"There was heart and soul," Kathy Kay, Victoria Film Festival (VFF) director recalls.
The first festival that Kay directed 27 years ago, she picked up John Waters (Pink Flamingos, Hair Spray) from the airport. Cell phones were as big as walkie-talkies and the batteries kept dying. Vic Theatre had to boot the festival because Good Will Hunting was screening so Kay scrambled to move it to the Roxy Theatre.
But despite the chaos, the magic of it all hooked Kay in for a whimsical ride over the next few decades.
As VFF reaches 30 years of enriching Victoria's film landscape, Kay said she has stayed as festival director all this time because it still "never feels like it's perfect."
And while art, and life, may never offer perfection, this year was pretty darn good.
Kay estimates 2020 probably saw the festival's highest numbers ever, but in 2024, they nearly reached those numbers again, indicating a full recovery from the pandemic. And it opened with a splash: a showing of Seven Veils from Victoria's own Atom Egoyan, in attendance.
"We had such great guests... the crowds were out ... It just felt great that we survived that whole pandemic," said Kay.
In a world where getting people out to the movies is arguably much harder to do than ever, it is impressive how the festival keeps growing – from 23 feature films in Kay's first year to 104 this year, with 35 sellouts during the 10-day run.
"We've built an audience because we've been at this so long," she said.
But the festival also does a fantastic job of keeping people engaged through charm.
"One year we had a film about cricket and we had two guys from a cricket team come and do a whole presentation. It was very funny," Kay said chuckling. "I think it makes it more homey."
Or, one year when the festival put on ConVerge, people could get in a limousine and watch a short film about fame.
"We're not just straightforward corporate. Even when we do our galas, everything's pretty much handmade. Volunteers who come in make me flying pigs or sheep or clouds or whatever. It just has a real grassroots feel to it," she said.
The festival has had epic industry moments over the decades, including the Canadian premiere of indie hit Smoke Signals, a live performance by David Foster, and this year, Emmy award-winner Eric McCormack (Will and Grace) was in attendance.
Year-round, it supports local filmmakers, through hands-on filmmaking experiences for youth like the FilmCAN Competition, letting filmmakers use the Vic Theatre to test their films out during the day, and showcasing films from CineVic and the Victoria Film Producers.
While Kay light-heartedly said that perfection would be if every film were full, if every film started on time, and if there was a filmmaker at every screening, she still seems wholly content enjoying the beautifully imperfect and chaotically creative ride to promote an art form that she loves.
"What I like so much is that it is more for the masses. It can appeal across such a big spectrum, so that people don't feel isolated. There is something to share for the common experience," she said.
"Or you can just really, really dig into it ... explore the beauty of cinematography ... the subtext of scenes ... You can make it come alive for a deeper experience."
This article is from Black Press' 2024 edition of Best of the City.
