The Vancouver Queer Film Festival has unveiled the full lineup of titles for its 36th edition, including 28 features, 64 short films and five series. 

The newly announced Canadian projects in the lineup include the B.C. premieres of three documentaries: Darrin Hagen’s Pride vs. Prejudice: The Delwin Vriend Story, about the Supreme Court of Canada case on homophobic discrimination in the workplace; Laurie Townshend’s A Mother Apart (Oya Media Group, NFB; pictured), about poet and activist Staceyann Chin’s search for her mother; and Colette Johnson-Vosberg’s Unusually Normal, about three generations of gay women in a single family.

Making its B.C. premiere in the episodic program is Kin., a five-part scripted series examining the lives of young trans and queer Indigenous people. The series is written and directed by Justin Ducharme and Theo Jean Cuthand, and produced by Ducharme. Arielle Twist co-wrote the series.

VQFF will run from Sept. 11 to 22. The Festival previously announced a number of titles, including the world premiere of the OutTV series Novelette is Trying. 

Circus sources millions from venture capital firms

Vancouver-based production payroll platform Circus has received US$5 million (about C$6.84 million) in investments to support the growth of its payroll software tools.

The funds were raised through two California-based venture capital firms, Sound Ventures and Expa. The capital allowed Circus to integrate a new suite of tools for its payroll and accounting platform, including the use of QR codes and the creation of templates for contracts, workflows and settings.

Sound Ventures is led by actor and producer Ashton Kutcher, talent manager Guy Oseary and former iHeartRadio exec Effie Epstein, with all three serving as partners. 

Expa is led by a trio of founding partners: Uber co-founder Garrett Camp, Silicon Valley tech veteran Roberto Sanabria, and Envoy co-founder Vítor Lourenço. According to the Expa website, the firm has provided pre-seed investment, resources and guidance to support Circus’s growth and expansion to the U.S.

RIDM unveils first four films for 2024 festival

The Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM) has named the first four films of its 27th edition in November.

The lineup includes the Quebec premiere of Montreal-based Oksana Karpovych’s Intercepted (Les Films Cosmos), which draws on intercepted calls between Russian soldiers and their families amid the conflict in Ukraine. It first premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in February.

Also announced is this year’s Best Canadian Feature Documentary winner at Hot Docs, The Soldier’s Lagoon (La Laguna del Soldado). Written, directed and produced by Pablo Alvarez-Mesa, the film explores the Páramo region in a look at Colombia’s past.

The other films included in the initial announcement are No Other Land, co-directed by an Israeli-Palestinian collective (Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Ballal and Rachel Szor), which looks at the destruction of the West Bank; and Who Cares? by Belgian filmmaker Alexe Poukine, examining how medical professionals listen to their patients. 

RIDM runs from Nov. 20 to Dec. 1.

Image courtesy of VQFF