Tag: Victoria Film Festival

A Nerd’s & Safety Guide to the 2022 Victoria Film Festival

All anyone can do is stay informed to what the policies are should they want to attend a film festivals in-person.

Logo HeaderFilm festivals are continuing to be half in-person and half online as the world enters into year three of the pandemic. Sundance cancelled their physical edition and will be fully digital. It’s tough to say if smaller events in cities like Victoria, British Columbia will follow suit. As long as there’s no huge spike in hospitalizations, all anyone can do is stay informed to what the policies are should they want to attend in-person.

People going to a Victoria Film Festival screening must present their vaccination card and id. The check-in process should be even more machine-operated/contactless. When patrons are not eating or drinking, a mask must be always on. Additionally, there’s no advanced booking of seats for distancing between groups. This organisation isn’t likely to have enough volunteer power to enforce by doing high temperature checks, so everyone has to do their part to keep others safe. 

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The Victoria Film Festival’s New Look

Victoria Film Festival New LogoToday, the Victoria Film Festival (VFF) has a new look! In addition to their 2022 Festival website going live and The Vic Theatre listing the best independent cinema can offer, the event coming next year in February has a lot of changes coming too.

This new logo and brand identity was designed and developed by BONE Creative.

VFF wanted to improve their interface to make it more user-friendly, create a better user experience, and increase the website’s accessibility and inclusivity, while also refreshing their identity.

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VFFOnline: Opening the Doors to The Secret Garden (2020)

To give this movie a cinematic edge, a Harry Potter treatment was needed and this detail should be of no surprise when David Heyman is one of the producers.

Image result for the secret garden 2020 where to watchBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Streaming Online
at the Victoria Film Festival
Get your pass here to view beginning Feb 5th, 2021

Note: Available to view for residents in British Columbia. Support local! Streaming on YouTube and available to purchase on Amazon Primeir?t=wiupgeatthmo 20&l=am2&o=1&a=B08DSZ2YV9 too.

The Secret Garden looks more like a secluded glen in this latest adaptation of the novel of the same name. No knowledge of Frances Hodgson Burnett‘s work is needed because this movie stays faithful to the outline. To give this movie a cinematic edge, a Harry Potter treatment was needed and this detail should be of no surprise when David Heyman is one of the producers.

Sadly, because of the pandemic, it never got a proper theatrical run. It wouldn’t have broken any box office records, but when considering the effort spent to scale up the beauty this garden represents, the investment lost is just that and hopefully its life in home video can make back the money spent.

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VFFOnline: Watching Paolo Head to the (Great) Big North (Il Grande Nord)

The only sad part of watching this film is that we can’t see the true majesty of the terrain as it was intended-on the big screen. Witnessing the glacial landscapes from a small screen perspective really doesn’t do this work justice.

Il Grande Nord [Italian Edition]By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Streaming Online
at the Victoria Film Festival
Get your pass here to view beginning Feb 5th, 2021

Note: Available to view for residents in British Columbia

Also available to purchase on DVD on Amazon USAir?t=wiupgeatthmo 20&l=am2&o=1&a=B0041KYAQA

British Columbia can’t look any more beautiful in the documentary, Big North (Il Grande Nord). This work looks at the life of Paolo Cognetti, an Italian and award winning author, on a pilgrimage through this province, the Yukon and Alaska as he explores the grandiose nature of the region, himself and what it all means. 

He’s following in the footsteps of those authors he admires–Jack London, Ernest Hemingway and many others–during his trek, and in what we all see are beautiful shots of the terrain with drone cameras, a cameraman or two, and thankfully no bear encounters! The goal is to have the same experience as they had, and it’ll no doubt translate into his next novel, when he’s ready to write it!

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TheNFB at VFF2021 Part 3: The Myth & Mystery in Altötting, Germany

Andreas Hykade’s Altötting is a very personal story about his first time meeting the blessed Virgin Mary and his experiences. He speaks highly of her, as though she was a lover, but the context is far more allegorical–pertaining to her role in 20th Century history–as a lady in waiting for those seeking salvation.

Altötting (2020) - IMDbBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

National Film Board of Canada
Victoria Film Festival: Animate Me Shorts Program beginning Feb 5th, 2021

Andreas Hykade‘s Altötting is a very personal story about his first time meeting the blessed Virgin Mary and his experiences. He speaks highly of her, as though she was a lover, but the context is far more allegorical–pertaining to her role in 20th Century history–as a lady in waiting for those seeking salvation.

This minimalist animated short is very alluring in its approach of describing the power of her being. The erotic implications are minimal, and whether that was intentional by this filmmaker, it’s hard to say.

As for the experience of seeing the power of her being for the first time, the feelings may well be simliar to how Lucia Abobora, and her cousins, Jacinta and Francisco Marto, described the angel who came to visit them in Fatima, Portugal and afterwards, the Virgin Mary. But this filmmaker set his piece in a small German town with an equally historical landmark built to honour this person (and be a tourist attraction). The similarity is in how the two are often visited by those in search for a miracle.

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