Creston’s second annual 7th Siding Film Festival is returning on Aug. 17, with Monday’s screening acting as the first of four single-evening festival showings that are scheduled to take place in August, September, October and November.
“We were planning to do an even bigger film festival this year, but with COVID-19, the plan had to change to do something smaller and safer,” said Mark Wolfe, one of the festival’s organizers and co-founder of the Kootenay Film Society. “Instead of a single, fall-event, we start with something in the summer and see how that goes.”
Last year saw a total of 200 locals participate in the festival, and organizers this year decided to open their doors to submissions from international filmmakers as well, resulting in 1,000 entries from around the world.
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“When we created this festival, the intention was to bring a rural focus to the films…There’s not too many festivals in the world that really celebrate rural and remote film,” said Wolfe. “That’s our working theme, so film-goers should come away with a strong sense of rurality.”
According to Wolfe, there were 102 submissions from India, 96 from the U.S., 94 from Iran, 60 in France, 50 in Italy and 20 in Germany. A total of 99 came from Canada.
“It reflects their keen desire to show films in North America. Any North American exposure is going to be attractive to certain international areas,” said Wolfe.
After sifting through the submissions, 55 films came out on top and will be screened throughout the four-day festival.
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Categories include feature film, animated film, short music video, Canadian short film, international short film, documentaries and student films.
“The feature films will possibly include some virtual reality. The longer documentaries and feature films will be down the road in the fall,” said Wolfe.
Monday’s showing — which will be hosted at the new Titled Brick Art Gallery location at 101 Canyon St. — will feature about a dozen short films, created by local and international filmmakers. Films range in running time from 50 seconds to 10 minutes or more.
Capacity has been limited to 40 ticket holders. Tickets go for $10 for each show, where a season pass can be purchased for $25.
Tickets can be ordered here.
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