Reel Alternatives screening iconic Canadian film for free on National Canadian Film Day, April 19

Since Reel Alternatives screened its first film – The Sweet Hereafter – in April of 1998, it has been attracting appreciative audiences to see films that wouldn’t otherwise appear in Huntsville.

Wednesday, April 19, has been designated National Canadian Film Day 150 and, as members of the Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) film circuit, Reel Alternatives Huntsville and Spinning Reels in Bracebridge were offered the ability to screen one of ten iconic Canadian films on that day. After polling their members, it was agreed that Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner would be the film to be screened at both locations. It will be offered for free, but audience members are asked to pick up their tickets in advance.

Inuit storytelling stands as one of the world’s oldest art forms, explained a Real Alternatives release. For 4,000 years Inuit people have passed their knowledge, values, philosophy and culture from generation to generation without a written language. The first feature film ever made in the Inuktitut language, Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner is part of this continuous stream of oral history. Atanarjuat finds himself in love with Atuat, and while she loves him in return, she has been promised to Oki, the boastful and bullying son of the camp leader. When Atanarjuat forces the issue, he violates the carefully observed customs of the community. In a timeless story, Oki sets out to gain revenge.

Featuring an all-Inuit cast of both experienced actors and first-time performers, Atanarjuat was shot by an almost entirely Inuit crew on location in the North Baffin region of the Canadian Arctic. Costumes, props and sets were handmade by local artists and elders, who also advised on every stage of the scriptwriting process to ensure cultural accuracy. Winner of the immensely prestigious Caméra d’Or for best first feature at Cannes in 2001, Atanarjuat is a landmark in Canadian film history. Kunuk’s direction is faultless, replicating the natural unfolding of time. Norman Cohn’s cinematography captures the vast expanse of sky, unique arctic light and the sprawling sea ice, tundra, and rocky flatlands with austere, evocative beauty. Atanarjuat is a spellbinding story about the individual and the community in which he must live.

Since 1998, Reel Alternatives has hosted a film festival almost every year, featuring films around a given theme and including both mainstream and foreign-language films. For the first few years, the group screened one movie a month but quickly moved to two for some months thanks to demand. It screens 16 to 18 films per year, most at the Capitol Theatre, and hasn’t changed its ticket prices since that first year – they remain at $7 in advance or $8 at the door.

The Reel Alternatives Board – currently Rob Saunders and Kareen Burns (who have both been on the board since the beginning), with Gail Orr, Zelda Dwyer, Laura Kennedy, and Lynda Sinclair – select the films and use the proceeds from the screenings to support up-and-coming film artists in the area.

To date, they have given more than $50,000 in scholarships and funding, including support for Mirror Lake, a feature film by Joel Irwin and Jeremy Munce and Mark Boucher, and Labour of Love, Virginia Hastings’s documentary of cyclist Caroline Van Den Bulk’s ride in Race Across America. They also started a DVD collection at both the Huntsville Public Library and Dwight Public Library.

An upcoming, Reel Alternatives-sponsored short film competition for all ages will open soon, with a screening to happen in the fall. Watch for details on that initiative soon.

For National Canadian Film Day, local filmmaker Sandy McLennan will be on hand outside the Atanarjuat screening to create an on-the-spot film project.

“I figure for National Canadian Film Day there ought to be films being made in addition to being shown,” he wrote via email. “I currently work in celluloid film: super 8 and regular 8mm, processing in my home darkroom, using old equipment to create new images.”

McLennan plans to shoot a super 8 film of Huntsville’s main street and patrons arriving for the feature film – people will be invited to operate the camera, too – and then he’ll develop the film on the street, ready to project when everyone leaves the Algonquin Theatre. He did a similar project at the Backstreet Urban Arts Festival last summer, using a portable darkroom and cardboard pinhole cameras.

“The idea is to promote film making and the fact that ‘film is not dead’, and to give people the opportunity to experience the extra magic and fun of analogue projection,” wrote McLennan. “Many people have not seen this technology and for others it’s been a long time.”

Reel Alternatives Huntsville is sponsoring McLennan’s project by assisting with the cost of film stock and chemicals. “It’s one of the main things that has changed over the years: one cartridge of super 8 colour reversal (i.e. positive, ready to project) film costs almost $50,” writes McLennan. “That doesn’t include developing, which even when home-processing costs about $25. It’s a long way from the days of pre-paid Kodachrome which in 1980 was about $6 for stock, processing and return shipping!”

The Huntsville screening of Atanarjuat will be at the Algonquin Theatre starting at 7 p.m. on April 19. Patrons are asked to pick up their complimentary ticket in advance at Seven Main Cafe to allow for an estimation of audience size.

Director Kunk’s follow up film Maliglutit (Searchers) will be screened by the Huntsville Reel Alternatives group as part of their regular series on Monday, May 1, at the Capitol Theatre in Huntsville.

Additional information and up-to-date movie information, is available at reelalternativeshuntsville.ca.

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