Today, Sydney’s Possible Worlds: Canadian Film Festival kicks off, and it promises to be quite a week of cinema. It was a surprise to me to learn that it is the first Canadian Film Festival in Sydney as there has been an abundance of annual minor festivals of national cinema popping up over the last ten years. The festival will be taking place at the city’s recently revitalised art house cinema, the Chauvel. What really separates the Canadian Film Festival from other national cinema festival are the events lined up to accompany the program.
The opening night film, Familia, a drama that won ‘Best Canadian First Feature’ at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival, is being screened with a Q & A with director Louise Archambault. Archambault is also doing a Q & A with the festival’s program ‘Shorts: Award Winners’ as her short Atomic Sake is being screened amongst others Next: A Primer on Urban Painting is being followed by an after-screening party at which Sydney’s street artists will give a live painting demo.
The small indie film of Sidekick is being screened with a Q & A with the film’s screenwriter and producer Michael Sparaga. The documentary Midnight Movies: From The Margin to the Mainstream is being introduced by Sydney’s most prominent cult cinema buff, Jamie Leonarder. The festival will also notably feature Sydney’s premiere of Terry Gilliam’s Tideland.
The Canadian Film Festival will also be bringing Kino filmmaking to Sydney, Australia, for the first time. Kino is described as a journey of spontaneous and cheap filmmaking. The movement began in Montréal six years ago and has since spread globally to the United States and Europe. For Kino Kabaret, The Sydney festival will be pairing experienced Kino filmmakers from Canada with up-and-coming Aussie filmmakers for a week’s worth of such filmmaking. The results will be screened on the festival’s closing night, Wednesday 6th December, at the Chauvel.
