It's now film festival season in Windsor

With the Windsor International Film Festival (WIFF) closing out another boffo – if not yet its most boffo year – Sunday, it’s time to plunge right into the city’s second-in-a-row – count ‘em – film festivals: Media City, which got under way last night and runs until Nov. 11 Yes, it’s now film festival season in little old Windsor, Ontario, Canada, fast, it seems, becoming a cinematic destination on international festival circuits. But Media City, now in its 26th season, is clearly the senior festival (WIFF celebrated its 19th), and has always had a large international presence. And, for the genre it screens, holds an important niche among avant-garde festivals. It’s a lesser known festival than WIFF because it screens edgier, more abstract and experimental works. The event shows films in Windsor and Detroit but is centred around Windsor’s Capitol Theatre. Some 60 cineastes from Germany, France, Serbia, South America and Asia are here for tonight’s launch party. And influential Argentinian director Narcisa Hirsch is the focus of tonight’s post-party screening. “Hirsch has spent seven decades as one of the foremost figures of the South American avant-garde,” the festival, long headed by Oona Mosna, says. Tonight's event features rare films never before screened outside of Argentina. Over the next several days some 70 films altogether will be screened. The festival is underwritten to the tune of more than $200,000 in provincial and federal funding. Media City’s guide is 120 pages. A full festival pass is $30 CAD and single tickets are “pay what you like.”