7 More VIFF 2014 Films Not Yet On Your Radar

Now that the festival is in full swing, we hope you had a chance to check out some excellent films in our program this year. If you are still wanting more, check out these seven films you may have missed while browsing our website and guide- these films may not be on your radar right now, but they will be after you check out these following trailers and synopsis.

Asteroid:
Director (and Vancouver Film School alumini) Marcelo Tobar has crafted an intimate family tale haunted by ghosts. Those spirits, which we occasionally see as apparitions of the mind, are the parents of Cristina and Mauricio. The story begins with Cristina’s arrival at the family home after years abroad. She finds leaves in the swimming pool, mementos packed away in boxes and her brother, a recovering alcoholic and ex-con, living quietly. He’s learned to live with the shared tragedy in their past, but just barely, and Cristina seems determined to dig everything back up. TICKETS.

The Other One: The Long, Strange Trip of Bob Weir:
This documentary follows the early days of Bob Weir, the legendary rhythm guitarist of the Grateful Dead. Dropping out of school and briefly running off with Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters, Weir honed his unique guitar style in gigs ranging from “Acid Test” parties featuring copious amounts of drugs to topless clubs where the band’s penchant for lengthy jams caused the exhausted strippers to complain.
The film explores Weir’s close relationship with fellow band member Jerry Garcia and the period Weir shared a room with Neal Cassady who famously inspired Jack Kerouac’s novel On the Road. TICKETS.

Gueros:
When the teenaged Tomás becomes too much of a handful, his disgruntled mother ships him off to his brother’s place in Mexico City, hoping that the youngster will benefit from the presence of an older male. Unfortunately, brother Fede is far from the calming influence mom had hoped for: he’s a slacker student, currently sitting out the demonstrations and suffering from anxiety attacks. As the brothers become acquainted, a half-baked plan is hatched to track down the elusive folk-singer Epigmenio Cruz, who once made Bob Dylan cry… TICKETS.

The Gambler:
When working a high-pressure, underpaid job—say, as a paramedic—sometimes you have to make your own macabre fun. And if you can make some fast cash in the process, all the better. Such is the case with Vincentas , a Lithuanian first responder who pioneers the idea of an office pool that allows his coworkers to bet on whether a patient will survive. TICKETS.

August Winds:
Shirley, a gorgeous young woman, is in the countryside taking care of her aging grandmother when her diver boyfriend discovers a skull in the ocean. Then a corpse washes ashore… Youthful vitality and decay contrast throughout the film, evoking a sense of the confluence of time. Shot by the director Gabriel Mascaro himself, the stunning cinematography lends an optimistic beauty to the seemingly dark subject matter. TICKETS.

The Infinite Man:
After botching a last-ditch attempt to save his relationship with Lana, Dean sees no other option than inventing time travel so that he can give it another shot. In doing so, he initiates a seemingly inescapable circuit of events and spawns a legion of romantic rivals in the form of other misguided versions of himself. Also thrown into the mix is Terry, Lana’s ex—and a former Olympic javelin thrower for good measure—who’s intent on whisking her away in his battered sedan. As complications ensue and quickly escalate, writer-director Hugh Sullivan’s audaciously structured debut spirals into antic absurdity while delivering both a pointed cautionary tale about the folly of trying to blueprint a perfect romantic weekend and a poignant reminder that, in love, we’re often our own worst enemy. TICKETS.

Marmato:
If Colombia is the new El Dorado of the global gold rush then the small mountain town of Marmato, riddled with primitive gold mines, is the new frontier. For 500 years, the community has sustained its economy by mining, drilling and dynamiting the mountain’s rich veins, barely denting the reserves, worth an estimated $20 billion. Over the past several years, a Canadian corporation bought out nearly all of the local mining interests at a fraction of their worth and promoted a plan to level the mountain—and town of Marmato—with an enormous open-pit mine. Filming with unusual care and access for nearly six years, director Mark Grieco delivers a powerful elegy for a traditional community besieged by forces that spin inexorably beyond its control. TICKETS.