From: Jennifer Hanson, thenorthbaybay.ca staff
NORTH BAY — The North Bay Film Festival, a 3 day celebration of cinema featuring over a dozen full-length and short films, will be changing it up next year.
“We’ve had great success with The North Bay Film Festival,” says North Bay Film Director Brian LeBlond. “The films are wonderful and our patrons are amazing: they are passionate and engrossed and nothing short of extraordinary.”
“But, while we’ve been seeing success, there are a few of us that think the festival could be bigger. We believe that the festival’s focus on smaller, more ‘artistic’ films isn’t working as well with the city as we’d like it to. So we’re going to change the festival to better suit North Bay.”
Starting next year, LeBlond says the festival will instead be advertised as “The North Bay Movie Show.”
“It’s less ‘artsy.’ Less threatening.”
On top of the name change, LeBlond says other adjustments will be made to the festival.
“We’ve heard from the community that smaller, more ‘cultured’ movies like Angelique’s Isle or Beautiful Boy can be pretty scary, especially when something like The Last Jedi managed to upset so many folks.”
“So, to offset this, we will begin to pause all of our films every 30 minutes to show clips from Happy Gilmour.”
“I mean, that bit with Bob Barker? Hilarious!”
Plans for Next Year
“One thing we can all agree on is that people love talking to actors, directors, and writers,” says LeBlond.
“This year we’re having Q&A periods with the directors of Fruit Machine, The Discarded, Trouble in the Garden, and with the Producer of Angelique’s Isle.”
“And while we know that they will be well attended, what we really want is to the see the Capital Centre full to the brim of happy, ordinary people.”
“So we are pleased to announce that we have already booked our first featured guest for next year – Jakob Karpik, the guy who drove the Zamboni in Deadpool.”
“That ought to make North Bay happy.”
The Canadian Way
With all the changes to the festival, LeBlond is confident the North Bay Movie Show will be an even greater success.
“I’ve no doubt. We’ve done everything to make the festival more accessible, less threatening, and less ‘artsy-fartsy.”
“And to top it all off, next year’s festival will feature a brand new addition – ‘Pucks and a Picture.”
“Pucks and a Picture” will see the Capital Centre’s parking lot flooded and turned into an ice rink, where two local teams will play for a cash prize. However, unlike a typical hockey game, twenty minutes of Moonlight will play on a screen between each period.
“It’s the perfect mix of North Bay passion and a movie that made less than $30 million.”
Tickets for this year’s North Bay Film Festival are on sale now.