Jonesing for a BC film? Terry McEvoy might just have the fix you need. After all, he’s the top dealer in town.
As programmer of the Vancouver International Film Festival’s (VIFF) BC Spotlight, McEvoy (and a jury of venerable cinephiles) pulled together a program of 13 feature-length films that paint a compelling picture of the province’s film industry.
When McEvoy and VIFF first launched the BC Spotlight back in September 2013, it was in the midst of a tough period for the local film and television biz. The industry was feeling the impact of the tax credit debacle. Studios sat empty and workers faced an uncertain future as foreign productions fled the province. The industry responded with rallies and the #SaveBCFilm campaign.
VIFF’s BC Spotlight was meant to bolster confidence and inflame audience interest in locally made film fare.
That inaugural BC Spotlight broke VIFF attendance records, and revealed that, even when there isn’t that much spillover money available to fund their creative endeavours, BC’s filmmakers are still capable of crafting cinematic gems that entertain and inspire – and when they do, Vancouver audiences eat it all up.
“People at the end of the day like to see homegrown productions,” says McEvoy in a phone interview with the WestEnder. “They like to see what’s going on in the minds of the people that we see around every day.”
There are several ways to gage the health of a film industry. One is volume, and according to McEvoy, BC filmmakers are churning out reams of quality work.
“I can’t make a general statement about the number of people that are employed, but as for the number of people that are doing something, there are a lot,” says McEvoy. “Is the industry healthy and robust? Absolutely.”
McEvoy (together with the aforementioned jury) considered more than fifty feature-length documentaries and narrative films for the 13-film showcase.
“There were some very difficult decisions that had to be made to get it down to 13,” says McEvoy. “There certainly were other programmable films that we couldn’t do because of the limitations we have.”
The program is varied, including as it does robust comedy in Preggoland, eye-opening documentaries Everything Will Be, The Pristine Coast, and Just Eat It, horror fare like Bloody Knuckles, as well as dramas, cross-genre pieces, and a couple of films that defy classification.
So what do the BC Spotlight films tell us about BC filmmakers in general?
McEvoy likens it to the shared experience of commuters.
“If you get on a No. 4 bus and go across town, is there a thread that runs through all the people that you see on that bus? They’re connected because they’re coming from this perspective, and they’re seeing the world from this perspective.”
One trend he notes relates to where BC filmmakers seek their inspiration. Very often, they look beyond the borders of our province.
“The lesson that I learn every year is how we look outside to tell stories,” says McEvoy, singling out Vic Sarin’s The Boy from Gaita, a documentary about a 12-year-old boy struggling with albinism and racism in a remote Tanzanian village.
BC films can hold their own against those produced in any other province in Canada, says McEvoy – and if anyone would know, it’s McEvoy. VIFF’s Canadian Images program screens more homegrown films than any other fest on the planet, and as Canadian Images’ programmer, McEvoy has viewed well over 300 feature-length CanCon films this year alone.
“There is no film in the BC Spotlight that would not be quite legitimately programmed if I were programming anywhere else in the country or anywhere else in the world,” says McEvoy. “They’re all really solid films.”
It’s a little unfair to ask McEvoy to choose his favourites from the BC Spotlight program – but we pose the question anyway. After diplomatically proclaiming equal love for the entire program (like any good parent should), he name checks a few of the BC Spotlight films about which he’s particularly excited.
“The biggest surprise for me was probably a film called Turbulence by Soran Mardookhi,” says McEvoy. “It’s a difficult story about an immigrant from Iraqi Kurdistan and his daughter, and contains stellar performances.”
There’s also director Ana Valine’s first feature Sitting on the Edge of Marlene (“She’s directed several shorts, and this a remarkable, mature and thoughtful film”), and Maureen Bradley’s Two 4 One (“It strains your belief, this idea that this couple gets together and both end up pregnant, but the set-up that she has for it, and the performances in it, are just fantastic”).
As an added support to VIFF’s BC-made films, organizers have brought back the audience-driven #mustseeBC contest for its second outing. The BC film that secures the most votes in advance of the festival will be feted at the BC Spotlight Awards + Gala on Oct. 4, and screened to a packed house of film fans and industry peers.
“It’s a big deal, because it means that, all of a sudden, all the BC filmmakers will be in the same room looking at your film,” says McEvoy.
For complete #mustseeBC details (including trailers and fan rewards), visit mustseeBC.VIFF.org.
VIFF runs Sept. 25 to Oct. 10 at venues around Vancouver. With 355 films from 65 countries, a little pre-planning is probably in order; peruse the entire VIFF line-up and schedule at VIFF.org.
