Fragmented films

Behind the scenes at the Kingston Canadian Film Festival

Matéo Guez makes films using a cell-phone recorder.
Image by: Joshua Chan
Matéo Guez makes films using a cell-phone recorder.

This weekend, Kingston will encounter a loud-mouthed cabdriver, an indie-rock band trying to make it big and a teenager looking for her lost brother as the Kingston Canadian Film Festival unfolds throughout the city. With 19 feature films, 17 local shorts and a number of meet-and-greets and workshops with filmmakers, KingCan promises a busy weekend for film aficionados.

Here, the Journal profiles two of the many people behind the innovative festival.

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Katryna Deligiannis, a fourth-year film studies student, has volunteered at KingCan for the past three years, in addition to volunteering at other film festivals such as the Toronto International Film Festival and the Worldwide Short Film Festival.

“I guess what made me want to volunteer [at KingCan] was because it was new and different, and it was really getting into the community instead of just being on the Queen’s campus all the time,” she said.

This year, Deligiannis is interning as the festival’s hospitality assistant. Interning at KingCan is more substantial than volunteering—interns are more closely involved with planning and organization, in addition to putting in longer days during the festival, which can interfere with what for many is the main draw of participating in a film festival: watching films.

“When you’re a volunteer, you get the opportunity to go and see films. Not being able to as an intern is somewhat of a drawback to some people, but I don’t think it’s a drawback because you get such an intimate experience with the festival that by the time it’s going on, you know all of the films inside out,” Deligiannis said.

Though interns may put in more effort than volunteers, Deligiannis said it does come with rewards, including a half-course credit from the University.

“You have a closer look at the inside of the festival,” she said. “It’s experience you’d usually have to wait to graduate to get, but it’s right here in Kingston for you.”

That experience has paid off for Deligiannis—she’s interning at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

As hospitality assistant, Deligiannis was heavily involved in preparations for the festival, including participating in weekly meetings since November.

Now that the festival’s on, Deligiannis is working nearly 24 hours a day, hosting the festival’s guests—filmmakers, actors and other members of the film industry—in a suite at the Four Points Sheraton. She said an average festival day begins with setting up the suite at 9 a.m. for its 10 a.m. opening. From that point on, Deligiannis is updating schedules, confirming catering and helping volunteers to sign in and find their post. Every night of the festival there’s a party in the suite that ends at 2 a.m., and Deligiannis is the one to close up shop.

“I do what I can to make people happy, so their festival experience in Kingston is wicked,” she said.

“Because we’re seeing [guests] all the time, we’re kind of like a common base for them. We’re always here so if they have questions or concerns, they can be comfortable talking to us.”

* * *

Matéo Guez co-wrote and co-directed one of festival’s more unusual films. Late Fragment is an interactive feature film. The film is made up of three different storylines filmed by three different directors, divided up into scenes. Through the use of a remote control, the audience decides how much of each scene they watch, and when to switch to the next storyline.

“You can easily play four, five, six different lines and have different experiences,” Guez told the Journal. “You don’t change the story, you just change how you receive it emotionally, change the trajectory.”

The film was originally made to play to one person at a time, but at the film festival, it will be shown to groups of 10 at a time, who will navigate through the film together. The average length of the film is between 90 and 120 minutes.

In addition to his work on Late Fragments, Guez is also pioneering another aspect of technology’s intersection with film: cell-phone films. He has been making films using cell phones as recording devices since last year, when he participated in a Motorola workshop. The company liked his films, and now pay him to make more phone films. The field is exciting, he said, because it’s future—even aspects such as how the films will be shown—is unknown.

“We are experimenting, and we will see because everything is on the go. It may end up being a commercial for Motorola or go to a festival and win prizes,” he said. “It’s an experimentation phase and we like it.”

On Wednesday Guez presented a workshop on cell phone films to eight participants—a mixture of students and Kingston residents. Each participant was loaned a video-enabled cell phone for the duration of the festival on which to create and edit their own film.

“It’s a new technology—it changes your way of making, thinking about and watching movies,” he said. “It can look like crap and also be emotional and beautiful, depending on how you use it.”

Guez said these films are a reaction to a sort of societal panic, as well as the next logical step for a generation hungry for information overload.

“I feel that the way of communicating is changing now—people are frenetic, scared of stability and things that are static. People are afraid of death, and the best way to feel alive is staying movement,” he said.

“The philosophy of movies is in trying to find answers. I’m questioning life and questioning death by questioning life.”

—With files from Katherine Laidlaw

The Kingston Canadian Film Festival runs until Sunday, with screenings at locations around the city. Matéo Guez’s film Late Fragments will be shown three times daily on Saturday and Sunday at the Four Points Sheraton. The best cell phone films made by workshop participants will be shown at the festival’s final screening Sunday night at Empire Capitol theatre. For more information, visit kingcanfilmfest.com.

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