Windsor International Film Festival kicked off

By Abass Wali Mohammad

 

The Windsor International Film Festival is on the screen again for film lovers and film makers from all around the world.

The tenth anniversary of WIFF has started with more than 100 films from Asia to the Middle East, Europe and North America.

“Ten years, great films, great people, great friends and great community,” said Vincent Georgie, WIFF Executive Director. “Can’t believe we are here. It’s a lot to celebrate tonight. A lot of people worked hard to be here and to imagine something as big as this.”

Georgie said many people worked hard in the past 10 years. Even before he ever took the stage and many people have put time and energy in to building the Windsor International Film Festival.

“Peter Coady, took over and galvanized the festival and took it to places we couldn’t possibly imagine. The credit is to you Peter,” said Georgie.

Georgie said Nick and Rowena Cacciato, Sung Min Bae and Michael Ruffolo are the people who have been working with the festival since day one and it’s “unbelievable.”

Maxime Giroux, the director of the film “Felix and Meira,” said for him film has been the answer to the ageless question, “What is it that sets us apart from animals? “Well we tell stories and this film is one of those stories.”

“This film festival has been a tremendous amount of change since the year one,” said Giroux. “In year one independent films and these stories bypassed Windsor because the powers that be in Toronto thought. The Windsor International Film Festival was unworthy.”

He added it is different now because the WIFF is not just bringing movies from all over the world but with itself is part of Windsor’s story to the rest of the world.

Susan Stockwell, the corporate secretary of the WFCU said the day of the ribbon cutting (of their new retail location downtown) they announced partnership with three new organizations that are dedicated to insuring that the arts and culture in the community are alive and one of those organizations is the Windsor International Film Festival.

“We made a three year commitment to be the presenting sponsor because we knew that the last 10 years have been hard work and dedications and we had seen the results of that and we were ready to celebrate,” said Stockwell. “We knew 10 years was going to be great and the year 11 and 12 are going to be even better.”

Andrew Kidd, one of the volunteers at the festival said working with the festival has been the best experience of his life and he is happy that he is volunteering at the film festival.

“I think the best thing about Windsor International Film Festival is the diversity and cohesion of the community,” said Kidd.