LUCIDMEDIA

Preview of the Fabulous Festival of Fringe Film

Written by Emily Santos Wednesday, 29 July 2009 09:09

Two hours from the hustling and industrial dominion of Toronto, built around the serene Saugeen River, with a population of roughly twenty-five hundred people over the past decade lies Durham, Ontario.

The community of Durham, virtually unknown to most Canadians, made a name for itself after breaking headlines in the late 90s when it declared a state of emergency as a massive flood engulfed the west end of the town.

Today, Durham is known primarily as a “hockeyville,” winning a number of All-Ontario Championships. Lacking an “artistic” ambience though, Myke Dyer and his team of film enthusiasts created an annual festival for the imaginative, aspiring directors, actors, and stage techies alike.

Eight years after its birth, The Fabulous Festival of Fringe Film is still going strong in the small town.

“We live in a rural, rural part of Ontario. There are no films here in our town. There is no cinema,” says Myke Dyer, The Fabulous Festival of Fringe Film’s Project Director and Programmer. “The closest cinema here,” he adds, “is in a town 20 minutes away.”

Over the course of five days The Fab Fest will screen innovative and diverse independent imagery in unique outdoor settings like over the local river, in barns and on the side of buildings, Dyer says. The festival examines the unbounded entanglements of contemporary life through the presentation of independent films, videos and projection art.

“Our approach – I guess they call it an interventionist approach – where we take art out to people. They don’t specifically come to us,” explains Dyer.

Unlike the forgoing festivals, this year will be monumental. Sounding almost bewildered, Dyer says when the festival first began it was all film. Fast-forward to present day and it is all computerized. “I mean it was 16 millimetre and Super 8 and thirty-five millimetre,” he says, “and we were talking the other day and we noticed that [this year] it is all video. It is all digital. It is either DVD or DV tapes. But there is no film at all.”
Films that deserve notable mentions says Dyer, includes the festival’s series of Asian works. Heather Keung of the Reel Asian Film Festival will be presenting a series of provocative and disturbing programs of mixed media performances and videos by Asian women. “There is a really wide range of topics and subjects,” adds Dyer.

Also on the docket is the People’s Choice and a night with featured films from local filmmakers. Dyer says the bulk of the audience and judges are young adults but the films up for viewing are submitted from all ages – even seniors. “[We get] hundreds [of films],” he explains. “It has to be shorts films. It has to be ten minutes in length. But we get them from all across the country. I think the choices this year reflect that. They reflect films that have come from the East Coast and the West Coast and the North and everywhere in between,” raves Dyer.

This year’s Fabulous Festival of Fringe Film kicks off on July 30th at the Durham Art Gallery (251 George St. E. Durham, Ontario). Opening reception begins at 8pm.

Lesley Chan will host the Festival’s film workshops. She is returning for another summer to assist inventors in creating their own live-performances. Participants will have the chance to use an overhead projector, create hand-made images and experiment with every-day objects. Materials for the workshop will be provided, but objects from home are also welcome. Work-shoppers will have the chance to perform their finished masterpiece on August 2nd.

For festival volunteer information, or for a full listing of picture screenings log on to the festival’s website at www.fabfilmfest.ca. Dyer says Durham’s Fabulous Festival of Fringe Film welcomes all volunteer applicants until the kick-off date.