Grand River Film Festival unearths hidden gems
A small-city cousin to more prominent showcases such as Sundance and the Toronto International Film Festival, the microdot on the map Grand River Film Festival (GRFF) — which unspools May 7 to 12 at venues around the region — still manages to harbour its share of surprises.
While this year’s lineup includes the usual roster of past fest winners — Canadian and international — spokesperson Michael Clark says one of the biggest discoveries was a local short that runs less than three minutes and was made by a 13-yearold.
“It’s an amazing little film by a relatively young filmmaker in the region,” says the festival’s board chair.
“Our programming committee said if it had been submitted as a film from anywhere in the world, it would have immediately jumped to the top of their list. It was one of the best movies they saw all year.”
“Relative” — funny, charming and poignant — is a stop-motion animation film that outlines the comic missteps that occur when accidentprone Uncle Arthur visits his lanky nephew’s tiny cavelike dwelling.
Written, animated and produced by Adrian Mitrana, the winner of Kitchener’s 2023 Youth Short Video Contest, part of its appeal is that you can only see it — and other films like it — at GRFF.
“They’re not available on streaming,” points out Clark.
“They’re not playing in any other theatre. This may well be the one chance people have to see these movies.”
While it’s hard to pin down a theme, Clark says this year’s greatest strength is its focus on alternative points of view.
“Each of the films looks at situations from a different perspective — established genres of movies, but done in a different way.”
“20,000 Species of Bees,” for example, is a Spanish film about an eight-year-old questioning their gender identity, which prompts their family to employ similar selfexamination.
The Quebec drama “Richelieu” profiles a translator caught between management at a large farming corporation and the migrant workers hired as a source of cheap labour.
The Canadian-made “Boy In The Woods” — whose director, Rebecca Snow, will be on hand for a postfilm Q&A — is a Second World War drama, based on a true story, about a Jewish boy escaping Nazi persecution by living in the woods of Europe.
While fest offerings have dropped from nine features and 39 shorts in 2023 to five features and 24 shorts this year, Clark says that has less to do with government funding — which has been reliable — and more to do with a post-COVID environment that has audiences thinking twice before heading out to arts events.
“We’re very cognizant of the fact that times are tough right now for everybody and discretionary spending is down,” he says.
“We understand people are being more selective with what they choose to go out and support, so we’ve made a very specific effort to pick films worthy of people spending their money on.
“We didn’t want to overload them with choice, so we streamlined the number of films.”
Festival details
The Grand River Film Festival runs May 7 to 12 with five ticketed feature films and 24 free shorts, divided into four categories (Local, International, Canadian, Documentary). Some feature post-film discussions with the filmmakers.
Films will be screened at the Princess Twin in uptown Waterloo, the Kitchener Public Library Theatre in downtown Kitchener, the Gaslight District in Cambridge and the University of Waterloo School of Architecture in Cambridge.
“Movie Day in Cambridge” will take place May 11, featuring seven hours of short and feature-length films.
The shorts will be screened free on a massive outdoor screen in the city’s Gaslight District courtyard, while two feature films — “Hey, Viktor!” and “Starring Jerry As Himself” — will be shown at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture.
For ticket prices and information, go to grff.ca