Spotlight on International Festival of Films on Art
This year, Montreal’s International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA) is celebrating its 30th anniversary, and perhaps not surprisingly, it’s shaping up to be the most successful edition yet.
FIFA Director and Founder René Rozon says the festival’s visibility has increased every year since he founded the event in 1981. “Once you reach the 30th year, more and more people are aware of the existence of your festival. So, more people are curious to know more about it,” he says. “So the best way to know more about it is to come around and see some films!”
The 11-day festival, which began on March 15, is screening 232 films from 30 countries in nine theatres throughout Montreal, including Concordia’s J.A. DeSève Cinema. Today, it is the largest festival of its kind in the world, devoted to promoting films on art and media art. This is the third year that Concordia has been a partner of the festival.
So far this year’s edition of FIFA has had 30 films play to full houses, and Rozon says the organizers are scrambling to find locations to hold additional screenings of the sold-out films, so as many people as possible can enjoy them. Information about the additional screenings is available on the festival website.
The festival’s benefit event was also sold out. It featured a screening of the documentary film on Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei, entitled Ai Weiwei: Without Fear or Favour, a cocktail reception and a silent auction. The 300 available tickets sold for $250 each.
With less than a week left until the end of the festival, there are still plenty of screenings visitors can check out, including a film about painter Guido Molinari, who was a professor in Concordia’s Faculty of Fine Arts. Molinari: La Dernière Conversation is screening at the Contemporary Art Museum on Friday and Saturday as part of a retrospective of films celebrating Concordia’s Faculty of Fine Arts.
Rozon encourages people with an interest in a certain branch of the arts to consult the festival program’s subject index if they want to narrow their choices. “If people like just dance, we pinpoint dance films, and it’s the same for all subjects. You follow your interests.”
Concordia is also hosting several more screenings at the J.A. de Seve Cinema in the J.W. McConnell Library Building (1400 De Maisonneuve Blvd. W.) this coming Friday and Saturday, including a screening of director Jake Auerbach’s film on German-born British painter Lucien Freud at 8:30 p.m. on Friday, March 23.
Earlier during the festival, Auerbach hosted a master class at the DeSève Cinema, following a screening of his film on Freud, which Rozon attended.
“It was a very interesting session,” Rozon said. “The filmmaker explained how he shot the film, and his purpose. That’s what a master class is all about.”
The festival runs until Sunday, March 25.
Related links:
• International Festival of Films on Art
• “Reel Link to Art Film Festival” — NOW, February 15, 2012