GOTTA MINUTE FILM FESTIVAL TAKES OVER LRT
Series of silent micro-films also appears on Calgary CTrain screens
Edmonton’s most accessible film festival is on track — all you have to do to catch Gotta Minute Film Festival’s 36 one-minute silent shorts is look up at the info screens as you wait for the LRT.
Or, if you want to watch the whole program in a comfortable setting without dropping a bus ticket, head to Metro Cinema — 8712 109 St. — where it will be on the lobby screen throughout the weeklong festival, which runs Monday through Sept. 30. Gotta Minute also is running at Galerie Cité in La Cité Francophone — 8627 91 St. — and across the Edmonton Public Library system on opening day.
And if all that’s too inconvenient for you, the entire festival is portable! Just pull out your smartphone and head to the mobile-friendly site at gottaminutefilmfestival.com during the festival’s run, starting Monday.
Because its content is online, that technically makes this an international film festival, backed by the fact about 70 submissions came in from all around the world, including plenty of local submissions. Starting this year, the 36 films made by 39 individual filmmakers also will be playing across Calgary’s CTrain rapid transit network’s platforms, expanding from the Calgary International Airport.
All silent and 60 seconds long, the films range from live action to documentaries to animated shorts, subjects from shadow boxing the mirror to an old woman puppet booting up spring to symbolic depictions of standing tall against adversity.
FAVA programming director Heather Noel is deep in the midst of snapping together the moving parts of the festival, but fittingly provides a few minutes to talk about Gotta Minute’s fifth year.
She notes the jury picking the films, international or not, is from members of Edmonton’s film and arts community.
“It’s completely blind, so they don’t know who the filmmakers are. Even though every jury tries to be objective, this gives it a little push of anonymity.
“It allows for emerging filmmakers to sneak in there.”
Edmonton filmmakers in the program include Adam Bentley and Nasra Adem, Geraldine Carr, Lizzie Derksen, Frederick Kroetsch, Holly Mazur and many more. Keep an eye out for the orange programs around town.
At the end of the run there’s an awards celebration, free and open to the public, starting at 4 p.m., Sept. 30, at Zeidler Hall in Citadel Theatre, 9828 101A Ave. Jim Cuming (a.k.a. Jom Comyn) will be accompanying the nine award-winning films with a live score he’s created for each.
Noel said, “I just want to add: submit! You don’t have to be a filmmaker to submit — everyone’s got a camera in their pocket and we all make videos all the time. You probably have hours of footage on your phone or computer or cloud you could make into a one-minute silent film that would be awesome.”
Submissions started last spring, so plenty of time to start getting creative — and maybe we’ll see your film on screens around the province in a year.