Get ready to enjoy homegrown talent, as FIN Fridays hits the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia on the last Friday of every month.
Beginning January 31, 2020, FIN Atlantic International Film Festival and the gallery have partnered to focus on works by Atlantic Canadian filmmakers.
The event series – Atlantic Cinematheque – has Colin Stinson, director of marketing and visitor experience with the gallery, excited for the infusion of programming.
“We are happy to generate a more consistent partnership with FIN. This allows us to diversify our offerings, and we can look at a new medium, which is film, and bring in a new audience,” he said. “We can also enhance things for our current audience.”
“FIN knows the art of film like the back of their hands, so we are happy to be doing this with them.”
Stinson is always trying to feature local artists, and is happy they can feature local film now as well.
“We love this Atlantic Canadian content. To be able to showcase people from here or things that connect to here is important,” he said. “Our recent mission is to connect people and art together differently, and film is about the story. This element is important and helps us give museum goers and attendees something new.”
He said being able to do something of this magnitude with FIN shows how great it can be for two community and culture organizations to come together.
“Taking something like this that hasn’t been here before and doing it together shows the respect we have for each other as partners, and focuses on the work and our audience. I think it’ll be a great success,” he said. “For this gallery, community engagement, perception of what a gallery can be and more are important to how we serve our community.”
“We want to take the idea of an art gallery, flip it on its head, and serve a diverse community the way the gallery should. We are working on this in many ways, and this is one small way we can do that.”
This isn’t the first time the gallery and FIN have partnered, as the most recent September festival saw art-related screenings including films from Kenneth J. Harvey and Althea Thauberger, the latter of whom is part of an exhibition celebrating her work at the gallery now.
“The gallery and festival etched a relationship when Maudie was released, and each year we looked at ways to partner,” said Wayne Carter, executive director at FIN. “The Atlantic Cinematheque brand is something we see as a bigger picture thing, and doing this at the gallery is a great launch.
“More and more the theatrical window doesn’t last long for some Atlantic Canadian films, and if they hit streaming services, people may not even know. So when we talked to the gallery in earnest, they have the lovely new screen and projector for their room. We thought we should show films there.“
With the gallery recently opening Friday nights, and FIN’s 40th year on the cusp, Carter saw a way of opening this cinematheque theme.
“We can program this in quarters and react to things in the gallery. We can find synergies and connections with exhibits, and speak to that,” he said. “We want primarily Atlantic Canadian-based content, because it doesn’t get the exposure it should. There’s 50 years of content and films people may have missed.”
“We are looking at films like The Hanging Garden, which is huge in the Canadian canon, but they were released on DVD years ago but may not have BluRay releases or be spotlighted now. We want people to enjoy and relive these things, or see them for the first time.”
The curators of art and film will come together for FIN Fridays with the first film in the series, Perfume War, directed by Michael Melski. It charts friends Barb Stegemann and Afghanistan soldier Captain Trevor Greene. After the Taliban ends his tour violently, Greene and Stegemann try to continue his piece mission through perfume.
It screened at FIN (formerly the Atlantic Film Festival,) and garnered the Best Feature Documentary prize in 2016.
The winter schedule for FIN Fridays is now available on the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and FIN’s websites. Entry to the film is included in the cost of admission to the Gallery.
The FIN Fridays series will feature flicks by Atlantic Canadian filmmakers and films about Atlantic Canada, with shows screening in the Gallery’s Windsor Foundation. The screenings are first come, first serve.
