The beach + four indoor venues |  July 24-28
Free beach screenings
$10 per screening
$55-$80 wristbands
Regular street parking rules apply
gimlifilm.com

Manitoba’s longest running film festival is back for a thirteenth year, but there are no superstitions about the number. The 2013 instalment of the Gimli Film Festival promises to pack a cinematic punch July 24-28 with the most local and Canadian premieres the beach front festival has ever seen.

“We’re [a] teenager, we’re coming into our own,” the festival’s Feature Film Programming Director Joy Loewen says. “We’ve got a very strong history and reputation of providing great films that you may not have heard of, or those you may have heard of but not had the opportunity to see yet, combined with a really relaxed summertime festival vibe.”

Loewen had the daunting (but fun) task of selecting and programming the GFF’s feature film line up, which includes 37 full-length films, complimented by seven different short film programs. “25 of those films will be seen for the first time in the province,” Loewen adds, and in some cases, the festival is featuring the Canadian premiere of a film.

“I’ve branded this year’s festival ‘the year of love and song’ because in one way or another, many of the films reflect our relationships with each other.” Loewen states that they have a really strong line up of both factual and feature films that deal with the different aspects of love and romance, as well as films that highlight music, whether it’s a band documentary or a musical on the beach.

One of the Manitoba premieres that Loewen is most excited for is the documentary Muscle Shoals, which focuses on a small Alabama town that was a hotbed for music during the volatile 1960s. Sheepdogs Have At It, the Manitoba-produced documentary chronicling the rise of the Rolling Stone covered Regina rock band, is also receiving screen time in Gimli.

The Gimli Film Festival strives to showcase local films, with ten different Manitoba specific programs playing, as well as films that tie in to the host town’s Icelandic heritage. This year’s festival features two Canadian premieres of Icelandic films.

Other great aspects of the festival are the industry sessions and two pitch competitions which are offering $32,000 for the creation of new films. “Not only are we showcasing new films, we’re also investing in the Manitoba industry,” Loewen says.

Not to be missed are the daily late night beach screenings which are once again a highlight of the festival, and usually feature some crowd favourites, including Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Grease. “If people haven’t been to Gimli and haven’t experienced seeing a film on the beach, I really do encourage them to come this year,” Loewen says.

Part of the series: Summer Festival Guide 2013

Published in Volume 67, Number 27 of The Uniter (July 17, 2013)