FFWD Weekly
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Film
by Jaime FrederickWhen the first Calgary International Film Festival begins on Tuesday, September 26, we may be seeing the launch of an annual cultural event that will bolster the sadly unexploited environment for unusual and challenging movies from this country and around the world that rarely, if ever, get screened in this city. Ideally, this will be a festival that will afford Calgarians the same opportunity to see great cinema that citizens of other major Canadian cities have been accustomed to seeing for years. Often, many of the best films that play the international film festivals in cities like Montreal, Vancouver and Toronto never receive theatrical exhibition or even video distribution anywhere else in Canada. So, for Calgary to be joining the ranks of those cities in developing a festival of this kind may, in fact, be a very exciting thing.
At the same time, some critics, myself among them, have also been heard to lament the fact that we, as Calgarians, believe that we must follow the same models for film festivals in other places, no matter how successful those models may be. While the idealism and hard work behind this inaugural festival must be applauded, it is unfortunate that it has become necessary for Calgary to measure the success of its cultural events in comparison to those in Toronto. It is important to remember that the Toronto International Film Festival started out as a very small event in 1976, and only over the years has it grown to become the hoity-toity film industry behemoth that it is. While the possibility of achieving something similarly glitzy in Calgary definitely exists, it certainly will not happen in a short period of time, and in the process we have to wonder whether a newer, shinier festival is the best way to promote an appreciation of cinema in a city that already has some unique film festivals with excellent programming and genuinely interesting thematic underpinnings.
Herland (the feminist film and video festival), Fairy Tales, and, particularly, the Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers’ annual $100 Film Festival, have all been steadily gaining greater public support over the last several years, and are expanding to accommodate a growing interest in fringe cinema. It's not that the Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF) poses any kind of threat to the existence of these somewhat smaller but no less important festivals, but it is possible that some further marginalization will occur.
More likely, greater exposure to a wider array of films will promote a greater interest in cinema of all kinds, but it is still completely reasonable to ask why it is necessary to have a new festival with greater mainstream profile when resources might be better utilised to continue the development of one or more of these already established festivals?
Andrew Eyck, programming director for the CIFF, explains it this way: "While other film festivals have films that were geared toward certain markets, there was no festival in Calgary at the time for larger international films that were being bypassed by Calgary theatres. As well, we saw an opening to present smaller independent films and documentaries.
"In Calgary theatres, there just hasn’t been enough space to bring the wide range of films that are available. So, as a way of providing Calgarians with greater variety of films, and also to provide them with a social atmosphere to view the films, we developed a plan for the very first Calgary International Film Festival," he says.
The festival includes a huge variety of films from all over the world, including features from Israel, Germany, China, India, Japan, the United States, Italy and Brazil, as well as a number of features and shorts by Canadian directors. In addition, the festival's gala opening film will be local director Gary Burns's third feature, waydowntown, showing at the Globe Cinema’s two screens on Wednesday, September 27 at 6:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. Coincidentally, waydowntown was a hit at the recently concluded Toronto International Film Festival, where it garnered critical and audience acclaim and won the award for the Best Canadian Feature. In a move that signals the type of programming that will eventually set the festival apart from a regular night at the movies, Burns will be in attendance at the first Calgary screenings of his new film, and at the private party to follow at Harry Rosen in TD Square.
"I think over the years the CIFF will develop an identity of its own, but I think for our first year we're really just attempting to lay a foundation from which to build and follow on the various successful examples of international film festivals in Canada," explains Eyck.
"That would involve bringing more directors, producers and technical people to Calgary to speak about their films and to have forums, lectures and discussions geared toward filmmaking and the world of film in general.
"I think a lot of Calgarians are saying it's about time something like this came to Calgary," he adds. "Many people have moved to Calgary from other Canadian centres that had already established festivals, and were surprised to see there was nothing of that nature in Calgary, so they're quite pleased to see something starting up here."
(For further information about the films showing at the CIFF see the program in this week's issue, or check the festival's Web site at www.calgaryfilm.com. Screenings take place at the Globe Cinema, Plaza Theatre and the Uptown Screen, and advance tickets may be purchased at Ticketmaster.)
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