The screening of the opener at this year’s World Community Film Festival provides people with a chance to reflect on something that happened here almost 20 years ago.
The film, Gay Chorus: Deep South, provides a look at a recent tour of the southern U.S. by the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus.
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Prior to the screening, Janet Fairbanks, one of the festival organizers, recalled a local incident in 2001 when a fundraising performance by the gay and lesbian choir at the very same Sid Williams Theatre was disrupted by a man who’d bought a ticket late and released pepper spray into the venue. The audience had to be cleared and an alternate venue found.
When the choir left the Sid though, despite the pepper spray, they kept singing out into the streets of downtown Courtenay.
On Friday night then, Fairbanks brought up Tini Filippino to the stage to lead the film fest crowd in song, while Rhonda Burden performed another piece that had been sung to the visiting choir all those years ago to boost their spirits.
The film festival continues through Saturday, with a range of films at venues downtown. Anyone interested can pop by the festival’s Community Action Hive inside the Florence Filberg Centre, as well as find out information about many participating community organizations.
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