Bay Street Film Fest

Bay Street News :: January 2011

2011-01-19T10:35:00.000-08:00

Hello and Happy New Year to all!

We hope that everyone has had an enjoyable holiday and that 2011 finds you healthy and well. We are back and preparing for the 7th annual Bay Street Film Festival, anticipating another successful year! The Finlandia has been booked, we are on our way. Only nine more months until the festival!

We are now officially open to submissions! We are only accepting submissions through www.withoutabox.com. It is even possible to submit an online screener to avoid sending a DVD, postage etc. If you are a local filmmaker who would like to submit to the festival, we still require that you submit all information through the online database so that we can avoid the last minute crunch that seems to arrive too quickly every year. Here is the direct link to submit your latest works through withoutabox to BSFF: https://www.withoutabox.com/login/4279 . Also remember, the sooner that you submit your film, the lower the submission rate. We look forward to receiving your films! We are happy to waive the submission fees for local filmmakers only. We remind all filmmakers that, as always, we are happy to pay screening fees to those films selected to be part of the festival program as per rates determined by CARFAC. Here is their website: http://www.carfacontario.ca/

Also for 2011, we are looking to bring back the traveling Bay Street Film Festival! In the past, we have organized a selection of films that were submitted and accepted to screen during past festivals which would be screened again in local and regional venues, such as libraries and community centres. The purpose of this is to allow the community another chance to view past festival favourites, and for those who live outside Thunder Bay the opportunity to see some of the best films to have been submitted to the festival. Here's how it works: The festival community puts together a package of films for an approximate total of 3 hours runtime. This package would be sent on loan to a community to screen, open to the public free of charge. If you are interested in being a liaison person, or know of anyone who would be interested in Northwestern Ontario, please contact us. There is no cost involved, providing there is a venue that is interested in supporting and hosting the screening events.

Sponsorship: If anyone is interested in sponsoring the Bay Street Film Festival, we are looking for sponsors and financial supporters for the 2011 festival. The festival is a great avenue for connecting the local arts community here with the international community. We will be releasing our sponsorship package once it becomes finalized.

For anyone wanting to revisit the 2010 festival or any past festivals, festival programs are still available for download on the festival website: www.baystreetfilmfestival.ca.

Any community members interested in joining Thunder Bay's local film and video network, a FlashFrame meeting will be held on January 19th upstairs in the Finlandia Hall at 7:30 pm. Come on over and see what is currently happening in the Thunder Bay film and media community. We are always open to new members, and memberships are only 20 bucks, 10 for students! FlashFrame provides a great platform to meet and connect with other people in Thunder Bay who are up to the same thing: filmmaking and other media production... or even just interested in it!

Inquiries regarding the Bay Street Festival can be forwarded to: baystreetfilmfestival@gmail.com

The Baystreet Film Festival People's Choice Awards 2010

2010-10-21T15:19:00.000-07:00

We had a record breaking turnout this year and a fantastic line up of films at the Bay Street Film Festival (particularly youth.) Lots of people who took the time to vote! Almost every film got a vote or two but here are the films that got the most, including two films by our youngest filmmakers from Teen Movie Group. Congratulations!

The People's Choice Awards go to:

Sisu - Chrystene Ells

Third World Canada - Andrée Cazabon

In Security - Ron Harpelle

40 Years of One Night Stands - Jeff MacKay

Fatality and the Fish - Leon Haggarty

Life is But a Dream - Kelly Saxberg

Dog Eat Dog - Curtis Jensen

A Windigo Tale - Armand Ruffo

The Bishop who Ate His Boots - Richard Stringer

Ray and Silent Rob - Emile Harpelle Adrien Harpelle

Congrats to all!

BSFF2010 promo.mov

2010-09-14T11:43:00.000-07:00

Bay Street Film Festival News!

2010-09-07T12:31:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, we’re still busy getting everything set up for the Bay Street Film Festival. For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, we have an advertisement in The Walleye with a complete film list for the upcoming festival.

The Festival will be taking place from September 30th until October 3rd 2010, and will feature over 50 films from 9 different countries. Tickets will be $5 a session and $20 for a pass. Seniors, Students, and the unemployed can pay what they can to gain admittance.

We are currently looking for volunteers who would be interested in helping out with the festival over the weekend. Also much like every year we are looking for people who would be willing to give some of the travelling film makers a place to stay while they are here for the festival. If you are interested, or know anyone who might be interested please have him or her send us an email at flashframe@shaw.ca

The program is almost completed and posters should be up around the downtown area over the weekend, we encourage you all to invite your friends to our facebook event page at http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=102240486502853&ref=ts

Also keep an eye out for new information on our website and blog at

www.baystreetfilmfestival.ca
http://baystreetfilmfestival.blogspot.com/

Lastly here is the schedule and synopsis for Thursday September 30th

Thursday September 30th
7p
"You" - Jean-Paul De Roover
Director: Curtis Jenson
6 minutes - Music Video
Thunder Bay, Canada
When a young woman tragically loses her lover, she spends the rest of her life trying to resurrect him from death.

Right to the City
Director: Barbara Ophoff
28 minutes - Documentary
U S A
In a city run by moneyed interests, a united front is forming to win the real and lasting changes needed to make the city a place that provides decent living conditions for majority of New Yorkers, not just the wealthy few. Right to the City explores how social justice organizations working together can have a real impact.

In Security
Director: Ron Harpelle
55 - Documentary
Thunder Bay, Canada
In Security is an engaging and thought provoking documentary about how barbed wire, a simple 19th century invention used to claim land for agricultural purposes, has evolved into a means of control over people and spaces around the world as it introduced concepts of boundaries and private property where none existed before.

9p
Fix
Director: Shannon Lepere
4 minutes - Animation, Experimental, Music Video
Thunder Bay, Canada
The music video for the single 'Fix' was directed by Shannon Lepere, a photographer from Thunder Bay, ON. Instead of using traditional film techniques the entire video was assembled using a stop motion technique called pixilation, which involves the compilation of still images in rapid succession with live actors.

No Fun City
Director: Melissa James, Kate Kroll
85 minutes - Documentary
Canada
Is live music being silenced? Cities from Montreal to Melbourne are experiencing the death of the independent live music venue. No Fun City is a Rock’n’Roll journey to the heart of a creative community that is fighting conflicting business interests and city regulations with the relentless fuel of music and determination.

New Festival Information!

2010-08-27T11:11:00.001-07:00

We hope that all you film enthusiasts and festival goers are enjoying this hot weather. Summer has been good to us here in Thunder Bay. We are well into our preparations for the SIXTH festival. Our festival this year will be held the weekend of September 30th, October 1-3rd. This year, we are fortunate enough to have three students working on the festival with us through both the summer experience program (Province of Ontario) and through YES Employment Summer Jobs for Youth. I would like to introduce Leon Haggarty, Gillian Arnold and Gabriel Harpelle. Their efforts will help to ensure that our festival will run as smooth as possible, hopefully you will get to meet them festival weekend in October!

This year, we have received a total of 152 submissions through withoutabox and also through the Doc Challenge (Hot Docs) group in Toronto. We were also fortunate again this year to have received funding from the Ontario Arts Council. A portion of this funding, like other years, will be used to help fund those filmmakers who are interested, to travel to Thunder Bay and be present during the festival. They will be able to attend the festival, present their film, and most importantly, interact with us, the members of the community. Through this, many relationships and collaborations have sparked through the years.

We held the judging night in June, and had a great turn out! Thanks again to all those who were able to come and participate. We were able to divide the groups in different locations to make things fun. Of course, the pizza was plentiful as were the good times. The selection committee was able to narrow the list down to just over 50 films from around the world, and much like in previous years we have many local film makers as well as people from out of town attending the festival. One of our important changes from last year’s festival are the ticket prices. This year we will be allowing seniors, students and the unemployed to pay what they can to gain admittance to the festival. Otherwise tickets will remain $5 a session and $20 for a pass that will get you into every session. This year we will be having 15 sessions with films ranging from comedic shorts, documentaries, feature films, and even a few experimental films from around the world.

Our graphic designer has been hard at work designing some flashy new signage that will be displayed before and during the festival around the Finnish Labour Temple. Watch for it! Our website is undergoing some changes and updating according to this years schedule, please stay tuned! Also, be sure to join us on Facebook, search: Bay Street Film Festival.

You can check us out online at www.baystreetfilmfestival.ca
Or look at our blog at http://baystreetfilmfestival.blogspot.com/
We also have a facebook event for the festival and we ask that people take the time to invite their friends to the event. http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=102240486502853&ref=ts
Tell your friends, and spread the word!
We hope to see you there!

The Bay Street Film Festival Planning Committee

Flog Your Film On This Blog!

2010-08-19T18:23:00.000-07:00

Why do film festivals still exist, even thrive when most films can be watched online these days? I think it's because watching films on a big screen surrounded by other film buffs and often with other filmmakers present makes it an entirely different experience.

Sure, you can watch a film on your little computer screen (or even worse: on your teeny weeny iPhone screen), but the big screen and interacting with an audience ares something else entirely and reasons why people keep coming to festivals like ours.

Having said that, the web is still a wonderful tool to promote your film and provide an audience with tantalizing teasers & trailers. So this edition around, the Bay Street Film Fest will offer this option on its website and to a degree on this blog.

Are you a selected filmmaker and don't see a link to your trailer yet? Let us know and we'll put it up immediately!
See a trailer you absolutely love (maybe even your own)? Post it on the blog and tell us why!