Canadian features, documentaries get spotlight at Gimli film festival

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The Gimli International Film Festival has announced the lineup for its 24th edition, its first with executive director Teya Zuzek at the helm.

Over 90 films – including plenty made by Manitobans – will be screened across narrative, documentary and short categories at the festival, set to be held from July 24 to July 28 in the Interlake community.

“GIFF is here to amplify emerging and established filmmakers and really celebrate the amazing work that is being done regionally, nationally and beyond,” Zuzek said in a release.

The festival received over 1,400 film submissions from 88 different countries, GIFF programming head Michael Barry said.

In the narrative category, GIFF has programmed 16 films, including nine Canadian and three Manitoban works. Among the potential biggest draws are Close to You, a collaboration between British director Dominic Savage and co-writer/star Elliot Page about a dreaded family reunion; Finality of Dusk, the locally made apocalyptic, Indigofuturist drama from director Madison Thomas and co-writer Katarina Ziervogel; Manitoban writer-director Ryan Ward’s supernatural escapist family drama Daughter of the Sun; and In Her Name, the arts-industry-skewering directorial debut of Winnipeg-raised actor Sarah Carter.

British working-class filmmaking hero Ken Loach’s The Old Oak will also be screening.

Twelve feature-length documentaries were selected for inclusion, including Any Other Way, a portrait of pioneering trans performer Jackie Shane, who became a star in the Toronto dance scene of the 1960s.

The festival has also secured the surprisingly upbeat Gaza/Norway-set Life is Beautiful from director Mohamed Jabaly, winner of last year’s best director prize at the International Documentary Film Festival.

Two local documentaries – Lisa Jackson’s Wilfred Buck and Branden Joseph DeFoort’s These Four Walls – should net solid attendance. Writing for the Free Press, Randall King called Jackson’s portrait of the Winnipeg Cree astronomer “funny, sad and ultimately inspiring,” while Defoort’s film – exploring the birth of the province’s disability rights movement and uncovering truths about the Manitoba Developmental Centre – is certain to open audience eyes.

Birdwatchers, take note: Wilderness Trails, a 48-year-old, naturalist documentary by Gunter Henning, is being shown publicly after being “long kept safe and unviewed in the Library and Archives of Canada.” The film follows the Bolex-toting Manitoban wildlife documentarian George Cotter “on the hunt for a great shot.”

In the shorts category, Manitoba is particularly well-represented, with films showing by Haley Charney, Ian Bawa, MacKenzie Leigh, Toby Gillies and Natalie Baird, Jeff McKay and Takashi Iwasaki, Solmund MacPherson, Rowan Gray, Madison Thomas, Christina Haijjar and Quan Luong.

Other programming planned for the festival includes the young filmmakers program, featuring high school film and video production projects from across the province; the Best of Manitoba Festivals event, showing award-winning shorts from more niche fests; and a screening of standout films from the annual 48-hour Film Competition.

The festival’s popular free beach screenings this year include Greta Gerwig’s Oscar-winning Barbie; the Susan Sarandon-Geena Davis classic Thelma and Louise; the delightful Paddington 2, tied at 99 per cent fresh with Citizen Kane for the top slot on Rotten Tomatoes; the off-the-wall performing arts satire Theater Camp, featuring Ben Platt (Dear Evan Hansen) and co-director Molly Gordon (The Bear); and the Carl Reiner-directed 1985 vehicle Summer Rental, shown to celebrate the career of its larger-than-life Canadian star, the comedic genius John Candy, who died 30 years ago.

The full festival schedule and ticket information are available at gimlifilm.com.

ben.waldman@winnipegfreepress.com