It’s been a while since I covered an event like this, but it’s been an even longer time since I covered VBAFF, so it was about time I got back. VBAFF is officially 10 years old, and it has evolved, sort of. Okay, maybe it had its strange moments. Like at the third year, when someone felt the need to call the police during a screening, or the fifth year when someone complained about a couple films at Vancity Theatre thus resulting in a permanent ban. But hey, with something that has ‘badass’ in the name, what would you expect for a festival? I guess a lot of people had different perceptions on what badass was supposed to be. This year’s VBAFF was 1 night only at the Rio which is totally cool with screening anything intense, because hey, the Rio Grind shows some similar stuff too. Why 1 night only? Either some more bans or not enough filmmakers making cool enough content to be considered badass. Well, whatever the reason, I still got a chance to check it out for the night, so I’m kicking it old-school with an event summary for the first time in a while. So let’s prepare to hear about the most badass night of the year. Although, I might as well give shoutouts to David Aboussafy for being generous with giving me media access, Roderick Dryden Morrison for complimenting my look, Joel Reimer and Misha Samorodin for some fun little chats, the photographers for getting some great shots of my OC (more on that later), that employee at Rio who loaned me a pen, everyone who submitted, and all those performers who I’ll talk about much later on. LET’S GO, MOTHERFUCKERS!
Block 1: Sugar Rot – For the first happening of the night, David himself appeared on stage Nadine L’Esperance, Deb Graff and a puppet who would be used in one of the short films that screened at this. They made a nice little opening for the event to help warm up the crowd since it was raining heavily out there for quite a few days. Starting off was From One Hole to Another, a local film featuring a man who got run over and then his innards form into a tiny human to go find somewhere else to live. This was extremely bizarre, being the way it was, and I’ll bet David is really proud of the credit he got in this one playing the role of ‘Douchebag Jon’. After that came Contraception where a woman is dissatisfied with her weight and meets a doctor who… has intercourse with her? His methods are questionable but he gets results, I would say. Now to get into the feature itself, Sugar Rot. It’s all about a sweet (literally sweet) young lady named Candy (Chloe Macleod) who works at an ice cream shop. At first, one wouldn’t think she’s sugary sweet at all, because Candy likes listening to loud music and constantly attending a venue where the loudest bands ever play, and she eats candy/toppings at the shop in a loud and seductive manner. But one day, she gets impregnated by the creepy ice cream man who brings in the new shipment. After getting an unexpected pregnancy, Candy does all she can to kill off the fetus. She also meets a guy named Sid (Drew Forster) at her favourite venue one night and he goes a little too far in eating her out. No, really. He bites her. You’re probably figuring out where right now. The rest of the film is about Candy dealing with this weird sickness which gives her an odd rainbow rash that tastes sweet, Sid wanting to eat her up, and her boss Barbie (Michela Ross) disapproving of Candy’s life trying to help the best she can, even recommending the town’s only doctor, Dr. Herschel Gordon (Charles Lynne). Pretty intense stuff, I gotta say it gives an interesting new definition to the term food baby. Director Becca Kozak was quick to explain how the film was going to Newfoundland next, and how fun it was to work with her bestie. Still despite the iffy content, it made me hungry. Good thing I was in a movie theatre and could grab some snacks at the concession right at intermission.
Block 2: The Stickman’s Hollow – A section about curses and disturbing happenings. I think this one may have been cursed because my pen mysteriously disappeared and then I found it again a whole row back. Several other things disappeared among audience members too, I heard. Anyways, this showcase opened with 2 short films, the first being Manic Sparkle: Paradigm of Death and Not Death, which was a quick experimental type from Iran and was kind of an essay with strange visuals. Some would call it creepy. Next came School’s Out, a short film by friend Warren Dean Fulton who also runs New West Film Fest. Now I know I’ll have to bug him for free media passes in the near future. Anyways, his short film is about a janitor working in an empty school at night when he comes across strange things, like chairs arranged in a weird pile. The ending got everyone excited. Now for The Stickman’s Hollow, a film about 4 stories that lace together in a weird way. The first story features a little boy named Ollie and his parents going on a camping trip and Ollie records his family as they go to a distant mostly uncharted area for some fishing and and come across strange things like an empty car, a strange figure made of sticks in the forest, and a figure in the dark. Later that night, Ollie is invited by the voice of a little girl to come out and play. Ollie’s dad Ross gets killed and the camping trip becomes an instant disaster. The second story is about a priest who comes to town to perform an exorcism on a girl named Clara who is exhibiting abnormal behaviour as if she’s possessed by something. The parents have to take her back to where she was baptized which coincidentally was the place where the family was going to go. In the end, the priest suffered an injury and Clara escaped into the woods leaving everyone dead. It explained where the empty car came from. The third part is shown to take place in ’98 when a husband and wife paddle to an island where a dead body is to explain just what this creature’s entity is. The final part features Ollie’s Auntie Alice who lives with her partner and decides to go out and investigate why so many of her family members disappeared in the first story after getting a call regarding them all missing. It was a pretty weird and chilling film but I love how it was made. This screener even included a heckler in front of me and nobody even tried to kick him out. I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t go Gracie on him. The Q&A afterwards revealed that it started as an SNG short and the whole thing was filmed through Norway, Nanaimo, Kelowna, Slave Lake, Vancouver Island, just about anywhere the gas took the crew. Even though it looks like found footage, there were actually about 30 VFX shots in this whole thing. The DOP had an interesting tunnel to shuffle through at the end while simultaneously dealing with paranoia, and the whole shoot took about 11 days.
Shorts, Wild Live Acts, and Genre Awards – To get some more variety in the show, and prove to make the whole thing more badass, audience also got treated to some live acts, a costume contest (in case anyone’s wondering about the outfit I’m wearing), and some other weird stuff. David Aboussafy introduced Nhi Do and Jesse Inocalla who hosted just about everything else for the rest of the night. First live performance was Lukas Knab who gave the really cool act of swallowing and doing acrobatics with fire. That’s what I call fireworks. However, the DJ had some technical issues with his music, and Lukas stated he needed a certain song instead of the one from the first part played again. An audience member attempted to make it more musical by singing and everyone else had other suggestions. Hey, Lukas, if you’re reading this, might I suggest Pyromania from Cascada for future shows? I’d like to see how you perform to that one.
After his act, we got back to seeing short films on the big ol’ screen again. First was Divine Comedy: What the Hell? which looked a lot like the old Disney cartoons from eons ago, and showed a bird lady deciding to transfer to Earth after losing interest in hell. Next was Topher Graham’s own Don’t Tell Your Mom which I saw earlier during Vancouver Horror Show and was about a man and his cousin working in the business of selling blood to vampires. Pretty funny and interesting. For people who preferred zombies over vampires, Bad Girls Eat Brains was the weird film which had a nerdy girl at a party who wakes up and experiences the aftermath. The more quick approach came from Midnight Snack which was really just a novelty commercial for anyone who enjoys eating flesh and keeping their teeth clean while doing so. Following that was the strange short called MicroShort where a stressed woman is bogged down with work and then discovers her microwave acting funny. The more gruesome film, The Harpies was about some friends investigating an abandoned building and discovering some stories about themselves and each other. The final film was Caustic from Brazil which featured a mother and her daughter experiencing an illness, but the cure they discover is a real sacrifice. Hard to say much else about that one. The Q&A after this one was questionable itself.
Next for the first time in years (at least for me), I got to see Aleister Crane do some of his own interesting magic in a funny and educational manner. He invited a lovely young lady by the name of Justine to assist getting her to nail a stainless steel spike through his nose, then scanned her thoughts to find the page of Frankenstein she was thinking of. Great stuff, but I can’t help but wonder whatever happened to Gidget Gravedigger. Did one of his tricks make her disappear for good? Oh well, at least I didn’t get cursed from the popcorn he offered me in 2019.
After another intermission (yes, there were lots) the audience witnessed a sword fight between Nicholas Lee and Affair of Honour, who were also trying to promote their film Nighthawks, a fighting-type movie taking place in a sushi restaurant. Nerve-wracking stuff to most viewers, but despite the fight, the two guys are friends. Then there was that costume contest, where I can explain my outfit a little more. When I saw in VBAFF’s post there was a costume contest, I had to come up with the most badass outfit ever. And I instantly decided on my OC, Scenarious: a dark magician/sorceror type of the highest level and a trademark expressive noise. He was mainly inspired by a song I heard from a J-pop duo a few years ago. Anyways, I didn’t win anything at the contest, but at least I wasn’t the first one off-stage. It ultimately narrowed down to 2 people, one being a lady who went as life carrying a basket of lemons and bribing the audience with lemon lollipops. Another winner was some talent from one of the short films. I have to question if that would be considered cheating but since when is this fest one for following rules? I mean, the stuff in it anyway probably doesn’t screen much of anywhere else. Either way, I still had fun at it, and Scenarious wouldn’t show visible discomfort, he’d just curse the audience with a disease that would lead to a fairly unhealthy epidemic leading to truckloads of death in the near future.
The Vampire Burlesque Act afterwards was exciting, featuring Melody Mangler with bat wings and a tight black outfit. She went all out afterwards showing off her tassels and a unique double thong. After all that lively live, some more short films were ready to screen.
Starting off was a film called Overtide which had a man making his way from a shore to the middle of an island where he meets his old pal, a demon with earrings who offers to send him on a quest for items so the man may get his mortality back. This one was nice, but things got more confusing with I Can See You, when an alcoholic named Frank sees the ghost of a Japanese girl who mutilates herself right before he dies. The rest of the family argue over whose turn it is to revive him, but something else catches up to them instead. Next was a film everyone didn’t quite know how to pronounce: Terroir. A short film about a woman goes out of town to work with a man who makes wine, and he has some special ingredients he adds to it. This one was predictable for me, but not as predictable as the air conditioning that wafted through the theatre during some exterior shots. Felt like I was outside for a bit. Next came Lupe Q and the Galactic Corn Cake which showed how a young singer used her newfound corn cake making skills to save her whole band from cannibal aliens. It was just silly, but not as crazy as The Devil Makes Three where a band gets into an argument, then the devil himself raises his own hell killing some of them off. The more messed up film I had seen was Black Widow’s Lair, where a woman invites a man into her bedroom for BDSM and livestreams cutting off his appendage in the process. The last film of that night was The Sorrow, which I may have seen somewhere before. It was still cool, though. The Q&A afterwards was super quick and even had an intense amount of people on stage for it.
After that, we got another burlesque show from Faye Havoc and Gnarleigh, who danced around seductively with pythons. Sexy snakes? Yeah, there was some contrast amongst the two, but I got semi-distracted on account of filmmaker Gabriel Carter making his way through my row to connect with another filmmaker Benjamin Luk. Maybe there should’ve been an intermission around then so they could chat. But the show went on, as we had one girl who looked like a hardcore fan of some heavy metal band that wears lots of makeup, and an innocent looking type who sort of reminds me of those ABDL/Littles I’ve randomly seen around on YouTube.
The night finally was starting to end though as awards were being presented, though sadly so many of the people had already dispersed. I guess the show was too much for them. I know several people who could never sit through this like I did. Nhi and Jesse kept the entertainment going for all night though and the awards presented included categories to the scripts that were submitted for the writing contest, Best Sound, Art, Editing, Cinematography, Ensemble, Writing, Director, and best Short and Feature in general. The remaining audience seemed to favour The Devil Makes Three but The Sorrow got the most awards ever that night. Though seeing as how Nhi starred in that film and hosted this event, I have to question the selection process. We really need more talent featured in these kinds of films. I’m not afraid of controversy myself, but I’m pretty sure my family would be questioning such roles. Even though my mother’s a self-proclaimed badass, she’s unsure of a lot of things I’ve done.
Conclusion – For being one night only, VBAFF still pulled it off and had an eventful night, being just badass enough to give people something to talk about for a long time. Maybe we’ll see even more films next year, or possibly get more live performances next year. Who knows what could happen? It’s sure to be exciting no matter what the outcome. And let’s hope David continues to get along with the folks at the Rio.