Local films still important to WIFF after 10 years
The Windsor International Film Festival is doing its part in keeping Canadian cinema alive as they enter their 10th year of operation.
This is the biggest year to date for the WIFF since its creation in 2005 where it featured only 16 films spanning three days. This year’s festival will be showing it’s 111 films in 182 screenings over the course of nine days.
“A lot is going on, we’re very excited,” said Vincent Georgie, WIFF’s Executive Director. “We’re anticipating our biggest audience ever. We’re really excited by all this growth.”
Georgie is passionate about promoting films made in Canada and in Windsor specifically.
“We really always want to highlight the best of this community.”
The 20-minute documentary Imagining Angels is one of the four films made in Windsor to be shown at the festival this years. The film documents a group of young artists who create chamber opera based on the works of photographer Pat Stern and Windsor born opera singer Emilia Cundari. The film’s co-director Pat Jeflyn believes keeping Canadian cinema alive is vitally important to our natural identity.
“It’s absolutely 100 per cent important,” said Jeflyn. “How can you be a people if you don’t tell your stories?”
WIFF is anticipation an audience turnout of over 15,000 moviegoers over the course of the festival in addition to several special guests that will be in attendance. Chris McDonald, president of the annual Toronto based documentary film festival, will be hosting the Hot Docs Showcase where 12 of the festival’s most popular films will be shown. The festival also hosts the filmmaking challenge The 48-Hour Flick Fest where filmmakers are tasked with completing a short film in two days and 100 Mile Shorts which features short films from post-secondary students within a 100-mile-radius of Windsor.
Other festival guests include Diane Whitten (director of Vessel), Katie Boland (star of the controversial Gerontophilia) and Windsor native Michael McNamara (producer of Big News From Grand Rock).
The festival begins Saturday, Nov. 1 at 9 a.m. and ends on Nov. 9.
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