Vancouver filmmaker Nisha Platzer’s ‘back home’ returns to local screens

After premiering to sold-out audiences at the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) last year, the award-winning documentary back home is returning to local theatres later this week. 

back home is playing at VIFF Centre on April 14 and 15, as part of VIFF’s “Home Truths” series, which showcases movies from emerging Canadian creators in the lead-up to National Canadian Film Day on April 19. It was previously selected to be part of the Docs-in-Progress Canadian Showcase at Cannes.

The debut feature from Vancouver-based filmmaker Nisha Platzer follows her five-year journey to reconnect with her older brother Josh, 20 years after he took his life when she was 11.

The film’s lyrical, dreamy visuals were captured on 16mm and Super8 film, and were physically exposed to materials like plants, seawater and soil to alter the images—materials from the same kinds of places Josh found solace in his life.

In a director’s statement, Platzer said, “The abstract celluloid images represent the changing chemistry of Josh’s brain as he suffered from clinical depression, as well as illustrating my invisible physical pain—likely a manifest form of grief. As I reconnect with my brother, I’m choosing to process it in the way that has always felt most honest—visually, through film.”

While focused on Platzer's own experiences, the film has a universal message about the communal, non-linear nature of grieving and trauma.

“The film proposes that grieving, remembering, and healing from loss is best done in community than in isolation, and I hope audiences are also healed by witnessing this process unfold on screen,” she said.

back home will show at the VIFF Centre on April 14 at 7 pm and April 15 at 4 pm. Tickets are available here.