Nine days of film begins with Pocket Films and documentaries
The Guelph Film Festival began last Friday, kicking off nine days of artistic short films, documentaries, and musical performances in various locales around downtown Guelph. The Ontarion had the opportunity to check out some of the short films, documentaries, and talks presented on Saturday.
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On Saturday afternoon, the Boarding House Gallery presented Bluefin, an award-winning documentary directed by John Hopkins, accompanied by the short documentary Invading Giants by Kevin A. Fraser.
Invading Giants depicts the icebergs that drift for thousands of kilometres until they reach “Iceberg Alley” in Newfoundland and Labrador — and the people whose livelihoods depend on them coming to shore.
Bluefin takes the story to North Lake, P.E.I., and focuses on the decline of the global tuna population and its effect on Canadian fishermen. The local fishermen disagree with scientists about whether the tuna are in danger of extinction or not. The documentary takes time to examine various perspectives on the issue, from ecologist and biologist to local, commercial, international, and sports fishermen. In a post-film discussion, Jen Whyte, a local expert, talked about the seafood industry and the definition of sustainable fishing.
In an interview with The Ontarion, Carolyn Meili, the festival coordinator, commented on the festival’s goals and mission statement: “We show films from all over the world, and then we try to have conversations after the films to link issues from different parts of the world to local initiatives.”
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“We show primarily documentary films,” said Meili, “and we have three pillars of programming: social justice, the environment, and community building.”
But addressing one of these subjects isn’t enough to ensure a place in the festival.
“It needs to be something new to the topic,” said Meili. “There’s a lot of repetition in the documentary world, and so we are always looking for films that bring new ways of seeing a certain topic. We are not looking for things that reaffirm what we already know, but things that makes us grow.”
The Guelph Film Festival runs until Saturday, Nov. 18 in downtown Guelph.
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This year’s Pocket Films
The Pocket Film series plays on a loop for the duration of the Guelph Film Festival in various small and unique venues.
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Sainte Barbe by Claude Barras and Cédric Louis, the story of a young boy whose father has a magical beard, fittingly shown at Matthew’s Barbershop
Due South, a collection of three short films projecting different perspectives on the United States, plays at the Red Brick Cafe
165708 by Josephine Massarella uses chemical and in-camera techniques to warp the viewer’s sense of time. It plays in the Capacity 3 Gallery
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Photo by Alano Marcano