The Whistler Film Festival (WFF) has announced the first 16 confirmed films for its 17th edition, which takes place from Nov. 29 to Dec. 3.
They include six world premieres, three Canadian premieres and seven Western Canadian premieres.
The world premieres are 8 Minutes Ahead, Someone Else's Wedding, The Moment, Prodigals, Nobody Famous, and The Other Side of Porcupine Lake. All are Canadian films.
Returning alumni filmmakers include Michelle Ouellet, Pat Kiely, Ingrid Veninger, Carl Bessai, Grayson Moore, Darcy Turenne and Robert Wenzek.
Casts and filmmakers behind a number of the films were on hand at WFF's Summer Countdown Celebration at the Big Rock Brewery in Vancouver on Thursday, Aug. 24, where festival supporters and alumni Aleks Paunovic, Christine Haebler and Trish Dolman, Michelle Ouellette, Tom Rowe, and Cynde and Allan Harmon were also honoured.
WFF also announced that there will be seven juried and competitive sections during the festival, with 15 awards and one audience award.
In all, around 90 films will be screened.
For more information, visit www.whistlerfilmfestival.com.
Bullock makes use of recording fund
The new album by singer-songwriter Colin Bullock is an inspiration both musically and in how it was made.
Bullock, a North Vancouver musician and regular performer in Whistler nightspots, made use of non-profit foundation Factor, which assists Canadian musicians who want to record their music.
"It was a great opportunity. Factor funds independent artists for different projects. There are different grants. We were awarded a Jury Sound Recording Award, so that meant they would fund part of a full-length album," Bullock explains.
"I had recorded before, but my albums were DIY stuff. On my last album, we went into Home Hardware to get insulation to create a studio in the living room. To go from that into a professional studio that is sound-treated and with great equipment is incredible. It transformed the music. More produced."
The record, As Big As the Sky, will be released in October. Two singles — "Counted the Ways" and "Hold Me Up" — are already out.
"It's a vintage-sounding album — a kind of '80s pop sound, not overdone, with my acoustic sound. We spent time going through the songs. Pulling them apart ... Having a producer onboard to talk about ideas really shaped it," he says.
"It's still very much an album by me. I can still tour these songs solo on an acoustic guitar.
"My fanbase has enjoyed it. I've gotten some really nice emails, telling me that people have enjoyed it. One compared it to Phil Collins, and with a James Taylor vibe on the second single, and to hear that coming back is really nice."
Bullock's next Whistler show is at Sidecut in the Four Seasons Resort on Thursday, Aug. 31, at 5 p.m.
For more information, visit www.factor.ca or www.colinbullock.com.
