Shelby Paulgaard // London, Ont. // March 19, 2024
The Banff Centre Film Festival World Tour is coming to London this week starting Tuesday, Feb. 19. The tour covers 45 countries on seven different continents, and a selection of films from the festival will be screened Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at the Wolf Performance Hall in Citi Plaza.
The world tour follows the preliminary screening of 37 films, which took place in the fall at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. The festival, which began in 1976, is a showcase of books and films that are “a celebration of Mountain Culture.”
“It’s really exciting,” said Felipe Gomez, coordinator for the Wolf Performance Hall. “So many of us have a connection with nature in Canada, [and we have] so many forests and so much greenery all over the place, there’s so many ways to enjoy it.”
Gomez says the festival is a great opportunity for Londoners to connect with nature and discover beautiful settings through a screen.
The first night of London’s festival titled ARNICA, named after a yellow flower that grows wild in western North America, focuses on survival stories.
“I had the opportunity to preview Still Alive,” said Gomez, “which is about a guy who has a terminal disease and was supposed to die at a young age, but he survived through climbing.”
On Wednesday, the film collection is called PAINTBRUSH, which Gomez describes as “setting up a painting you can see through the movies… Beautiful, beautiful settings.”
Thursday’s title is YARROW, which is focused on adventure films, featuring many international filmmakers and films set outside of Canada.
Tickets for the festival can be found on Tourism London’s website.