Heather Latter
Those who enjoy a good documentary are not going to want to miss the upcoming film festival entitled “What’s Up Doc?”
Presented by the Fort Frances Public Library Technology Centre, it will run Jan. 20-23 starting at 5:30 p.m.
A different film will be shown each night, with admission being free.
“It’s the first time we’ve done this,” noted librarian Penny Shumaker.
“We want to promote the fact that we have some great documentaries.
“I think people are used to seeing some great movies that we get in, but maybe passing by the documentaries,” she added.
“And we’ve been focusing on getting some top documentaries in.”
Monday will feature “More Than Honey,” in which Academy Award-nominated director Markus Imhoof takes an in-depth look at honeybee colonies in California, Switzerland, China, and Australia—and why bees are facing extinction.
“Blackfish,” directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, will be shown on Tuesday.
This film focuses on the captivity of Tilikum, a killer whale involved in the deaths of three individuals, and the consequences of keeping killer whales in captivity.
Then on Wednesday, the 2012 documentary by Canadian actor/director Sarah Polley, called “Stories We Tell,” will be presented.
In it, Polley playfully interviews and interrogates a cast of characters of varying reliability—discovering that the truth depends on who’s telling it.
The final film of the series, to be shown next Thursday, will be “Don’t Stop Believing: Everyman’s Journey,” which focuses on Arnel Pineda, who was plucked from YouTube to become the new singer for the rock-and-roll band Journey.
These films all will be available to borrow from the library, along with a variety of others.
Shumaker noted they plan to highlight some of the other documentaries throughout the week.
“So after we watch ‘More Than Honey,’ we will talk about some of the other ones that might be food-related that we have, as well, and make suggestions for people,” she explained.
“If you liked this documentary, you might like these ones.
“That’s what we plan on doing each night,” Shumaker said.
The library originally had planned to only show trailers of different documentaries.
“Then we decided that we should show a top documentary to get the interest going, and then make suggestions of ones that are similar to it,” Shumaker reiterated.
That’s why each evening of the film festival will highlight a diversely different topic.
“We hope to have something for everyone,” Shumaker reasoned, noting that while people certainly can attend all four nights, they expect there might be a particular film someone is interested in and will come just to that one.
The library will be providing beverages but encourages anyone attending the film festival to bring along a bag meal.
“We thought people might want to just grab a sandwich and bring it with them,” she noted, adding the films are being shown around dinner time due to the 8 p.m. closing time of the library.
She added the films each run about 90 minutes long and will be shown on the big-screen TV in the Shaw Room.
“We hope to get a good turnout,” Shumaker said.
For more information about the film festival, call the library at 274-9879.
