Travelling Distribution

Jazz Infernal

A film by

Will Niava

Synopsis

Koffi, a young Ivorian trumpeter, arrives in Montreal with nothing but the legacy of his father to guide him. Lost between the city's noise and the silence of his past, he must confront his roots to finally find his own voice.

Highlights

99th Oscars® - For Your Consideration: Best Live Action Short Film

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Tags

2026

Drama

Fiction

Genre

Drama

Country

Canada (Quebec)

Year

2026

Length

16'20"

Themes

Immigration

Arts

Social and cultural identity

BIPOC

With
Ange-Eric Nguessan, Alexis Belhumeur, Kalombo Kasongo
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Production
Zion Lipstein-Saffer (Production Disamare), Samuel Caron (Telescope Films)
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Scenario
Will Niava, Kristelle Laroche
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Artistic Direction
Alpha Estifanos
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Images
Harley Francis
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Editing
Thomas Bellefleur, Will Niava, Joshua Rosenbaum
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Sound Design
Zachary Scholes, Nataq Huault
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Music
Hichem Khalfa

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Director's Statement

JAZZ INFERNAL breathes like memory itself. It’s exhilarating, haunting, alive with the tension of not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Life in its raw complexity, where comedy and tragedy dance together in the same heartbeat. This is the emotion I want to leave trembling in your chest by the final frame.I'm drawn to those first moments, the sacred vulnerability of arrival. When your skin feels too thin for the icy Montreal winter and your heart too loud to forget the past. About 13 years ago, I was that young soul stepping off the plane from Ghana. Naïve, hungry, a storyteller with empty notebooks and eyes wide as dinner plates. I threw myself into the city's embrace, let it drag me into situations that could have shattered everything. But somehow, here I am, translating those raw, terrifying, beautiful misadventures into this film.My father's passing during the creation of JAZZ INFERNAL became the earthquake that cracked the film's foundation open, revealing depths I never planned to explore. What began as fish out of water comedy transformed into something so sacred. Through this film, I held conversations with absence. Scenes that once made me laugh now made me weep. Music stopped being background noise and became the only language grief understood. Notes carrying what words couldn't hold.JAZZ INFERNAL became my sanctuary, my healing ground. In the act of creation, I found my breath again. This is what it means to be an artist! This is what cinema is all about. To transform pain into beauty, confusion into clarity, silence into song. I've already received everything this journey had to give me. Now, sharing it feels like offering a piece of my soul. A gift born from the deepest places of becoming.

Will Niava

Will Niava

Will Niava is a filmmaker whose work spans West Africa, the United States, and Canada. From ZOO (Clermont Ferrand, Criterion Collection) to ELEMENT (VIFF), his films, both visceral and poetic, resonate across borders. He also co-wrote PARADISE, a feature film by Oscar-nominated, Jeremy Comte.

Filmography

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Social media

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Festivals

Sundance International Film Festival, USA | 2026 * Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction
International Ottawa Film Festival (IFFO), Canada | 2026 *Cadillac Fairview People's Choice Award
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