>>PREVIEW
PRAIRIE TALES 8
August 17 to 18
CSIF Screening Room (Sofa Cinema)
For eight years now the Prairie Tales film festival has been travelling around the country showing off short film and video works created by Alberta artists. Presented by Edmonton’s Metro Cinema Society, the aptly titled Prairie Tales festival creates a national stage for Albertan filmmakers to portray their creations, which is significant, since many of these artists get overlooked in the grander scheme of things.
Brendan French, programming co-ordinator for the CSIF (Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers), says that the Prairie Tales program is important because it gives the local audience an opportunity to view "films that may have not been available to be seen otherwise." Another notable aspect to the festival is that it travels across Canada. With dates scheduled in almost every part of the country, Alberta artists will not only have local exposure, but will get their works shown to a vast, national audience.
Prairie Tales exhibits a broad range of films and genres. Calgarian standouts this year include: Don Best’s Damaged Goods, an attention-grabbing and honest short film, and four time AMPIA (Alberta Motion Picture Industries Association) award winner Jonathan Joffe’s Cost of Living, which is a smart, sci-fi take on mortality. Other noteworthy films this year are: Trevor Anderson’s darkly comedic look at love in Rugburn, and aAron Munson’s Not So Natural, which ponders whether or not humans are alienating themselves from nature.
Paul Williams, co-ordinator of the program, explains, "there is a lot of enthusiasm out there for this kind of work… and we’ve (significantly) expanded our venue list every year since 1998." If things keep progressing the way they are, we can expect to see much more of Prairie Tales in the future. |
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