After two years of not being able to showcase outdoor screenings at Halifax Public Gardens, the FIN Atlantic International Film Festival outdoor movie series is returning this year, with the theme It’s the Summer of Sarah Polley.
Sarah Polley is an award-winning Canadian actress, writer, director, producer, and political activist, rising as a young actress in such films as Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter before beginning her own career as a writer-director.
Martha Cooley, executive director at the Atlantic International Film Festival, said she is excited for the event to be returning in person this year.
“Our outdoor film screening series FIN outdoors has been on hiatus for the past two years. So we were excited to bring it back this summer. And we want to return to a theme that we had in the past, which was ‘Summer Of’ a person.”
Past series included the Summer of Sandra Bullock, and the year before that was the Summer of Bill Murray.
This year, however, Cooley said they wanted to feature a Canadian filmmaker who had her films premiered at the festival before.
Executive Director of the Atlantic International Film Festival Martha Cooley said she is excited for the event to be returning in person this year. Photo by Sara Gouda.
“Sarah Polley is both an actor as well as a director, and we’re screening three of her films that she directed, and one that she starred in. And all those films have played previously at the film festival. So we thought it was a nice connection there.”
The outdoor screening will be playing four of Polley’s films: My Life Without Me, Away from Her, Take This Waltz, and Stories We Tell.
This year, short films are going to be played in advance of features as well.
“Each week, there'll be a short film made by a local elected Canadian female filmmaker," said Cooley. "And again, those were films that were all played at the main festival so it's another nice connection to Atlantic International Film Festival.”
Some of Polley's films have starred actors such as Julie Christie, Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, and Gordon Pinsent.
The screenings at the garden this year aren’t comedies, but they deal with heartfelt topics.
“It's a very exciting time for the local film industry. I think we'll see a lot more local features and local directors and producers being able to make a living here and continue to tell their stories here instead of having to go off to other centres like Toronto, to make work.”
The public screenings, as well as FIN proper, is returning to full-screen capacity this year, and will be streaming online to reach out and connect with other Atlantic provinces.
FIN outdoors will be playing movies at Halifax Public Gardens every Friday for the month of August. Gates open an hour earlier before the show at 9:30. Although all the screenings are free, audiences will have to pre-register tickets as the capacity is 500 persons.
The main festival takes place from Sept. 15 until Sept. 22.
The theme of this year's FIN Atlantic International Film Festival series is the Summer of Sarah Polley. Photo from FIN.
Listen to the full interview below: