The Concordia Film Festival (CFF) is returning online this weekend for its 47th edition. Run by Concordia students across the university, this year’s festival was organized by film animation student, Mélissa Rousseau, and film production student, Juan Opsina.
With respect to social distancing, the planning for the festival occurred entirely online. The process, while smooth, was not hiccup free.
“We’ve lost a lot of our talks and workshops,” said Rousseau, “but fortunately this allowed us to accept all submissions from the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema and create three mixed screenings dedicated to Concordia students.”
While the festival doesn’t present themed selections, the CFF is proud to feature diverse voices and experiences.
“Almost half of our Spotlight screenings are BIPOC student films,” explained Rousseau.
After the opening speech at 1:30 p.m. on June 20, Rousseau and Opsina will jump straight into their only panel, Women In Film Education (W.I.F.E), an event discussing female representation in film production. Rousseau is particularly looking forward to the international student Spotlight interviews, conducted by the Head Spotlight Programmers. There are four Spotlight categories: Lights Out (genre films), Visions (underrepresented voices), Insight (documentaries), and Kaleidoscope (experimental), each containing several films from students around the world.
The entire festival will be held on Twitch for free, accessible, and high quality viewing around the world.
Rousseau’s suggested BIPOC watch list:
From Concordia:
Guardian (Misha Bellerive, Concordia film animation student)
Mitochondrial (Dir. Laura Kamugisha, Concordia film production student)
Hyphen (Dir. Laura Kamugisha, Concordia film production student)
From elsewhere:
The Lost Village (Dir. Kaelo Iyizoba, Nigeria)
Psychosis (Paolo Cesti, USA)
Greenwood (Dir. Benjamin McGregor, Canada)
Midden (Dir. Adriana Gramly, USA)
Women of Steel (Dir. Miriam Muhiie, Egypt)
Don’t Shoot the Messenger (Dir. Bianca Malcom, USA)
Pass (Dir. Elika Abdollahi, Iran)
Gay As in Happy: A Queer Tragedy (Dir. Jordana Valerie Allen-Shim, Canada)
The Mother’s Land (Dir. Kevin Rahardjo, Indonesia)
Sleepwalker (Dir. Andrea Yu-Chieh Chung, USA)
Fun to Cook (Dir. Dongjun Kim, USA)
For more information visit:
https://www.concordiafilmfestival.com
https://www.facebook.com/concordiafilmfest
https://www.instagram.com/cffconcordiafilmfestival/
And to be a part of the audience, watch Concordia Film Festival’s live stream through Twitch on June 20 and 21 here: https://www.twitch.tv/concordiafilmfestival/
Photos courtesy of the Concordia Film Festival (CFF).
