The Grand River Film Festival is a not-for-profit, volunteer-run arts and culture group that is dedicated to bringing the best independent cinema from Canada and around the world to the Region of Waterloo. The festival encourages community involvement through a shared love for cinema by offering unique and diverse programming with creative community partnerships. 2021 marks the 13th season of the festival. This year’s event will be virtual, allowing audiences to experience amazing films- available in Waterloo Region exclusively and for the first time - from the comfort of their own homes. Uncertainty about what the festival might look like this year resulted in the planning process starting a little later than usual. In the late summer there was hope of the festival being held in a hybrid format, but by early fall it was clear that it had to be fully virtual. The festival runs from May 3rd -8th.
I spoke with GRFF Programming Chair Michael Clark about the planning that goes into a film festival, three films he is excited for audiences to see, and more. Film has been one of Clark’s lifelong obsessions. He moved to Waterloo Region in 2018, bringing his programming experience from other film festivals with him.
GRFF Programming Chair, Michael Clark
In the early years, the festival was very Cambridge focused. In recent years it has become a more regional festival guided by the philosophy of creating an opportunity for people in the region to experience a broad range of films without having to drive to larger cities (pre-pandemic) to see them. So many spectacular films never come to Waterloo Region, not even to The Princess Cinemas or The Apollo (two well known local independent cinemas). The biggest difference between GRFF and other film festivals is that GRFF sources a lot of international films, as well as films that do not have distributors yet, so they are being put out independently by directors and producers. When you attend GRFF you are getting theater quality independent film from Canada and around the world, that would not be shown anywhere else. These films are not available on Netflix, Amazon, or iTunes. They have not played at the Princess, or The Apollo, and in most cases, they are not films that would have played at any of the other festivals in Ontario this year.
In addition to the sourcing, an open call for submissions is put out to the industry at large and locally. This year there were 150 submissions, making it one of the bigger submission years. Local submissions usually come in the form of short films. Clark says this is great because shorts are the hardest things for the festival to source. They look to other film festivals to see what is playing around Ontario and across Canada. In a normal year, if a film has been playing at every film festival that would be an indication that it should also be playing at GRFF because the chances of a Waterloo Region film lover driving to London or Kingston to watch a movie are slim. This year because everything has been virtual, if a film has been at every single festival, there is an excellent chance that someone who is interested in film festivals may have already taken the opportunity to see it. And in that case, there is less value in it putting it in GRFF.
I asked Clark to list three films that he was most excited about. This was a hard question for him to answer. The feature films he listed were Wildfire, No Visible Trauma, and The Columnist. I bought my festival tickets the night before our interview and I was glad to see two of the films I bought tickets for on his list. He described Wildfire as “probably our most beautiful film.” It is an Irish film, a drama about two sisters who have been separated for many years. Their mother had died, and her death has some mystery to it. The film is about them coming back together and the clash of their lives, finally forcing them to confront the grief and the trauma that has permeated their lives, and how that affects the small Irish community that they live in. In terms of the way that the film is constructed and the story of these two sisters, the lead actresses are perfect in the roles and the film was made more touching and soulful in that one of the leads died shortly after the film was finished. Clark says that you can see the energy and passion that she had as an actress, and it is disappointing that she will not be making anything else.
No Visible Trauma is a documentary out of Calgary. The timely film focuses on the stories of three families that have been impacted by police brutality. It follows the emotional journeys of these three families as they seek justice from the police department. At the same time, it examines the culture in the Calgary Police Department. The most startling thing about the documentary is put right at the very beginning. By 2018 the Calgary police department had a higher incident rate of violence than either the Chicago Police Department or the New York Police Department. With the shift that has happened, especially over the last year with the defund and reallocate movements, having this documentary appear after five years worth of work was really timely and appropriate. The film was a late arrival to the festival. Normally if a film comes to the Programming Committee after a certain point it is not considered because there is already momentum on other films, but they were insistent that this one be included. Clark says the film is an excellent illustration of what a lot of local groups have been saying about police violence not being an American phenomenon, it is a phenomenon that happens in every police department. It is not an easy movie to watch and it does have a content warning on the GRFF website.
The Columnist is a Dutch satire that has the same vibe as the Academy Award nominated film Promising Young Woman. It is about a female reporter who receives nothing but an endless stream of harassment online, the same as most women. What makes it a satire is that she reaches a breaking point. She tracks down the people who are harassing her, confronting them with their harassment, and then murdering them literally. It is about the catharsis she feels by confronting them and then visiting upon them, what they have said they would visit upon her. The film never loses its sense of humor and Clark thinks that that is the trick of a good satire, that you make a socially relevant case for the themes of the film, while also being able to point out areas of our society that are ludicrous and absurd and should not have to be commented upon or should not be realities.
The number of expected attendees at this year’s festival is still unknown. GRFF is cognizant that after a year of being at home and being in front of screens all day, people are experiencing Zoom fatigue, and most have access to content from multiple streaming platforms. Audiences watching from home are less of a captive audience than audiences sitting in a theater. That fact played a part in the jurying process. Rather than using their usual metrics, the Programming Committee asked each other if they were checking their phones during a film and noted when they had stopped paying complete attention. They tried to pick films that would be hard for viewers to take their eyes off once they started watching, and films that would not burn people out. This year’s offerings include more foreign language films than usual (the subtitles help keep your eye on the screen). GRFF encourages you to watch a film all the way through in one sitting for a better viewing experience, but because life happens, if you do start watching a film and must pause it, you have 48 hours to finish watching it.
Like every year, there will be interviews with some of the stars and filmmakers, as well as interviews with local groups. The festival always tries to find films that have some thematic connection to Waterloo Region. There will be links to the appropriate YouTube videos in the descriptions of the films so that once a person has finished watching a film, they can click on the link and go and watch an interview.
Planning for the 2022 festival starts almost right after this year’s festival ends. Programming conversations will start mid July and the committee will reassemble at the end of August. They use TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) as their unofficial planning start date. Clark anticipates that there will be fewer films potentially available for GRFF 2022 but thinks there will still be more than enough to put on a festival. He notes that independent film is filled with minority voices and women directors who have been dealing with themes that mainstream Hollywood has not wanted to touch for years, and he hopes that the pandemic will free up some breathing room and give independent films a greater chance to get an audience.
Get your tickets to this year’s festival here. Do you already have your tickets? I would love to hear what films you are excited about.
Story by Glodeane Brown
Photos provided by Michael Clark
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