Deep Cuts film festival cuts deep
Short films from the fringe organized into 90-minute blocks
Kitchener will be home to the inaugural Deep Cut Film Festival Saturday with a collection of film shorts encompassing everything from David Lynchian psychodramas to spine-tingling horror flicks and Twilight Zone-esque animated shorts about machines that create artificial nostalgia.
“We’re different than other festivals,” notes founder David Briggs.
“We provide an opportunity to show something off the wall. People are going to see things they’ve never seen before.”
Briggs is a filmmaker himself, with one feature film to his credit, “Black Forest,” about a camping trip gone wrong, and a short horror flick, “Alone,” that will première at this festival.
“Kitchener is a really good film town on a grassroots, indie level,” says the 30-something journalist and college instructor, noting the idea for a festival has been “kicking around my head for a couple of years.”
Neatly organized into five 90minute blocks, the festival will lump films — both locally produced and from around the world — thematically in an atmosphere Briggs hopes will be accessible to everyone.
“We try to find things a little bit offbeat and strange, but still entertaining, that will appeal to a wide audience,” he notes of the festival’s 35 offerings, which include one indie feature, “Channel Zero,” and many world and Canadian premières.
“It’s not meant to be elitist. It will give people a small window into a genre of cinema they’re not used to.”
The Deep Cut Film Festival runs Saturday, 12:30 to 10 p.m., at Kitchener’s Registry Theatre, 122 Frederick Street.
Day passes are $15, available at www.deepcutfilm.com.
Tickets for individual film blocks are by donation at the door.