$100 Film Festival
March 6-8, 2014, various venues.
How many film festivals are you going to this year? Actually, probably not many. These days, the term “film” is pretty much metaphorical: most festivals are moving toward digital. But literal film festivals are now very rare.
Calgary Society for Independent Film’s $100 Film Festival is one of only a handful of festivals that remain 100% celluloid. (As an aside, “celluloid” too is merely a figure of speech — motion picture film is now made from much more stable plastics.)
The $100 Film Festival celebrates the medium of film, screening works on reels, on projectors. About 30 films will be shown, with a focus on the works of Louise Bourque, this year’s Visiting Artist. She will also be giving an artist talk at ACAD and leading a workshop on hand manipulation of 16mm film.
A component that was recently added is the Film/Music Explosion (metaphor!), a program that matches musicians to filmmakers. This results in a live performance with the band, accompanied by the purr of projectors showing the Super 8 film.
When the festival began 22 years ago, the challenge was to create a work using only four Super 8 cartridges. That limitation has been lifted making its name largely symbolic, but the festival continues to support the spirit of low-budget, independent film.
For more information and tickets, see
http://www.100dollarfilmfestival.org