Kingston Canadian Film Festival

Sometimes my lack of a cable television subscription doesn’t pay off, as I’m constantly out of the loop when it comes to staying on top of the latest local tv commercials.  Today, by chance, I came across an online commercial for the annual Kingston Canadian Film Festival, which is going down from March 3rd until the 7th.  I was thoroughly impressed with the tv spot, and it my mind, it makes our local festival come across as being professional, well established, and widely accessible.  Having been to a number of KCFF’s screenings over the past few years, I can honestly say that the festival’s organizers have continued to raise the bar, all the while ensuring that it stays true to its roots.

The KCFF was started back in 2001 by Alex Jansen, a Queen’s film student who ran the 3-day festival out of the Screening Room.  As described on KCFF’s website:

Over the years the festival has continued to develop, launching the Local Filmmaking Initiative to provide educational and networking opportunities for local filmmakers, presenting a high school outreach program, guaranteeing the inclusion of French languages films at each festival, and adding retrospective screenings and a Master class.

This year the Kingston Canadian Film Festival spans 5 days, with screenings at Capitol 7, The Grand Theatre, as well as the original venue, The Screening Room.  While there’s over 24 Canadian films and shorts showing at this year’s festival, my “must see” list is purely based upon which films generated the most buzz on the festival circuit.  Accordingly, I’m really looking forward to checking out these three in particular:

• Passenger Side: Two brothers spend the day driving around Los Angeles county looking for the meaning of their lives, or cheap street drugs, depending on who you happen to believe.
• The Trotsky: A precocious Montreal teen believes that he is the reincarnation of the Russian revolutionary leader, Leon Trotsky, and he’s determined to duplicate every aspect of Trotsky’s life, including being exiled, and assassinated.
• Defendor: Arthur Poppington is a regular but delusional man who believes that he is a superhero named Defendor. He combs the city streets at night in search of his arch enemy, Captain Industry, befriending a young prostitute in his quest.

If you’re a film buff like I am but have never made it out to the Kingston Canadian Film Fest, I promise that you’ll enjoy what it has to offer. For more information on what’s playing at the 10th annual KCFF, including the free and paid workshops, please check out the festival’s schedule.