Near equality for Gimli’s movie lineup

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This article was published 23/06/2018 (2640 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If the future of film is feminine, the future is now when it comes to the 2018 edition of the Gimli Film Festival.

Slated for five days next month (July 25-29) in Gimli, 90 kilometres north of Winnipeg, the festival announced its lineup of screenings and events Thursday morning at the Manitoba Theatre for Young People.

The films include a number of impressive gets, including not one, but two opening-night films. The first, Shirkers, is a documentary detective story in which a Singapore filmmaker tracks down her decades-old filmmaking debut effort, which went missing with her American filmmaking mentor. The other film, 690 Vopnafjörður, is another female-helmed documentary, this time from Iceland, about a tiny community at risk of disappearing if not for the efforts of its plucky populace.

The films are in keeping with the overriding theme of this year’s fest celebrating women in cinema. Among the locally made films is director Shelagh Carter’s Before Anything You Say, a drama based on a chapter of Carter’s own life in which a husband announces his intention to take a job in Singapore for five years without consulting with his wife.

Forty-six per cent of the films are written and directed by women, according to actor-producer and festival board member Rebecca Gibson.

“There are times when women don’t enter the film industry because they don’t feel welcome,” Gibson said. “If they do feel invited, they’re more likely to participate.”

Gibson says the Gimli fest will extend its own welcome via a special program.

“On Friday, July 27, the Future Is Female Mentorship Program will transport 45 emerging woman-identifying filmmakers to the Gimli film fest on a charter bus, where they will be participating in a day of women-directed film screenings, Q-and-As with filmmakers, a workshop about producing, writing, directing and acting and more,” Gibson said.

Festival film programmer Vivian Belik said such initiatives pay off.

“As a filmmaker myself, I know how important it is to invest, not just in talk but in action,” Belik said.

“This year, we’re screening 13 feature films directed by women and 20 short films made by women.”

“It actually was a natural process,” Belik says. “We weren’t sitting there watching films with a spreadsheet. We just happened to pick the best films.”

Among the events planned is an award to be presented to local filmmaker Elise Swerhone, who will receive the Jack Clements Livin’ the Dream Lifetime Achievement Award for her long-term contributions to the Manitoba film industry.

Passes are now on sale. Individual screenings are $10, Super Passes (access to all films plus special events) are $110 and Film Passes are $80 online at gimlifilm.com/passes.

The full festival schedule can be viewed at gimlifilm.com.

randall.king@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @FreepKing