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Vancouver Short Film Fest Features ECU Student Films
Posted on January 12, 2021 | Updated January 20, 2021, 1:50pm
Four recent films, all produced during study at Emily Carr, will appear at the 2021 celebration of B.C. filmmakers.
Four student films by Emily Carr alums are headed to this year’s Vancouver Short Film Festival.
33’ Lot by Sarah Genge (BMA 2020), Asal by Sepideh Yadegar (BMA 2019), Looking Back by Anna Anaka (BMA 2020), and Yarlung by Kunsang Kyirong (BFA 2020) will all be featured during the festival’s three-day run later this month, from Jan. 22 through Jan. 24. The outstanding showing by ECU community members means films created by artists while attending ECU make up a full third of the festival’s student selections.
The four works demonstrate an astonishing range, both in terms of approach and subject matter.
Sarah Genge’s deeply human 2020 documentary, 33’ Lot, examines the dynamics of a half dozen Vancouver households. The people in the film are linked only by the fact they make their homes in structures known locally as “Vancouver Specials.” 33’ Lot has previously appeared at Festival du nouveau cinéma in Montreal (where it represented Emily Carr University) and at the Whistler Film Festival.
Sepideh Yadegar’s 2019 drama, Asal, tells a story of “displacement and loneliness” through the life of a young Iranian dancer. The work was an official selection in the 2019 SHORT to the Point International Film Festival and the 2020 World of Women Film Fair Middle East.
Anna Anaka took her ambition as a filmmaker to new heights with the 2020 musical Looking Back. The dramatic short follows a mother and daughter as they contend with individual regrets and struggle with forgiveness. Anna wrote and directed the film, while Shane Raman provided the music. Looking Back was selected for multiple awards.
Kunsang’s 2020 animated short, Yarlung, follows a trio of siblings who experience the death of a loved one during the heat of midsummer in a small rural village. As they navigate this experience, they return time and again to the nearby Yarlung Tsangpo river. The charcoal-on-paper animation provides an indelible viewing experience to accompany the deftly told story. The work was selected as Best Student Film at the 2020 Ottawa International Film Festival.
Find the schedule for the 2021 Vancouver Short Film Festival on the VFSS website now. You can purchase tickets to view individual films, or grab a festival pass and enjoy more than 60 films by artists from across British Columbia.