fight like a girl the lead hook at vancouver international black film festival
the five-day festival features 35 films in total. many of those are shorts made as part of the festival’s being black in canada program.
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a still from rryla mcintosh's silver linings.
vancouver international black film festival
when: dec. 13-17
where: viff centre, 1181 seymour st., and online beginning dec. 13 at 9 p.m.
tickets and info:
in fight like a girl, a young congolese woman escapes from captivity and becomes a professional boxer.
the opening night film at this year’s vancouver international black film festival, it’s one of three features screening at the annual event.
the other two are la hembrita, a dominica republic-set drama about a well-off middle-aged woman who ends up taking care of one of her maid’s granddaughters. the toronto-based film sway is about a black community leader in the regent park neighbourhood whose life unravels after he is blackmailed by a woman with whom he’s had a one-night stand, and his brother is kidnapped by a mysterious gang.
vancouver actress rryla mcintosh’s short film silver linings screens as part of this year’s vancouver international black film festival dec. 13-17 at viff centre. jenna berman photo
now in its fourth year, the five-day festival features 35 films in total. many of those are shorts made as part of the festival’s being black in canada program. this year, the program supported 30 black canadian filmmakers, aged 18 to 30 years, in montreal, toronto, halifax, ottawa, calgary, and vancouver in the creation of their first documentary short films (8 to 10 minutes). the filmmakers received professional coaching for each stage of the process from industry professionals.
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rryla mcintosh is one of four vancouver-based filmmakers, along with brendan riley cairns, ivanna samuel, and favour onosemuode, who benefited from the program.
she says that the program was integral to helping her make her short, silver linings. in it, the actress looks back at a pivotal moment in her life and how she was able to find a new, supportive family.
“the program was definitely the catalyst” for her film, says mcintosh.
“we were given all these lessons, in cinematography and sound and scriptwriting. and through that, we also got to work with personal mentors for each cohort across canada.”
the mentor for the vancouver cohort was toronto-based screenwriting instructor fabio montanari.
“he helped us come up with our ideas and write our scripts. from there my producer jamila pomeroy and a team put all of these physical things into action, setting up locations and everything we needed to shoot on the day. and then it was a two-day shoot.”
an actress with caribbean, costa rican, and canadian heritage, mcintosh has starred in the 2022 comedy disney’s under wraps 2, apple tv’s schmigadoon!, and three hallmark movies, including two that will debut this month, season’s greetings from cherry lane and deck the halls on cherry lane. she also filmed scenes for oz perkins’ successful 2024 horror indie longlegs, which was shot in vancouver, although her work didn’t make the final cut.
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also making her filmmaking debut in the program is favour onosemuode. the 20-year-old nigerian-born singer and actress, whose credits include the cw series batwoman, has contributed faith > fear, which she describes as being about “overcoming the fear of the unknown, overcoming things that are deeply resonant within the black community and that involve belonging. the main character overcomes her fear using faith as a guide and music as an anchor.”
the most valuable lesson that she learned in making the short was that she could do it, she says.
“in choosing to do the program, even though i didn’t have prior knowledge about certain things, i just went for it. i took a step in bringing these stories of life. and i feel like i can apply that to other things in areas in my life.”
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