Why Film Festivals Still Matter: The Power of Watching Together

Think about the last time a movie made you laugh out loud or catch your breath, and you heard the whole room do it with you.

I had a moment like that at EIFF’s closing night screening of Funny Money: The Dane Cook Story, from Edmonton’s Score G Productions. One of the people interviewed on screen said something, and the entire room reacted out loud at once. Hundreds of strangers responded together, in the same breath. I’ve worked in film for a long time, and moments like that still impress me.

There’s something unique and irreplaceable about watching a film in a theatre with other people. I love that we can watch almost anything, anywhere, whenever we want. But a living room can’t give you what a theatre does. When the people around you laugh, gasp, or go quiet right when you do, everyone in the room is part of the same moment. The emotion is shared, and you often walk out still thinking about it, trading ideas and questions with the people beside you. The film stops being something you watched and becomes something you experienced together.

Edmonton’s film festivals show up for their communities

That’s why our festivals matter so much here. Edmonton is a city that shows up, and from the Garneau Theatre to the Winspear Centre, our festivals and screenings fill seats with people who care about good stories.

They let us see stories we might not see otherwise. For some audiences, that means seeing their own lives and experiences reflected on a big screen. For others, it’s a window into lives different from their own. You don’t need to belong to a community to be moved by its stories. You only need to take a seat.

They bring the world to us too. Film at its best is thought-provoking and emotion-provoking, and some of the most impactful films I’ve seen in recent years came from around the globe and reached me right here in Edmonton, surrounded by people from my own community. It works the other way too. Edmonton filmmakers carry their stories out into the world, to festivals like the Calgary International Film Festival, TIFF, and the Yorkton Film Festival.

What filmmakers learn from an audience

For a filmmaker, there’s nothing quite like sitting in a theatre while an audience watches your work for the first time. You hear where they laugh and where they go quiet. You find out, in real time, whether your story connects.

Learning to connect with an audience is one of the ways a filmmaker grows, and it’s what helps an industry grow too. Many of the writers and directors behind great series and features started with short films and learned at screenings what made people lean in. It starts with a five-minute movie and an audience willing to give it a chance.

Local festivals and programs like the Mosquers Incubator Program give emerging filmmakers that first audience, full of people who want them to succeed. Every filmmaker has to start somewhere, and starting in a room like that builds the confidence to go further.

Why we do this

As film commissioner, my work takes me from meetings and industry markets to community events across the region. But it’s the moments in a theatre, when a local film connects with the audience, that remind me why I do it. Beyond its economic value, this industry matters because stories reflect the many people and lives that make up a city like Edmonton, and film brings us into the same space to experience them.

Film is meant to be shared

Film does its best work when we watch it together. We feel something side by side, see lives beyond our own, and help local filmmakers grow every time we show up.

So the next time a local festival or screening comes around, go, bring someone with you, and stay for the conversation after.

Edmonton is full of stories waiting to be seen. Take a seat, and see them together.

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Looking for your next festival? The Broad View International Film Festival returns for its fifth year, November 12-14, at Metro Cinema at the Garneau Theatre, with films by women directors from Edmonton and around the world. Edmonton Screen is a sponsor of Broad View. Learn more at broadviewfilmfest.com.

Photo cover: Dmitriy Eske for the Edmonton International Film Festival