside of the tired boy-likes-girl, girl-likes-someone else rom-com soft-serve, First Girl I Loved spins the tired trope into a fresh and honest look at teenagers learnin' about lovin'.
Read MoreA girl, younger than he, watched confused. She threw her hands in the air as if to say “what’s wrong with you, boy?” She patted him on the head but he continued to sob.
Read MoreVancouver’s own Joella Cabalu opens her debut documentary with sincere words from her brother; “When did I feel different? It’s not something I can sort of pinpoint – I’ve always felt different”. What follows is a series of hopeful, honest, and drama free moments captured by Cabalu as her and her brother Jay journey to the Philippines for a rendezvous with their Filipino relatives. Out of a Roman-Catholic rooted country comes a different take on ‘coming out’ – one that is surprisingly refreshing.
Read MoreSometimes, when you put on a group show, it can be difficult to arrange an interview with the artists you're featuring—especially when some live thousands of kilometres away or have a penchant for driving across continents. To hop across the timezone divide, April Thompson, in preparation for her show Three Kinds of Abstraction at Access Gallery, set up an email chain with Angela Fama, Joi T. Arcand, and Noah Spivak to chat about photography and how it interacts with social media, and their younger selves.
Read MoreIn the humble opinion of this writer, darkness is something to be embraced and explored rather than feared or dismissed—not being able to see into or through something shouldn't deter our examinations; in fact, it should encourage us to look deeper.
Read MoreOn August 12th, at the Beaumont Studios, Irish-born Laura Noonan and Tara Paget open Meet Me at the Lamp(p)ost—an interdisciplinary celebration of Vancouver's East Side. The night promises to offer close and real examinations of the community and culture that Noonan and Paget have come to call home during their time here, and opens its doors, characteristically, to everyone from everywhere.
Read MoreLeah Nelson and Sarah Leavitt shows us the labour of love, loss, and life in striking film Tangles at the Vancouver International Film Festival 2026.
In Experiments in a Failed Repair, an art exhibition that deconstructs and decolonises the monumentalisation of violence, Ghinwa Yassine challenges viewers to confront human violence through the rubble and remains of homes destroyed by war—and to imagine the lives that once existed within them.
Writer Brett Nelson reviews 'The Effect,' the latest production from The Cultch that explores the chemical nature of love and grapples with depression.
In this review of Frequencies: A Novel, Sophie Ganic’s debut, we explore a chilling blend of dystopian science fiction and feminist horror. Set in the aftermath of a deadly global outbreak, the novel examines isolation, psychological unraveling and past trauma.
Jill Goranson and Kelsi James presents Burn Blue, a multidisciplinary performance, at the 2026 Vancouver Fringe Festival, exploring water, memory, migration and colonisation, and the meaning of home through dance, music, poetry, and puppetry.
