In what is amongst the best collections of short films at VIFF 2010, ‘Acquired Trait’ deals with memories. Like ripples from a stone cast into water some memories continually reverberate; some degrade and distort, while others eventually fade from their initial impact.
Play.Stop.Rewind. (Ontario, 2010)
Gerald Patrick Fantone pulls a fantastic performance out of his mentally-challenged lead playing Joey, who clings to the voice of his dead mother, preserved by tape recorder.
On the Way to the Sea (Quebec, 2010)
Tao Gu recalls the devastating 2008 earthquake in China through stark black and white images, abstracted to emphasize the chaos of the event and then pulled back to clarity on the haunted faces of those affected.
Henry’s Glasses (British Columbia, 2010)
Brendan Uegama recreates a Japanese-Canadian internment camp circa 1945 where the words of a boy’s dead grandfather and his seemingly magical glasses offer hope out of misery.
Junko’s Shamisen (Ontario, 2009)
Sol Friedman, blending computer graphics and live action, tells a haunting tale of a young girl’s vengeance in feudal Japan.
Savage (British Columbia, 2009)
In Lisa Jackson’s sonically wonderful short a native mother’s mournful song becomes a wail of pain as her daughter (and culture) is taken away.
Mokhtar (Quebec, 2010)
Halima Ouardiri bases her short on a true event, where in the Moroccan countryside a boy rescues a crippled owl, bringing an ancient curse into his household.
I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors (British Columbia, 2010)
Ann Marie Fleming adapts this animated memoir of the complexities of being obsessed by the events of a past one generation removed from experience.
Willis Wong
Intermedias reviewer at VIFF 2010
Acquired Trait
Canada, 2010