Grand River Film Festival gears up for 15th year
Posted May 7, 2023 05:00:51 AM.
Last Updated May 5, 2023 06:40:06 PM.
The Grand River Film Festival will return to its fully in-person experience on Tuesday, showcasing nine features and 39 shorts in Waterloo Region until May 13.
Michael Clark, Chair of the Board of Directors of the Grand River Film Festival, told the Mike Farwell Show that this year’s films come from “all over.”
“Part of what we take pride in is that we’re bringing films from across Canada, from around the world, and from our own backyard,” he said. “We’ve got films in this year’s festival from Uganda, and from Brazil, and from Australia, and then we have films from Toronto and we have films from British Columbia and we have shorts that were made here in the Region of Waterloo.”
Clark said the festival aims to show their audience films they wouldn’t see otherwise in the region.
“We don’t want people to have to get in their car and go down to Toronto, or maybe never have a chance to see these films,” he said. “So we bring them here and we give people that chance.”
In total there are 11 languages and 12 countries being represented in this year’s event.
Clark said international films do not face a barrier when entering.
“I think a couple years ago when Parasite won the Academy Award, the director, when he was accepting, he said, ‘If people can get over the one-inch barrier of the subtitles across the bottom of the screen, you open yourself up to all the wonder and splendor of what world cinema has to offer,” said Clark.
One film at this year’s festival that Clark lists as a must-see is Once Upon a Time in Uganda, a documentary playing at 7 p.m. on May 12 at the Princess Twin Cinemas.
He also looks forward to the shorts, which he describes as some of his favourite films. The festival will show a free screening of locally made shorts in Cambridge on May 12. There will be another free screening on May 13, showing Indigenous, Canadian and International shorts at the Cambridge Community Players and the KPL Theatre.
“Filmmakers can really experiment,” Clark said of shorts. If they’ve got five minutes to tell something, they can tell the best story they possibly can in five minutes,” he said. “They can experiment with different technology, or how they make the movie. They really are a place where you never know what you’re going to expect.”
Screening schedules and tickets can be found on the GRFF website. Tickets can be purchased for $12 each or as one of four combos for $20.
