The filmmaker Nisha Platzer discusses her new feature length documentary back home, having its world premiere at the Vancouver International Film Festival (30 September & 02 October 2022), with Joseph Planta.

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

There’s a new feature length documentary having its world premiere this week at the Vancouver International Film Festival, back home. Its director Nisha Platzer joins me now. The film is a moving meditation on loss and healing, as Nisha gets to know her older brother Josh some twenty years after he took his own life. She was not yet a teen when he died, and so she navigates his friends, his chosen family, as well as others around to get to know him, and heal. The film says a lot about family, and the people we choose to be around us, as well as the need for community at a time of loss. The grieving process, as we see in the film, takes form in different ways for different people, and the loss can also be visceral and manifest itself physically. The film is also visually fascinating and arresting. I’ll ask Ms. Platzer about how she made the film, and the various media that she uses like 16mm and Super8. Nisha Platzer is a queer artist and filmmaker from Vancouver. Her last short film Vaivén won the best film award at aluCine Latin Film & Media Arts Festival. She studied at the Escuela Internacional de Cine y Television in Cuba. This film, her first feature, is supported by Telefilm Talent to Watch, and recently presented at the Cannes Docs 2022 – Docs-in-Progress Canadian Showcase. Nisha Platzer produced the film with Joella Cabalu, and wrote it with Jenn Strom. The film screens this Friday evening at 6pm, 30 September 2022 at the Vancity Theatre, and Sunday afternoon, 02 October 2022 at 3.45pm at the Cinematheque. It appears sold out as of this morning, so you might have to just show up and get into a standby lineup for a chance to get in. Visit www.viff.org for more information. And visit www.melodiousimage.com for Nisha’s site. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Nisha Platzer; Ms. Platzer, good morning.

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