qathet Regional District finance committee is recommending the regional board approve a $2,000 grant-in-aid to qathet Film Society for the 2024 qathet International Film Festival.
At the November 1 finance committee meeting, qathet Film Society executive director Gary Shilling made an appearance to apprise regional directors about the festival.
“I want to thank you for the support we’ve received from the regional district over the years and it’s actually an exciting time for the film society,” said Shilling. “I want to give you an update for our request for the film festival.
“If any of you have driven by the theatre you’ll notice that it has been painted. It has a new roof as well. In terms of our efforts to preserve that historic community amenity, we’ve sealed the envelope, as they say in building terms. We’re still working on some other restoration.”
Shilling said the society received funds from Powell River Community Forest to replace the original canopy with stained glass signage that used to be over the entrance to the theatre. He said the theatre has also benefitted from a lot of volunteer support.
“The point I do want to make is that funding from the regional district is important to us,” said Shilling. “It shows local support for our film festival and our society and we have leveraged that. We’ve received funding from the provincial government and we’ve recently received funding from the federal government through United Way to improve access to our theatre to get people back to our theatre.
“I’m pleased to report that at our last film festival, we returned pretty close to the pre-COVID-19 numbers, so we’ve been working really hard to get people off their couches and into the theatre, even though they have invested in big TVs and couches and streaming services.”
Shilling said funding has been used to create the first Indigenous film festival on Orange Shirt Day. Funding is also being used to update the theatre’s auditorium and there has been a generous donor from the community that left funds to work on that, he added.
“We’re a small team,” said Shilling. “There’s only five of us working as contractors for the film society and we do our best to make film a part of the community here.”
Shilling said that last summer a film was shot in the regional district involving local filmmaker Tony Papa, who had also taught at the digital film school at Brooks Secondary School.
“We really feel like we have a strong place here and we deliver programming that appeals to everyone,” said Shilling. “Our festival is an international festival and our theme there is to connect local stories with stories from around the world through a broad range of films. We programmed 14 different films and 15 screenings.”
Shilling said that until about 1970, Tla’amin people were segregated in the theatre and had to sit in the balcony.
“We welcome them back,” said Shilling. “We’ve had a great turnout for the Indigenous film festival and we’re working toward welcoming all people to our theatre and to our film festival.
“I’m asking for support. Our ask is for $2,000. Our budget for the film festival is approximately $50,000 and it’s very important to us to have that support from the regional district. We draw people from all around the district to our film festival.”
The finance committee voted to recommend to the regional board that $2,000 be allocated from electoral area A, B, C and D grants-in-aid.
Join the Peak's email list for the top headlines right in your inbox Monday to Friday.
