Calling All Movie Buffs!

Over the weekend, I was invited to the annual Silveron International Film Festival held at the Innis Town Hall where I had the opportunity to enjoy screenings of short films, documentaries, music videos, and a feature film! This two-day festival offered a thought-provoking and insightful look at the world through a series of films from around the world. There were films from Mexico, Croatia, Sweden, UK, Germany, Canada, Netherlands, and others! The films ranged from light-hearted themes to darker, intense themes that made one think about what story the film is trying to tell us. One of my favourite short films of the evening was “Dancing with Gene Kelly”, a story about a six-year-old girl that dreams about dancing with the legendary film star Gene Kelly. As a little girl her dream was to become a dancer but as time went by, she grew out of dance and became a children’s story writer with a focus on dancing and she quotes, “I was never really good at it anyway but through writing stories about dancing, I suppose my dream lives on through these stories”.  To me, the message in the film is that as children, we all have dreams and aspirations that we hope to accomplish and if it doesn’t work out, we feel like we have failed somehow. This film made me think, “how many opportunities do we miss because we’re so fixated on something that we miss the chance to pursue something else that could open other doors?” One thing we often fail to realize is that sometimes those aspirations and dreams can change AND THAT’S OKAY! Maybe we were meant for other great things instead and perhaps we can fulfill those dreams in other forms just as the little girl did when she grew up! If you missed this event, there are upcoming film festivals that are FREE! Upcoming screenings include: - Free Flicks at Harbourfront Centre, every Wednesday until August 31, 2016 at 9pm - Christie Pits Film Festival, every Sunday until August 28, 2016 at Sundown - TIFF in your Park, various locations and times until September 25, 2016. All in all, I really enjoyed the film festival and if you attended it let me know what you think! If you’re planning on attending the other fests, what are you looking forward to?! -M