Lots of Firsts for Film Festival this February
Film lovers are eagerly anticipating this year’s Powell River Film Fest (February 7 – 9), with a record number of pre-release screenings offered. (Last year’s hits included the delectable “Volver” with Penelope Cruz’ tour de force performance, and one of the first showings of “Away From Her” – which has since garnered raves for its young director and verteran stars Gordon Pinsent and Julie Christie.)
GARBAGE WARRIOR, winner of the People’s Choice Award for the Most Popular International Nonfiction Film at the Vancouver International Film Festival, is Oliver Hodge's portrait of Michael Reynolds: eco-firebrand, visionary, and hero of the 21st century. Over the past 30 years, Reynolds has specialized in the construction of self-sustaining homes. Festival goers here will get to see this film before its North American release a week later.
UP THE YANGTZE, inspired by a family trip on a "farewell cruise" along the Yangtze River before it iwas completely flooded by the Three Gorges Dam project, is director Yung Chang’s study of a nation in transition. The Three Gorges is the world's – and China’s largest engineering feat representing also the end to the way of life and livelihood of the two million people living along the Yangtze’s banks.
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Peg Campbell, a Vancouver filmmaker and instructor at the Emily Carr Institute of Art, with her daughter Franny, will present the collection of Canadian Short Films. Powell River audiences will be first to preview her short film WHAT YOUR MOTHER SHOULD KNOW, an intimate and playful look at the relationships between mothers and daughters spanning three generations of women.
Saturday evening will be a special preview screening of FROM UNDER THE BUSHY TREES, co-directed by Jan Padgett and Moira Simpson. Filmed here, as well as in Chad, Africa, this visually stunning feature-length documentary sensitively questions the rise of local initiatives, the delivery of aid and the power of education to bring sustainable social change.
Screening of student films (submitted as part of the “Five Minute Film” challenge) and awarding of scholarships is an intriguing part of the festival and well worth attending; these future film auteurs show surprising insights and mastery of their media.
Passes and individual event tickets go on sale at the Film Festival office in Powell River January 18. For more information, visit www.prfilmfestival.ca or call 604 485 0325.
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