Windsor Intl Film Festival to add pop-up screenings and a venue while Jewish Film Festival to expand

The Windsor International Film Festival – ranked the number two festival of more than 150 such events on the Toronto Intl Film Festival outreach Circuit – has had its WIFF365 monthly schedule up and running since January. Every second Thursday there are two films screened at the Capitol Theatre. On May 10 look for Final Portrait (Stanley Tucci, 2017) starring Jeffrey Rush, about the Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti, at 3.30 pm and 7.55 pm, and the Israeli film Foxtrot (Samuel Maoz, 2017) at 5.45 pm ……You may remember that WIFF screened monthly films a few years ago only to have the series abruptly end. What happened? WIFF director Vincent Georgie told me it was because film distribution literally overnight went from analogue to digital and, well, WIFF was without a digital projector. That’s now been remedied to some extent, with a digital projector gift from the University of Windsor. But a larger $170,000 digital projector will be arriving soon. It’s being paid for from a $250,000 grant from the City of Windsor given to the popular fest, an act which many said had been overdue from a council that pays little heed to the arts ……Georgie told me the fest will also be adding at least three more “pop-up” screenings, after a successful pop-up timed for this year’s Oscars. The next one still be later this month, then in late June and one during PRIDE week. The June 30 event will feature Canadians-themed films (Canada Day occurs July 1) and the PRIDE event will feature LGBTQ films. These pop-ups will be all day events, getting underway in the morning, just like during the regular annual festival! …. Meanwhile, WIFF will be adding a third venue to its screening sites this fall when the 14th edition of the fest gets underway Oct. 29. This will be the renovated armouries building, now home to the University of Windsor’s creative arts school. For those with long memories, the armouries was one of the early venues for WIFF screenings. But at that time it was an ad hoc inflated screen that was installed on the concrete floor of what was then a former drill hall. Georgie says the new state of the art theatre within the art school will be just perfect for WIFF screenings.

Meanwhile, the Windsor Jewish Film Festival, which just wrapped up its 16th run last week, will be expanding by adding an educational role. Jewish Community Centre director Jay Katz says the festival has received a grant and more info will be released by the fall. “Stay tuned!” ….. The festival for the first time utilized two theatres for the opening night film, An Act of Defiance (Jean van de Velde, 2017). Katz says that’s a function of the fact the Devonshire Cineplex theatres lost capacity after replacing their traditional seats with larger recliners. Nevertheless, festival attendance continues to increase and more people from throughout Windsor, and not just in the Jewish community, are attending. The three screenings I attended, including during the day, were almost filled to capacity, something I hadn’t seen before.