Filmmaker Michael McGowan (on the left) joined Tamara Deverell and Ken Woroner for a discussion of his film, Still Mine, at the Unama’ki / Cape Breton Film Festival held at the Inverness County Centre for the Arts from September 25th to 27th
-by Beverley Phillips
The inaugural Unama’ki / Cape Breton Film Festival was a smashing success, and organizers are already looking ahead to what is next.
For three days last weekend, the Inverness County Centre for the Arts was transformed into a movie theatre with blackout curtains, a 16-foot screen, and comfortable chairs.
Audiences enjoyed a variety of sessions, including not just feature-length and short films, but insight into the process of filmmaking with conversations and Q&As with those who make the magic happen.
Two festival-goers were Claire Leona Apps and Martina Silcock, two writer/director/producers living in Los Angeles who were just at the film festivals in Toronto and Halifax. They were very impressed with this one. “It is so good,” they said. “Ken and everybody else have put on a really incredible festival. This is being pulled off really to high standards, straight off the bat, which is exciting.”
Comments from other festival attendees included, “It was wonderful.” “Just awesome.” And, “Ken killed it.”
That would be Ken Woroner, the lead of the organizing committee. “I was very happy and satisfied with how the weekend went,” he said. “It seemed to be a success by most measures. It was a lot of work and effort, but it was worth it.”
It takes hard work to pull off any festival, and in the case of this one, it went from an idea that might happen to a weekend full of film, food, music, and good conversations in just four months. “It absolutely was a combined effort of a core group of people, a working group of seven, so not huge,” said Woroner, “and then, a sub-core of three people on the ground here in the Inverness area. And then on the day, there were all the volunteers that seemed to turn up out of nowhere to pull it off, along with volunteers and employees at the art centre who also helped us make it happen. We received some operational funding that was necessary just to make things happen, and then also some really generous sponsorships, and in-kind support from local businesses that was much appreciated.”
He was non-committal about next year, but it sounded likely. “We’ll see,” said Woroner. “I think that first thing we will do as a group is have a postmortem and talk about what worked, and what didn’t work. But it’s a good way to learn a bunch of lessons. I would like to extend our reach with the kinds of movies that appeal to the same broad audience that came out for Little Lorraine. We want the community to feel there is something of interest to them here.”
Bill Culp, film liaison with the Cape Breton Partnership and a member of the working group, said, “The first annual Unama’ki / Cape Breton Film Festival exceeded my already high expectations. The content was diverse and engaging. The guests were insightful, thoughtful, informative, and knowledgeable. The audiences were fantastic in terms of the number of attendees, but also the knowledge of the people attending.”
Tamara Deverell, Oscar-winning production designer and co-organizer, said, “I feel like it was a great success. I think we pulled it off quite well. What I’d like to see in the future, which is what I’m thinking about now, is to expand our audience and maybe do it in a few places in Cape Breton. I’d love to see some student films, some short films, maybe some student short films, and just getting more young people out, because I think there is a future for film in Cape Breton, and that’s part of what we’re trying to do.”
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