E.I.F.F.
It’s been years since I had a chance to attend the Edmonton International Film Festival.
I used to attend every year but life got busy and then Covid hit. Sound familiar?
So when Terry and I read in the paper that the festival was on we decided to take a chance and go to the opening night to see the film, “Rosie”.
We parked downtown in our old fave movie theatre building where we used to go on our ‘Friday Night Dates’ for many of the 37 years before the pandemic hit.
Rosie is about a ‘quirky family of fringe dwellers’, who come together from different walks of life : a tough, street smart lady who is Rosie’s only relative found when Rosie, who is 6, is left orphaned after her mother dies and “Flo and Mo” who refuse to be restricted by gender. The four eventually become a family bound together by love and the streets. The movie has a “Little Miss Sunshine” vibe with some Québécois thrown in according to the official bio.
The movie made us laugh out loud several times even though the themes were tough to watch at times. Homophobia, racism, the adoption system, fear, loneliness, homelessness, and anger are some of the them but the film somehow felt light.
After the show (which was sold out) we stayed to listen to the interview with the lead actress, Mélanie Bray, and her partner, the director of the film, Gail Maurice. It was interesting to hear that the film took 6 years to get made and that the only future plans for it so far are to enter it into film festivals. How do these poor folks make a living?
Gail, who is also indigenous, said that she was inspired to write because of the “60’s Scoop” where the government took babies away from their mothers…which actually happened to her own mother! SO sad. The lead lady is indigenous too. There is a piece in the film where all the characters take lessons in Cree.
The following day, we returned at lunch hour to enjoy the “Lunchtime Shorts” a series of “Short” movies where the ticket prices include a delicious Italian Centre sandwich and a yummy cookie.
There were five shorts and they were all SO much fun to watch. Our favourite one was about a happy go lucky leaf (a cartoon) that finally breaks free to fall from the tree in Autumn and we see it meandering back and forth in a gentle glide to earth……. while in reality the leaf in screaming in a free fall only to land in a pile of his dead relatives. So morbid and hilarious. The final scene was with little boy who was throwing the leaves in the air and being told by his dad ‘not to eat the leaves’. One can only imagine the horror of the poor leaf…ha ha ha. He must have thought he landed in Hell!
The festival runs until October 1st with many many award winning films to be shown.