Movie buffs will soon be able to get their film fix as The HUB Film Club and the Cowichan Valley Film Society collaborate to put on their first ever weekend long Documentary Film Festival.
It will run out of The HUB at Cowichan Station from March 22-24. This three-day event will be both a fundraiser and community-building event for The Hub at Cowichan Station. The festival concession will feature soups by local chef Bill Jones, chef Kara’s chili, baking, popcorn and much more as the line-up of films create food for thought.
“We are hoping to raise about $4,000, but we will also be happy if we can just cover our costs and give people a good time and full bellies,” said Melanie Watson who runs The HUB Film Club.
The festival kicks off on March 22. Doors open at 5 p.m., and at 5:30 p.m Cowichan Elder Mena Williams will lead the opening blessing before The Cowichan Sweater, Our Knitted Legacy, the first feature film of the festival is introduced by its producer Tiffany Joseph.
READ MORE: ‘Knit’ launched to ensure better earnings for Cowichan sweater knitters
Directed by Mary Galloway this film weaves together the rich history of the authentic Cowichan sweater and how and why it became the beautiful icon of the Coast Salish peoples. The film explores the history of the sweaters in the Cowichan and Saanich territories, the different patterns and the traditional knitters from these communities.
Friday evening will also include the short film Now Is The Time by filmmaker Christopher Auchter which looks at internationally renowned Haida carver Robert Davidson and the feature film A Cedar Is Life — produced by Leslie D. Bland and Harold Joe. It delves into the importance of the cedar tree on the West Coast — both will run between 7 and 9 p.m.
•••
March 23 will be a full day at the movies with a mix of both short and feature films. Doors open at 1:30 p.m. and the festival kicks off at 2 p.m.
Watson says a highlight will be their final feature film of the day Joan Baez I Am Noise which starts at 7 p.m. This biography looks at the life of Joan Baez as she opens up about her history with mental illness, her family, drugs and aging. For the first time on record, she also speaks to her relationship with Bob Dylan and how she used her fame to launch his career.
Throughout the day film fanatics can also check out the short film Ora followed by the feature film Ailey directed by Jamila Wignot which looks at influential choreographer Alvin Ailey who founded Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. The short How To Be At Home will play at 4:30 p.m. followed by the feature film Unarchived by filmmakers Haley Gray and Elad Tzadok and dives into community archives across British Columbia and shows local knowledge keepers hand-fashioning a more inclusive history by collecting family photos, newspaper articles and scratchy old VHS tapes and will feature collections from Cowichan Valley’s Paldi community.
•••
On March 24, doors open at 11:30 a.m and the last day of the festival will have quite the mix of shorts and feature films. Watson notes that one short film to look out for is the stop-motion short film Tiny by filmmakers Ryan Haché and Ritchie Hemphill that portrays an Elder, reflecting on her past, re-enacting her stories as a young girl growing up on a float-house on the wild and unpredictable West Coast.
Other shorts throughout the day include the Invasion of the Murder Hornets which looks at a group of dedicated beekeepers who discovered the first Asian giant hornet nest on the continent in Nanaimo, Debris — a portrait of Tofino inter-tidal artist Pete Clarkson, as well as Jet Pilot and the animated short Soup of the Day.
Feature films for the last day of the festival include The Last Tourist, Creatures Of Convenience by filmmaker Stuart Gillies who journeys though B.C. to learn how we as people can overcome the waste created by our modern lifestyles, as well as Fashion’s Dirty Secrets.
The final film of the festival is The Truffle Hunters by directors Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw which comically follows a handful of men between the ages of 70 and 80 in Piedmont, Italy, as they search for the elusive Alba truffle with the help of their dogs.
Tickets are $10 for Friday evening, or $15 for either Saturday or Sunday, and a weekend pass is $25. All tickets can be purchased at eventbrite.ca and will also be sold at the door unless the film is sold out. For a full schedule, synopsis and trailers visit cowichanvalleyfilm.ca
“I think it is so important to be able to see films communally, to know we are watching something together and to have an opportunity to discuss what we’ve seen,” said Watson. “The cafe will be open beside the theatre between films so there will be time to eat and drink and chat. I hope that people in the Valley will find the films we’ve curated to be interesting and entertaining and perhaps they may even come away with a new understanding of something.”
