The always-accurate Wikipedia defines “genre film” as: “A motion picture (such as a western, a gangster film, a musical, or a film noir) that plays on the expectation of the audience regarding familiar plot structures, characters, setting, and so on.”
Now into its third year, you might assume Saskatoon’s Dark Bridges Film Festival would be the perfect example of a “genre festival” — but to Festival director John Allison, the name doesn’t fully do this year’s line-up of films justice.
“I see us a genre festival, but I have a really wide definition of what genre is. Most festivals that are genre festivals have horror, sci-fi, fantasy, martial arts, B-movies and cult movies — but we have a wider definition. I just want to bring in good movies,” says Allison. “I almost regret taking the name ‘Dark Bridges.’”
He’s got a point: “Dark Bridges” may immediately bring to mind oozing zombies and hungry cannibals, but this festival really does have something for everyone. If you’re into the art-house, for example, Bullhead was nominated for an Academy Award in 2012 in the best foreign language picture category. (It’s also a film that critics ate up, and which very much deserved the nomination.) Kill List, meanwhile,was widely regarded as one of the most original and best horror flicks in recent memory (garnering a five-star rating from respected website Total Film), and The Sandman is a quirky, Spike Jonze-esque comedy from Switzerland about a man turning to sand.
(But don’t worry, lovers of B-movie gorefests: films like Manborg, Blood Car, and Eddie: The Sleepwalking Cannibal will have you covered.)
“We’re a festival that promotes bringing in interesting films that would normally never get a chance to get played in Saskatoon. Some of that may be because they’re foreign, or independent or don’t have distributors. Or, for whatever reason, Galaxy and Cineplex don’t play that kind of content,” says Allison.
Along with the films, Dark Bridges also has an impressive list of guests lined up, including Boris Rodriguez (director of Eddie: the Sleepwalking Cannibal), Zak Kilberg (lead actor of Midnight Sun) and Saskatoon native Michael Eklund, star of The Divide, who will introduce his film and do a Q&A following.
“I always loved the idea of bringing guests in. I want to support Canada and local films, so when we get a chance to bring in Canadian director and actors, it’s really cool,” says Allison. “The Q&A sessions are fun — you get to hear all these stories on the filmmaking process, sometimes you get in-depth information, and it all heightens the films experience.”
Allison says that this will be the biggest year yet for Dark Bridges, thanks in large part to the fact that they’ve added two festival programmers and a short film programmer to the selection process, resulting in a festival with a whopping lineup of 15 feature films and 25 shorts.
“We take submissions every year — I can’t tell you how many we’ve had, but I’m guessing between feature and shorts [it’s around] 250-300 films. This is the first year we’ve actually added programmers — before it was just me with a couple of friends. Now, we have a short film programmer who watched 200 some short films.”
That passion for and belief in short film is definitely one of the things that makes Dark Bridges special. They pair each full-length film with an opening short film that compliments the feature, and they also offer a short film event on Sunday for free (a screening which includes films from Spain, France, Brazil, Canada, Japan and numerous other countries). Since these kinds of films don’t get a theatrical release or necessarily even make their way to YouTube, the festival circuit is usually the only opportunity to see them, says Allison.
“The short films are in part what makes this festival — it’s something different, and a lot of people will never get the chance to see these. With the features, you can eventually track them down, but the short films are usually new filmmakers, and the shorts just aren’t out there, they only play at festivals,” he says Allison.
“We’re trying to get people to enjoy these things. We look for a film that has a really strong story in a short time, or an interesting look, or something that we’ve never seen before. I love the features, but the shorts are great, you find so many bizarre little things out there that are fun to watch.”
Despite the numerous problems the film industry has been having lately — piracy, the tendency for studios to shy away from “risky” artistic projects and budget cuts happening around the globe, including Saskatchewan — Allison says festivals like Dark Bridges still play a crucial role for film lovers.
“You know what? The films that do the best are the ones that have the most amount of hype and have been pirated,” he says. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun to watch a movie at home, but when you get an audience together that’s really into enjoying movies, it’s so much more fun. It’s a chance to experience these interesting films in a theatre with like-minded people.”
“You’re going to get to experience something new. You’re going to see new directors, some of the director’s first works, new actors, new films. I love the atmosphere that gets created.
