2015 Windsor International Film Festival

By Kayla Wang

 

The 10th annual Windsor International Film Festival will run from Nov. 3-8 and will be hosted at the Capitol Theatre where 90 films will be screened during the week.

WIFF celebrates the culture and history of film making for people who are addicted to films. This year, the number of internationally produced films have increased and at the conclusion of the event the WIFF 2015 People’s Choice Awards will be voted on by those who attended.

Vincent Georgie, the executive director of WIFF said, it is necessary for the city to have this event.

“The Windsor International Film Festival is a cultural, not-for-profit organization whose mission is to recognize and celebrate the art of cinema by films and film makers,” said Georgie. “Through its exhibition, it educates audiences on Canadian content and talent… it provides training opportunities for emerging film makers and promotes the creative economy of Windsor and Southwestern Ontario.”

WIFF began in 2005. Over the past 10 years, it screens thousands of films from Ontario to British Columbia and even some international countries. The people who work for WIFF are all on a volunteer basis, consisting of well-rounded staff ranging from program management to technical engineers.

By the end of the film festival, movie goers will have an opportunity to cast a vote for their favourite film.

Stillwater, directed by Sue Mae Bing, shows the prohibition period of history during the 1920s through a touching story.

In 1923, the law in the U.S.A made the production, transportation and selling of alcohol illegal, which created a market of exploitation for Canada. Jackson is a young man working to provide for his family. But when his little sister falls deathly ill with Spanish flu, he can only stand by as Pastor Whitfield, (a temperance-crazed Baptist pastor) performs final rights. When Jackson can’t afford medicine that might have saved his sister, he desperately turns to stealing alcohol from a cellar of the local speakeasy. Caught red-handed in the cellar at the Sand Point Inn, Jackson is brought to the Inn’s enterprising proprietor, Edith Sinclair.

“We really think as film makers it is our responsibility to show that no matter how hard the lives of some people were it has always been apart of Windsor’s culture,” said Mae Bing. “People should know it.”