Port Alberni is hosting one of more than 1,700 events across Canada celebrating National Canadian Film Day 150 this Wednesday, April 19.
The Alberni Valley Film Festival committee, in conjunction with the Toronto Film Festival and Landmark Cinemas, will screen The Sweet Hereafter, an Atom Egoyan film from 1997, at 5 p.m. at the Paramount Theatre. Admission is free.
“The Toronto Film Festival asked us if we would like to have a free film, and of course we said yes,” local film fest committee member Gareth Flostrand said.
“We had a choice; they gave us a list of films. We chose this one because it’s a Sarah Polley (film) and we know they’re quite good movies,” Flostrand said.
Based on the bestselling novel by Russell Banks, The Sweet Hereafter stars Polley, Ian Holm and Bruce Greenwood. A lawyer (Holm), pursued by concerns of losing a daughter to drugs, comes to a Canadian town where 20 children have died in a school bus accident. He wants the parents to sue to make those at fault pay. This shattering film won eight Genie Awards and garnered two Oscar nominations for Egoyan.
Canadian Film Day gives Canadians the chance to celebrate Canada’s 150th anniversary of Confederation by watching a great Canadian film in what Reel Canada has dubbed the world’s largest film festival.
“It will be a party like no other,” says Sharon Corder, artistic director of Reel Canada.
“Film is a lens through which we can view our past and create a vision for a bright and inclusive future,” says Eleanor McMahon, Ontario’s provincial minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport. “It is only fitting that we commemorate our 150th with an acknowledgment of our legacy in film.”
editor@albernivalleynews.com
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Please note: The time for the National Film Day screening is 5 p.m. A calendar listing in the April 18, 2017 Alberni Valley News was incorrect.
