The Best Five Genre Films to See at the Victoria Film Festival’s 30th Anniversary

While there aren’t enough movies to make a top ten picks of nerdy films playing at the Victoria Film Festival‘s 30th year, that’s only because I’m selecting works that I haven’t seen before and am truly interested in. My expectations after experiencing their 20th are hard to top and what I’ve witnessed over the decade is like a sine wave. Their 25th showed them trying to include new venues and making sure there’s works that’ll appeal to non film buffs.

I’m surprised that even now, they and Tsukino Con (the Uvic Anime Club) haven’t decided to partner up. This anime event takes place after the festival, and to work together to offer up the latest Japanese animated film feels like a missed opportunity to help each other out.

It’s tough to offer an movie event celebration that has a bit of everything to cater to all levels of tastes and genres. There was even a year where the organisers experimented with the next wave–with the use of virtual reality–but now there’s little interest in choosing your own adventure storytelling; at least this show is adaptive. As for being a place to find niche genre works, it’s tough to call dibs not to get those films that matter–which I’ve seen elsewhere.

While Ernest and Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia ( review link ) and Mami Wata ( review link ) do count as something I think other fellow geeks love to see, I’d still have to include Robert Burnett’s Free Enterprise (playing Feb 3 | 4:15 pm) as honourable mention. Even though that’s an older film, who doesn’t want to see William Shatner rap the play Julius Caesar on a big screen? At least it’s not like hearing him sing in concert.

Robot Dreams

Cineplex Odeon
Feb 2 | 8:30 pm
Feb 8 | 3:00 PM

Robot Dreams is one of those off-beat discoveries that you wish you would find more often. As a beautiful tribute to warm, deep friendship, this delightful, animated movie is an entirely dialogue-free story set in the 1980s in New York City, following a dog character known simply as Dog as he builds a relationship with his new robot friend, Robot.

Together they unleash themselves on everything New York has to offer. A sad turn of events separates them, and so begins the saga of Dog’s intrepid attempts to reunite with his friend. The story takes a melancholy turn and invites us to reflect on how connections with people drift apart and how we find new places in our hearts.

The Veil

Capitol 6 Feb 5 | 9:00 pm

From the mind of Cameron Beyl comes a micro budget sci-fi horror film that captivates its audience with stunning visual displays of the Northern Lights set as backdrop to an eerie farmhouse that becomes refuge in unexpected ways.

Set in rural Pennsylvania where a retired priest enjoys the solitude of his farmhouse, a young and frantic Amish woman fleeing an abusive marriage ends up on his doorstep bringing with her a ghost of a chance at reconciliation.

The Strange Case
of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Capitol 6 Feb 6 | 9:00 pm

It doesn’t get more classic than Jekyll and Hyde – two of cinema’s most infamous characters. But here, director Hope Dickson Leach trades the grimy, soot-soaked streets of London for the atmospheric chill of a distinctly gothic Edinburgh. Shot in black-and-white, Leach’s vision, infused by gothic cinema influences, is a Scottish retelling of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novella.

Besides Stevenson’s book, Leach’s source material is also a live, hybrid performance with the National Theatre of Scotland. This unusual blend of theatrical performance and cinematic tradition creates a creeping, intimate experience of this classic tale of good and evil, told through a lawyer’s investigation of a series of macabre murders.

All You Need is Death

Capitol 6
Feb 8 | 9:00 pm

All You Need is Death marks Paul Duane’s fearsome directorial debut that seeps into the mind of its audience with the musicality of Irish folk songs that ensnare everyone involved. The mysterious narrative follows Anna (Simone Collins) and Aleks (Charlie Maher) in their pursuit of folk songs from Ireland’s past that they translate to a digital format and sell to collectors with unique appetites. The film offers a fresh take on all-consuming love, lust, and passion underscored by a pervasive look at the history of Ireland through its musical folklore.

Restore Point

Cineplex Odeon
Feb 7 | 8:30 pm

In Central Europe in the year 2041, life has taken a surreal turn. Citizens possess a new constitutional right – the guarantee of a full natural lifetime. Death has become merely a temporary setback due to Restore Point, a groundbreaking technology controlled by the enigmatic Institute of Restoration.

For those who’ve diligently backed up their brain data every 48 hours, a second chance at life awaits. In this high-stakes world of resurrections, young detective Emma Trochinowska (“Em”) investigates a gripping mystery. A clandestine group known as the “River of Life” rebels against what they deem “unnatural” resurrection technology. As she delves deeper into the shadows of this techno-dystopian landscape, Em must navigate a web of intrigue, betrayal, and ambiguity to unravel the truth behind the River of Life’s vendetta and the shocking demise of a scientist who once held the key to immortality.