The 34th Atlantic Film Festival!
The Atlantic Film Festival is not strictly for film pros,
critics or connoisseurs. It is for anyone who has a love, or at least a
curiosity, for film.
The 34th Atlantic Film Festival (AFF) opens
Thursday, September 11 and will present more than 200 films and special events over
eight days across the Halifax region.
“I’ve landed
my dream job because I’m absolutely obsessed with films and have been all my
life,” shares AFF’s executive director and native New Brunswicker, Wayne
Carter. “We’re very lucky that the Atlantic Film Festival is able to be the
champion first and foremost of our regional film community and our industry and
what it’s producing. Atlantic Canadians make a lot of content and interestingly
enough, they make a lot of films about being Atlantic Canadian. They make no
bones about the fact that they’re filmed here, and they’re very much about the
experience about being here. That gives us a very interesting story to tell.”
Carter says in recent years the festival has
increased its Atlantic Canadian programming. For the 34th AFF, not
only will there be the annual Atlantic Gala—this year it features Andrea
Dorfman’s new film Heartbeat, starring poet/songwriter Tanya Davis. There
will also be an Atlantic Spotlight program.
“We have two other really high profile
feature films that are getting a lot of notice and these are going to be world
premieres,” says Carter describing the Atlantic Canadian films Relative
Happiness, based on the book by Cape Breton author Lesley Crewe; and Danny,
a documentary about the life of Newfoundland politician, Danny Williams.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to see both of
these films and they’re really, really terrific,” shares Carter. “I think the
Danny Williams documentary is really going to knock people off their feet. It’s
got very interesting content about truly one of the more intriguing political
figures of the Atlantic Canadian and certainly the Canadian scene from the last
25 years.”
“Then we get to partner these Atlantic
Canadian films with the strongest films in the rest of the Canadian marketplace
and of course complement them with high profile international films,” continues
Carter. “We literally have films for just about any taste.”
With features and shorts, in multiple
languages and of mutliple genres, from across Canada and from countries such as
Argentina and Bhutan to Switzerland and the UK, there is plenty to choose from.
This year’s opening gala film Elephant
Song will be screened on Thursday, September 11 at the Dalhousie Arts
Centre’s Rebecca Cohn. Its director Charles Binamé, writer Nicolas Bilon, producer
Richard Goudreau, and cast member Xavier Dolan will be present for the red
carpet event.
“We’re very excited about the opening gala
because we’re anticipating some high profile guests, and just the fact that
we’re going to the Rebecca Cohn, it’s pretty well the biggest soft seat theatre
in the city,” beams Carter. “It certainly brings a level of glamour and
importance to our opening night and brings a big audience in front of the film—we’re
talking about 900 seats!”
Twenty-five year old film phenom Xavier Dolan
will not only be featured at AFF as an actor in Elephant Song and Miraculum.
He also directed, wrote and co-produced Mommy, which along with Jean-Luc Godard’s Adieu au langage,
co-won the prestigious jury prize at Cannes earlier this year.“They’re probably considered the two most important French language
films on the planet right now,” notes Carter, adding the two will be screened
Saturday night as part of AFF’s Cinéma en Français S.V.P. program.
Just some of the other films at this year’s
AFF include Maps to the Stars, David Cronenberg’s newest film; Red Army, a documentary about the
Soviet Union hockey team during the Cold War; Love is Strange,
starring John
Lithgow and Alfred Molina; and
the 40th anniversary restoration of the original Texas Chainsaw
Massacre. Carter says this could be the only time the revamped horror classic
will be screened in Atlantic Canada.
“The film festival is about the experience,”
says Carter as he describes a planned outdoor screening of the multi
award-winning The Disappeared
the Tuesday evening at Ferry Terminal Park in Dartmouth. “So it’s not only the
film you’re seeing; it’s the people you’re seeing it with, the environment
you’re seeing it in...So everything that we’re doing, we’re trying really hard
to make a bit of an experience.”
The AFF is also about facilitating
opportunities for film and creative professionals. For the 17th
time, the festival will be hosting Strategic Partners, a four day film
co-production/financing market where “film people from other parts of the world
are brought in to get excited about partnering up with Atlantic Canadian and
Canadian filmmakers to make films here,” says Carter.
As well, AFF is partnering with Radio
Starmaker Fund to host Festival Music House Atlantic where musical talents like
Gord Downie, The Sadies, Ben Caplan, Mo Kenney and Jenn Grant
will showcase their talent to industry professionals and pass holders on
Saturday night at The Marquee.
Additionally,
the festival will be featuring ViewFinders content, just one component of the
programming for Atlantic Canadianyouth AFF offers throughout the year.
Carter and his team have been busy all year
putting together the sights and sounds for the 34th Atlantic Film
Festival. But their hard work is fuelled by their love for film.
“I think our programming team this year has
really knocked it out of the park,” says Carter. “We have big Hollywood films,
small independent films, edgy films, we’ve got certainly some really incredible
international stuff that will be a little bit harder to see outside of the
festival environment. We’re hoping that we can inspire ‘cinephiles’ from all
over Atlantic Canada and beyond to come and spend eight days with us and see
how many great films they can cram in!” ~
The Atlantic Film Festival
September 11-18, Halifax NS
www.atlanticfilm.com/festivals/atlantic-film-festival/34th-atlantic-film-festival
