Acclaimed Documentaries to Screen at the Victoria Film Festival--February 7th to 16th

VANCOUVER, BC—The team at Pender PR is pleased to share an exciting Victoria Film Festival lineup for 2025; with a slate of four award-winning documentary feature films from talented B.C. filmmakers set for their Vancouver Island premieres. The Victoria Film Festival runs from February 7th to 16th with all our filmmakers in attendance. 

ARTHUR ERICKSON: BEAUTY BETWEEN THE LINES gives an inside look into the life and work of a world-renowned architect.

THE CHEF & THE DARUMA centres the life and career of one of Canada's most well-known sushi chef's Hidekazu Tojo, who will be in Victoria for a Q&A. 

ARI’S THEME captures the life of Victoria composer Ari Kinarthy.

FAIRY CREEK documents one of the largest acts of civil disobedience in Canadian history, which took place on Vancouver Island.

The team from Pender PR will also be at the festival, participating on an Industry Panel and taking One on One Meetings as part of Springboard, the Festival's annual Industry Event. The panel EYES ON YOUR PRIZE taking place on February 8, 2025, at 1:30PM, will feature an in-depth conversation about how marketing and public relations work together to give a film its best chance at finding an audience. Nicola Pender, Founder of Pender PR will be on the panel alongside the NFB of Canada's Kay Rondonneau, Senior Marketing Advisor, International Market and Theatrical Release, and Kelly Fox, Sr. Marketing Manager at TELUS originals. 

VICTORIA FILM FESTIVAL PREMIERES:

ARTHUR ERICKSON: BEAUTY BETWEEN THE LINES 

Documentary Feature / BC Filmmakers / Vancouver Island Premiere 

PLEASE NOTE: THIS EVENT HAS SOLD OUT

Arthur Erickson: Beauty Between the Lines from Vancouver-based directors Ryan Mah and Danny Berish (Black Rhino Creative) delves into the personal life and work of Arthur Erickson, a visionary architect first in Canada and ultimately across the globe. The film was made with unprecedented access to the Erickson archives and with the full cooperation of the Erickson family making this a "definitive" film about an exceptional man. With intimate interviews, unseen archival footage, and an exploration of his architectural masterpieces, the film weaves together the complexities of Erickson’s personal life, his sexuality and his public-facing professional life. It reveals a man who transcended traditional boundaries, who fused art, culture, and nature and in the process, redefined modern architecture. Arthur Erickson: Beauty Between the Lines explores the impact his relationships and his homosexuality had on his work. 

This compelling film had its world premiere as the opening night film of the Architecture and Design Film Festival in Toronto in October 2024 and also opened ADFF: Vancouver to a sold-out crowd. It has played in Los Angeles, will play in Montreal and Chicago upcoming, and was held over in Vancouver theatres at VIFF Centre for weeks and will launch on Knowledge Network in B.C. in 2025. The filmmakers will be in attendance at the Victoria Premiere. 

 

Directors: Danny Berish, Ryan Mah

Production Company: Black Rhino Creative

Screening Information: Sunday, February 9th at 1pm at the Capitol 6

FAIRY CREEK

Documentary Feature / Island Premiere w/ Local Ties / BC Filmmaker / Feature Debut

In Fairy Creek, director Jen Muranetz documents the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history, creating a searing portrait of contemporary environmental activism, bearing witness to the lengths activists are willing to go to protect British Columbia’s last old-growth forests. With unique insider access, the team behind Fairy Creek follows the Ada'itsx (Fairy Creek) blockade from its early inception to its bittersweet ending through the lens of an ensemble cast of blockade vanguards and those who oppose them.

Employing in-the-trenches cinema vérité, the film introduces spirited environmentalists embroiled in a series of often violent altercations with loggers and RCMP, all while trying to stop old-growth logging in the untouched Fairy Creek valley. The activists show unwavering dedication to their cause, while having compelling internal debates about whose voices are prioritized in the movement. By documenting this significant and contentious juncture in time, FAIRY CREEK calls attention to a much larger conversation: what does it take to find common ground in the fight for a climate-just future?

Director/Writer: Jen Muranetz

Production Company: Understory 

Language: English

Screening Information: Friday, February 14th at 5:15 pm at The Vic Theatre & February 15 at 5:00 PM at Cinecenta with Vancouver Island-based filmmaker Jen Muranetz and Sepehr Samimi in attendance

Link for tickets(click here)

ARI'S THEME

Vancouver Island Premiere & Hometown Premiere / Documentary Feature / TELUS original / BC Filmmakers / Live Scored Special Event made possible with the support of the Victoria Conservatory of Music, Victoria Film Festival and TELUS originals 

After a successful world premiere at Hot Docs and an unforgettable BC premiere as the opening night film of VIFF 2024, the documentary feature Ari’s Theme (featuring Victoria composer Ari Kinarthy) will screen at the Victoria Film Festival and be live scored. Directed by Vancouver-based filmmakers SALAZAR Nathan Drillot and Jeff Lee Petry (The Wrestlers), Ari’s Theme centres the life and work of Ari Kinarthy; a composer with a rare genetic condition who creates an aural and cinematic legacy of his memories through music.

Kinarthy is a Victoria-based composer who first found music as a teenager. His love and talent was instant and his dream was to score a feature length film like his hero John Williams. As a child he was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy type 2 and outlived all the doctors’ predictions. But now, at 34 he can feel his body changing again and not for the better. Concerned about his legacy, and making meaning of the challenges he’s experienced, Ari sets out to create musical compositions based on his own lived experience. The filmmakers and Ari will be in attendance at the Victoria Premiere for the live scoring of the film. 

Director/Writer: Nathan Drillot, Jeff Lee Petry 

In Attendance: Nathan Drillot, Jeff Lee Petry, and subjects Ari Kinarthy and Allan Slade

Production Company: Salazar

Language: English

Screening Information: Sunday, February 16th at 5 pm at the Alix Goolden Performance Hall 

Link for tickets(click here)

THE CHEF & THE DARUMA

Documentary Feature / TELUS original / BC Filmmakers / Vancouver Island Premiere

The acclaimed documentary feature The Chef & The Daruma will also screen at the Victoria Film Festival. Featuring the legendary Vancouver chef Hidekazu Tojo, this compelling TELUS original film sold out multiple screenings at the Vancouver International Film Festival for its BC premiere in 2024, took home a VIFF Audience Award, and was held over in Vancouver at VIFF Centre for weeks. 

For 36 years, Tojo’s has been a mainstay in the Vancouver food scene, beloved by critics, foodies, and a plethora of celebrities. A pioneer of Japanese cuisine in the West, chef Hidekazu Tojo helped bring sushi to the mainstream and is known as the inventor of the California Roll. Still working in his seventies, chef Tojo is inspired to look back on his life and ponder the legacy he will leave behind. He recalls his early years as a Japanese immigrant, coming to Canada at the age of 21, and his ambition to create a singular culinary path. 

Director/Writer: Mads K. Baekkevold 

Writer: Natalie Murao

Production Company: Wallop 

Language: English and Japanese w/ Subtitles

Screening Information: Sunday, February 16th at 2:30 pm at The Vic Theatre with Mads K. Baekkevold and Hidekazu Tojo in attendance

Link for tickets(click here)

My review for the film, below(& others) for last year's

 Vancouver International Film Festival)

We were only allowed capsule reviews for the films.

2024 VIFF Movie Reviews(click here)