Picton Picturefest

A Note From Tilda Swinton To All Picton Picturefest-ers

Picturefest — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 17:26:40 +0000

when my pal mark and i started to cook up a playlist for our ramshackle, dreamladen pilgrimage festival two summers ago in the scottish highlands, we were looking for films that speak of journeying, of adventure, and of transport – in every sense.

since we were pulling a 43 ton mobile cinema from a glen on the west coast and up and down a hill or two, we started with les blanks brilliant documentary on herzog’s fitzcarraldo. when we rested in the glade of ardnamurchan – having crossed by magical wee ferry, as into another time altogether – we watched brigadoon – suddenly transformed out of the slightly tongue in cheek decision to enjoy once again cyd charisse’s hollywood/bronx? scottish accent and the lurex in the tartans into a strangely moving sort of super lyrical documentary set in the very landscape we were moving through. when we camped outside the village school at cawdor – seat of shakespeare’s bloody thane, we tucked ourselves up with kurosawa’s thrilling/chilling throne of blood.

it was a trip. it was a truly dreamy trip. and peter was with us.

but every pilgrimage has a destination – and it was never any question that any other film would be the final screening of our extraordinary voyage than the film you are about to see here tonight.

you could call our pilgrimage site specific/sight specific.

we pulled our dreamscreen by the shores of loch ness – which we swam in – and through 6,000 year old oak woods.
but we were heading home: to the birthplace of our festival of the previous year – the Ballerina Ballroom of Dreams – which we held for 8 and a half days in a disused bingo hall in the wee town I live in, where we swapped tickets for home baking and appropriate dress code, where the audience sat on bean bags and deck chairs. where all heaven broke out and my bank manager turned up to the early screening of a miss marple film in his pyjamas. where kenneth anger appeared unexpectedly out of the ether during a paradjanov screening and signed our door ‘ it’s like caligari in technicolour’.

and there is no wee seaside town in scotland that could more make one think of monsieur hulot on his summer holidays than ours. it’s all there: now as i write this. i just cycled back from the ironmongers along the front: little boys with ice creams, old ladies with sunburn, shrimping nets and bucket/spade combos agogo.

some things – some places – never change. and summer holidays are somehow such a place: that inviolable atmosphere of play and company and the licence to be transported. the mark, one might also say, of a great classic films. never-ending reliable magic carpet rides. guaranteed.

this is what jacques tati knew better than pretty much any one: the awesome power of playtime.

welcome to one of the most affectionate, joyous, ridiculous, delicious love songs to escape and idleness you will ever come across.

and – by the way, this is my chance to say – heartfelt congratulations on your own pilgrimage here. believe me, if i could have been amongst you, i would, but i feel certain that what my dear friend peter has managed to plant here is a seed taken from what he rejoiced in with us in scotland two years ago – and which we continue to celebrate endlessly, everwhichwhere – the absolute life force of great company held by great cinema in a spirit of adventure and – yes – the awesome power of playtime.

hail pilgrims!

my love to you all.

tilda

Download The Full Picturefest Schedule

Picturefest — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 17:32:16 +0000

There’s only one week until Picton Picturefest and our full schedule is up and available for download here. Some last minute additions: Leigh Ann Bellamy’s short film “Peculiar Mrs. Perkins,” which will screen Friday night before “Littlerock”; a tour of Loyalist College’s new 3-D filmmaking facilities on Thursday night before the opening night festivities; and a parties on both Friday and Sunday night!

We’ve Got T-Shirts!

Picturefest — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 17:08:59 +0000

Available at Books & Company starting next Thursday, July 7th at 11am. $20 a pop, or $12 if you present a Picturefest badge:

The Toronto Star’s Peter Howell On Picturefest!

Picturefest — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 17:03:47 +0000

Check it out.

Support Picturefest on Indiegogo

Picturefest — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 16:18:11 +0000

Just $10 could go a long way in helping Picturefest reach its financial goals… Merci, merci, merci:

Picturefest Closing Night Afterparty!

Picturefest — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 16:11:00 +0000

Join us for the grand finale of Picturefest at the Small Pond Arts farm at 9pm on Sunday, July 10th.

Calgary’s Kris Ellestad will fill the barn with his amazing tunes, then we’ll gather with old friends and new around the campfire. All are welcome!

$10 admission, Picturefest badge holders by donation

Download the AfterParty Flyer

“A Shared Dream”

Picturefest — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 16:06:41 +0000

Thanks Picton Gazette!

The Toronto Star On The Best Shopping In Prince Edward County

Picturefest — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 16:12:13 +0000

Need more reasons to head to to Prince Edward County for Picturefest? Look no further.

Picturefest Announces Its Programming

Picturefest — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 16:41:57 +0000

June 7, 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PICTON PICTUREFEST ANNOUNCES PROGRAMMING FOR INAUGURAL FILM FESTIVAL AND “CINEPHILE RETREAT”

PICTON, ONTARIO – A collective of film professionals and media artists from Toronto have officially announced the program for the inaugural Picton Picturefest, a film festival and “cinephile retreat” to be held in Prince Edward County, Ontario from July 7-10, 2011. Consisting of four days of films, workshops and camping with community and youth education the common threads throughout, Picton Picturefest will provide a unique showcase for artists’ work and offer an experience that will alter the way participants engage with cinema.

“We wanted to advance and celebrate cinema as a form of community building,” Picturefest co-directors Peter Knegt and Jennifer MacFarlane – who grew up together in the Picton area – said in a joint statement. “And we can’t think of a more appropriate setting than Prince Edward County. Beyond giving us a picturesque backdrop for the event itself, the artistic community that has been fostered in that region in the past decade is incredible. In the past few months, the response from the community toward the event has been very inspiring. From media artists to animators to puppeteers, Prince Edward County has a cultural currency comparable to a community twenty times its size.”

The festival is in large part inspired by “A Pilgrimage,” an August 2009 event in which actress Tilda Swinton and filmmaker Mark Cousins gathered together 50 people from around the world to help them physically pull a mobile movie theater through the Scottish Highlands. The event was defined by the generosity and creativity that Cousins and Swinton put forth in facilitating something that found a way to present cinema as community in such an organic and joyous way. The participants (including Picturefest co-director Knegt) left inspired and ready to bring forth that magic into their everyday lives – and it is that magic Picton Picturefest hopes to recreate.

Like “A Pilgrimage,” the festival’s objective is to facilitate the idea of the film festival as community. This idea extends from the organizing and execution of the festival itself (which was completely volunteer-oriented), to its actual programming.

“Thirteen film programs have been curated by a diverse group of individuals and organizations on the basis of their thematic relationship to ideas of community,” the organizers said. “Ranging from old and new, Canadian and international, documentary and fiction, short and full-length, it’s an eclectic mix of cinema sure to offer something for everyone.”

The festival will kick off on Thursday, July 7^th with a tribute to its own inspiration, “A Pilgrimage.” Preceded by a fantastic short film by director Matt Hulse that highlights that very event, Tilda Swinton and Mark Cousins have themselves chosen French comedic icon Jacques Tati’s charming and hilarious classic M. Hulot’s Holiday to open the festival at Picton’s historic (and newly renovated) Regent Theatre. The screening will be followed by a festive reception inside the theater.

Picturefest will continue Friday night in the neighbouring town of Bloomfield, where it will be all about young indie filmmakers. Recent Indie Spirit Award “Someone To Watch” winner Mike Ott’s Littlerock. The impressively improvised and subtly affecting film tells story of a Japanese brother and sister traveling to America who end up finding themselves exploring the social realms of Littlerock, California when their car breaks down. Directly following it will be 2010 Toronto Film Festival favourite You Are Here, from local director Daniel Cockburn. Featuring one of the final performances from great Canadian actress Tracy Wright, the film is a unique, clever (and difficult to encapsulate) take on our modern-day existence through the story of an archivist putting together something of a self-made puzzle.

The festival’s weekend will consist of 10 different screenings grouped together by genre. Saturday will kick off with 4 back-to-back documentaries in the newly renovated St. Andrew’s Church in downtown Picton: Harry Sutherland’s 1986 doc Track 2 - which chronicles the Toronto Bathhouse Raids, an iconic event in Canadian gay history – will have a rare theatrical screening; Legendary Canadian director Bruce MacDonald will screen his Music From The Big House, which documents Rita Chiarelli, an award-winning recording artist who takes a pilgrimage to the birthplace of the blues, the Louisiana State Maximum Security Penitentiary; Clio Barnard’s award-winning doc/narrative hybrid The Arbor – a stunning portrayal of the late playwright Andrea Dunbar – will make its way to Picton; and Cameron Yates’ The Canal Street Madam, which depicts with humour and sympathy the infamous New Orleans madam Jeanette Maier, will screen after an enthusiastic response at last year’s Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.

The documentaries continue that night with a special outdoor screening of the epic National Parks Project at Picturefest’s campground in Picton. Celebrating the centenary of Parks Canada, the omnibus project brought together the likes of filmmakers Zacharius Kunuk, Peter Lynch, Daniel Cockburn, and John Walker, and musicians Sarah Harmer, Melissa Auf der Maur, Sam Roberts, Matt Mays, and The Besnard Lakes. In teams of 3 musicians and 1 filmmaker, they traveled to national parks in each of Canada’s 13 provinces and territories, creating 13 unique films that paint a considerable picture of the dramatic diversity of the Canadian wilderness.

Following National Parks, things will take a turn for the creepy with a midnight screening of Jon Knautz’s The Shrine around the campfire. The film follows a group of young journalists who investigate a cult said to practice human sacrifice, which may or may not lead them to become the cult’s next victims. The film will be followed by a party on the campgrounds.

Picturefest will wind down on Sunday with 2 programs of extraordinary short films. The first will be co-presented by Ouat Media, and include recent Academy Award-winning shorts God of Love (directed by Luke Maheny) and The Lost Thing (directed by Andrew Ruhemann and Shaun Tan) . The second will feature films from both the Toronto Student Film Festival and the Toronto Youth Shorts Film Festival, offering the best of both festivals and some of the most shining examples of the work of young Canadian filmmakers.

The short programs will be followed by a tribute to the incomparable Canadian playwright and filmmaker Daniel MacIvor. Curated by Toronto producer (and MacIvor’s colleague) Brad Horvath, the program will screen several of MacIvor’s short films as well as his beloved 2004 feature Wilby Wonderful, which features an all-star cast of Canadian actors including Paul Gross, Ellen Page, Sandra Oh, Callum Keith Rennie, Maury Chaykin and Rebecca Jenkins.

Finally, the festival will come to a close with a top secret sing-a-long screening of a film near and dear to Picturefest organizers’ hearts. It – like all films at Picturefest – will be preceded by a “moment” from Peter Lockyer’s Prince Edward County-based History Moments film series, which celebrates local history.

Beyond the films, there will also be camping at Picton’s 70-acre outdoor art gallery Small Pond Arts for the festival’s “cinephile retreat”. The camp will be open to anyone who signs up for our 4-day immersive filmmaking workshop, which will turn young participants into a mini film crew with the help of two established Toronto-based filmmakers, Stephen Dunn and Pat Mills (both of whom have screened work at the Toronto International Film Festival). By the end of the festival, those in the workshops will be able to screen the culmination of their work during our closing night festivities.

Information about how to apply for the workshop is available at www.picturefest.ca. Applications are due by July 1st (on a first come, first serve basis) and participants must be 16 years or older to participate.

The Picturefest Camp will additionally be open to anyone else interested in camping out for part or all of the festival. Email picturefest@gmail.com to secure a space in the camp, which will be open from Thursday, July 7th to Monday, July 11th.

“This festival really is the culmination of over a year of planning and we’re really excited for folks to experience what it has to offer,” co-directors Knegt and MacFarlane said. “We aim for it to be totally unique to the Canadian film festival landscape, and for it to provide 4 days of perfect summer escape for everyone that joins in on the fun.”

The Films

Thursday, July 7th

“Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday”

Directed by Jacques Tati

France, 1960, 83 min

7:30PM – The Regent Theatre

curated by Tilda Swinton & Mark Cousins; screening will be followed by a reception at the wine bar inside The Regent Theatre

Friday, July 8th

“Littlerock”

Directed by Mike Ott

USA, 2010, 84min

5:45pm – Bloomfield Town Hall

“You Are Here”

Directed by Daniel Cockburn

Canada, 2010, 98min

7:45pm – Bloomfield Town Hall

co-presented by Quinte Film Alternative; director in attendance

Saturday, July 9th

“Track 2”

Directed by Harry Sutherland

Canada, 1986, 90min

12:00pm – St. Andrew’s Church

co-presented by Pink Triangle Press

“Music From The Big House”

Directed by Bruce McDonald

Canada, 2010, 90min

2:30pm – St. Andrew’s Church

co-presented by the Belleville International Documentary Festival

“The Arbor”

Directed by Clio Barnard

UK, 2010, 94 min

5:00pm – St. Andrew’s Church

“The Canal Street Madam”

Directed by Cameron Yates

USA, 2010, 90 min

7:00pm – St. Andrew’s Church

co-presented by indieWIRE

“The National Parks Project”

Directed by Louise Archambault, Keith Behrman, Daniel Cockburn, Hubert Davis, Sturla Gunnarsson, Zacharias Kunuk, Stéphane Lafleur, Peter Lynch, Catherine Martin, Kevin McMahon, Scott Smith, Jamie Travis, John Walker

Canada, 2011, 120 min

9:00pm – Small Pond Arts

filmmakers in attendance

“The Shrine”

Directed by Jon Knautz

Canada, 2010, 93 min

11:30pm – Small Pond Arts

Sunday, July 10th

Youth and Student Shorts Film Program

Various countries, 2010-11, 90min

12:00pm – Bloomfield Town Hall

co-presented by the Toronto Student Film Festival and the Toronto Youth Shorts Film Festival. Intermission in between 2 programs.

Award Winning Short Films From Around The World

Various countries, 2010-11, 71min

2:15pm – St. Andrew’s Church

co-presented by Ouat Media, North America’s largest short film distributor

“Wilby Wonderful”

Directed by Daniel MacIvor

Canada, 2004, 99min

4:00pm – St. Andrew’s Church

a tribute to Daniel MacIvor curated by Brad Horvath; preceded by a selection of MacIvor’s short films.

Picturefest Youth Retreat Movie

Directed by Picturefest’s Class of 2011

6:00pm – St. Andrew’s Church

facilitated by Stephen Dunn and Pat Mills.

Secret Sing-a-Long Extravaganza

Directed by ????

6:30pm – St. Andrew’s Church

screening will be followed by a brief farewell to Picturefest onstage.

All access badges are available at Books & Company in Picton and online at www.countytix.ca for $50. You can also just show up for all screenings: It’s first come, first serve and a $10 suggested donation.

For more information on the films, participating in Picturefest, or to set up interviews with the organizers, please contact: picturefest@gmail.com or visit www.picturefest.ca.

###

ABOUT PICTUREFEST: Behind Picton Picturefest lies a group of people devoted to bringing together a unique event intended to provoke, unite and inspire. The collective was organized by Jennifer MacFarlane and Peter Knegt, who both grew up in the Prince Edward County area and are eager to give back to the community.

MacFarlane graduated from the University of Toronto’s Cinema Studies program, and has since gone on to work with a variety of Toronto area film festivals, including Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, Planet In Focus International Environmental Film & Video Festival, and the Reel Asian International Film Festival. Currently with the Toronto International Film Festival, she works closely with over 150 Film Circuit groups across Canada to bring smaller films to under-served communities, with a focus on Canadian cinema.

Knegt is a graduate of both the University of Toronto and Concordia University. He has worked at numerous film festivals including Hot Docs, the Toronto International Film Festival, Image+Nation Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival, and the Reel Out Halifax Film Festival (which he co-created and curated). He has also done significant work as a film journalist, writing for dozens of publications internationally, including Variety, Exclaim, Cannes Market News, and Xtra!. He currently works as Associate Editor of indieWIRE, a leading online source of news about independent and world cinema. He has served as a juror and panelist at festivals in New York, Toronto, Dubai, Copenhagen, Atlanta and Cleveland, and been a guest at dozens of festivals around the world.

Since its inception last fall, twenty additional members have joined the collective, from filmmakers to media artists to producers to programmers at festivals such as TIFF and Hot Docs. The Picturefest Collective includes: Alexis Allison, Lynne Crocker, Colin Druhan, Stephen Dunn, Meagan Durlak, Brad Horvath, Alex Knegt, Gina Knegt, Shannon Linde, Ian Lefebvre, Pat Mills, Daniel Oron, Alexis Ronse, Mike Rudolph, Natasha Ryan, Sebastian Speier, Kelly Thompson, Carlos Weisz, and Milda Yoo.

Picton Picturefest would not be possible without its generous sponsors and partners: Angeline’s, Books & Company, Crowe Productions, Electric Wallpaper, Festival Players, indieWIRE, Loyalist College, Ontario Arts Council, Ouat Media, PIVOT, Quinte Film Alternative, Royal Bank of Canada, Sandbanks Vacations, Scout Design, Small Pond Arts, Sparkbox Studios, Toronto Student Film Festival, Toronto Youth Shorts Film Festival, The Waring House, and Waupoos Winery.

Picturefest Poster #2

Peter Knegt — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 02:43:28 +0000

Made by our incredible design team Meagan Durlak and Sebastian Speier: