ON SCREEN: Victoria Film Festival
Where: The Vic Theatre (808 Douglas St.), Cineplex Odeon (780 Yates St.), Capitol 6 (805 Yates St.), The Mint (1414 Douglas St.), and more
When: Feb. 4-13
Tickets:
Victoria Film Festival director Kathy Kay always spends the weeks heading into her festival sweating the small stuff, so when audiences arrive the experience is a smooth one.
In recent years, her list of concerns has grown to include ever-changing health protocols and capacity restrictions. “It always comes down to the final month-and-a-half, after the program guide is done,” Kay said. “That’s when logistics and public health becomes key.”
Kay has settled on a plan that will ease any COVID-19 concerns of those attending the festival’s 28th annual edition — and she did so with a device that would right at home in a kitschy sci-fi movie. Cut to: GermZone 100, an air purifier/disinfection unit that uses ultra-violet rays to trap and render inactive airborne bacteria.
“It’s a silly name,” Kay said with a big laugh. “But these are what trap things in the air in hospital operating rooms. We just want people to feel that it is safe. We really thought that would help people.”
Four of these units have been installed in the festival’s anchor venue, The Vic Theatre, where the majority of programming at Vancouver Island’s largest and longest-running film festival will take place over the next 10 days.
The festival runs through Feb. 13, with 86 feature films and 27 short films on tap for both online and in-person screenings. The new safety measures enabled organizers to expand upon last year’s online-only festival, but the hybrid model with capacity limits set at 50 per cent remains a complicated one to execute, Kay said.
To mitigate risks, Kay said mask mandates, social distancing and sanitary protocols will remain in place through the festival. “It’s like we’re running two festivals. The streaming component needs its own focus, and the in-person does as well. It’s like running one festival with double the expenses.”
Kay and her staff came up with a range of interesting options, motivated by the feedback of festival supporters who wanted to see the event re-populate the downtown core. In addition to screenings at local theatres such as Cineplex Odeon and the Capitol 6, new facets of the festival include Posterful — An Art Exhibit, which will showcase in The Atrium on Yates Street the movie-inspired posters of 10 local artists, and Sips ‘n’ Cinema, an afternoon of food and film talk at The Mint on Douglas Street.
There’s also a short-film series that will be held on board a whale watching boat.
Despite travel difficulties associated with U.S.-sa国际传媒 border crossings, Kay secured the services of Tom Skerritt, 88, who will attend the Feb. 6 Vic Theatre screening of his new film, East of the Mountains. In a year fraught with uncertainty, Kay was overjoyed when the Emmy Award-winning actor accepted the invitation. Skerritt will sit down with Michael D. Reid, the former sa国际传媒 film critic, for an hour-long chat prior to the screening of East of the Mountains.
“[Skerritt] is such a recognizable name,” she said. “Picket Fences, the TV series, made him a household name, but he’s been in so many big movies, like Alien and Top Gun. He’s pretty cool.”
Other on-screen highlights abound: Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz star in Official Competition (Feb.7 and 11), arguably the festival’s highest-profile entry; Eric McCormack of Will & Grace fame plays an erratic father in Drinkwater (Feb. 5), an indie hit; and Wanita Bahtiyar takes centre stage for I’m Wanita (Feb.7), a compelling documentary about the Australian country music hopeful.
A trio of locally produced features and several shorts also made the cut, which is always a point of pride for the festival, Kay said. “It’s not often that you get that many. Lots of years it’s one [film]. Some years it’s none. The local filmmakers love to see their work on scree, so we’re happy to be able to give them that opportunity this year.”
That same big screen experience, though not unique to the Victoria Film Festival, has been sorely lacking during the pandemic. Kay is hoping those who have become tired of streaming films at home come back to the festival in 2022.
“The focus you put to a film when you’re seeing it in public compared to when you’re at home is night and day,” she said.
For tickets and schedules, go to victoriafilmfestival.com
