HIFF Day 3: Fluorescent and Bizarrely Beautiful (Plus VR!)

Wow! What a fantastic party we had last night (and into the early hours of today) with DJ Douvet and Good Robot! Thanks to Leatte Murray, Erin McDonald and Jenna Murphy for creating such a beautiful party space and for tending bar, and to Carter Thurber for capturing all the faces at the party photo booth. We're also grateful to Victoria Walton and Cedric Blais, our fearless box office volunteers at the screening venues.

Welcome to Day 3 of HIFF 2018!

Today’s films push all the limits of traditional filmmaking. We are thrilled to present the energetic and fluorescent international feature Team Hurricane, which follows a cast of teenagers found entirely on Instagram. Filmmaker Annika Berg will Skype in from Denmark (yes, it will be the middle of the night for her!) to answer your questions after the screening.

Following Team Hurricane, HIFF is screening a retrospective of experimental short films by the fun, funny, and beautifully bizarre Canadian filmmaker Matthew Rankin who will be present for a Q&A after the screening.

Before, in-between, and after the screenings this evening you can experience the 4 virtual reality films by imagineNATIVE in the lobby. These are free! Read more about this innovative media piece here.

TODAY'S SCHEDULE

6:00 PM Doors Open

7:00 PM Team Hurricane  

9:00 PM Matthew Rankin Retrospective

imagineNATIVE VR presentation will be available in the lobby before, in-between, and after screenings.

All of today’s events take place at Neptune Scotiabank Stage Theatre, 1593 Argyle Street, Halifax

ABOUT THE PROGRAMS

Team Hurricane by Annika Berg
Team Hurricane is a teen film for the Internet age. With the colour pallet of a candy store, this film takes an unapologetic look at the highs and lows of being on the cusp of adulthood. The story follows eight teenage girls as they spend their summer at a youth club. Through a hybrid of documentary and fiction, director Annika Berg tackles anorexia, teenage sexuality, mental health and female friendships. With unscripted video diaries cut into the narrative, the ensemble cast found entirely on Instagram bring their own individual experiences to their role. Team Hurricane will become the feminist – punk teen movie you never knew you needed.

Matthew Rankin Retrospective
HIFF welcomes award-winning mastermind Matthew Rankin for a retrospective of his short experimental films. Matthew is an animator/inventor/historian/filmmaker and an advocate for handmade film. His films are complex visual feasts that blend live-action with classical and avant-guard hand animation techniques that include stop-motion, hand-painting, scratching, bleaching, light painting, and rubbing letratone patterns on film stock. His fantastical films transform the cinematic language of abstraction into narratives, guided by eccentric characters in heightened emotional spaces. Matthew’s films have the uncanny ability to transcend reality while remaining rooted in historical facts; kind of like a “Heritage Minute on acid” (TIFF 2017).  Matthew is the 2018 Canadian Screen Award winner for Best Animated Short for Tesla World Light. Currently he is in post-production on his debut feature The Twentieth Century, a Canadian historical biopic about the early life of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King. 

Welcome to the fun, funny, and beautifully bizarre imagination of Matthew Rankin - enjoy the ride!

imagineNATIVE Virtual Reality
imagineNATIVE, in partnership with TIFF, Pinnguaq and the Initiative for Indigenous Futures (IIF), present 2167, an innovative virtual reality and immersive media project. Five Indigenous filmmakers and artists were commissioned to create five VR works in 2017, with each artist asked to set their work 150 years in the future.

The idea for this project was born out of a love of science fiction and alternate realities. Often Indigenous people are seen as stuck in the past; the 2167 project takes a very deliberate leap forward in time and we get to see artistic visions about Indigenous place in the future. In a year that in many ways commemorates a very complex history for Indigenous people, this project celebrates the decades to come and our role in shaping a new future for Canada.

HIFF TIPS

PASSES: Purchase or pick up your HIFF Festival Pass in the lobby of the Neptune's Scotiabank Stage Theatre 60 minutes before showtime. 

TICKETS: Tickets can be purchased online at any time, or at the box office 60 minutes prior to each showtime for $12 ($10 for students/underwaged).

TOTE BAGS: Our stylish and functional HIFF totes will be on sale in the Neptune lobby prior to or in between screenings. We also have a few vintage HIFF and AFCOOP t-shirts available for $10.

CONCESSION: Arrive early to get your free popcorn in the lobby at Neptune. Good Robot Brewing is a special HIFF feature at Neptune’s bar. New this year: you’re allowed to bring your drinks into the theatre with you!

DISCOUNTS: Show your HIFF pass at the following establishments for a discount during HIFF:

World Tea House- 15% off
Dee Dee’s Ice Cream- 10% off
Seven Bays Bouldering- $2 espresso drink // $5 bouldering

SOCIAL MEDIA:

Follow us! 

HIFF Instagram
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You are welcome and encouraged to post about HIFF on social media. Please use hashtag #HIFF2018 and tag us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. If you would like to post a photo which includes the face of another person, please ask that person before posting.

VENUE ACCESSIBILITY: Neptune's Scotiabank Stage Theatre has wheelchair accessible entrances, seating, and gendered washrooms. If you have any other accessibility related questions or if you'd like to pre-arrange assistance, do not hesitate to call the Neptune Box Office at (902) 429-7070 or reply to this email.

SAFER SPACES: The Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative (AFCOOP) and Halifax Independent Filmmakers Festival (HIFF) Safer Space policy is intended to help create a supportive, non-threatening environment at HIFF 2018.  AFCOOP is currently undergoing an extensive review of our processes and Code of Conduct, and in the interim will operate in accordance to this policy.

AFCOOP wants to ensure our visitors, members, and staff feel safe, welcome, and comfortable in our spaces, on our film sets, and at our events. We require a respectful environment at all times, and will not tolerate discrimination or harassment in any form. This includes but is not limited to: racism, sexism, ableism, transphobia, queerphobia, homophobia, sizeism, ageism, xenophobia, sexual harassment, or violence of any kind.

We encourage anyone who experiences or witness violations of this policy to speak with identified safe volunteers or AFCOOP staff (identified by wearing safe buttons) who will address the situation, and provide support and further resources. We are striving to be survivor oriented and our response will be to support the survivor.

If you are found violating our policy, you may be asked to leave the space. If this should happen, we ask that you respect our policy and self-exclude yourself from the event. It is AFCOOPs responsibility to follow up with persons involved in an incident, and an appointment can be made with our director Martha Cooley or a board member after the festival is over.

We understand that survivors may have hesitation about attending public events or visiting our spaces, if so please feel free to contact Ruby Boutilier (Safer Spaces Committee chair and board member) rubysue241@gmail.com and we will make every effort to support your participation.

About HIFF: HIFF is a boutique festival dedicated to showcasing bold, innovative film and media art from the Atlantic region and around the world. The festival includes screenings, receptions, celluloid installations and one-on-one meetings between local filmmakers and guest programmers from Canadian and International festivals.

HIFF is produced by the Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative with the generous support of The Province of Nova Scotia, Arts Nova Scotia, Canada Council for the Arts, Canada Department of Heritage, City of Halifax, Telefilm Canada, Screen Nova Scotia, The Coast, and NSCAD University.

ABOUT AFCOOP: Established in 1974 the Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative (AFCOOP) is a non-profit, community organization dedicated to supporting the production and presentation of independent film and moving image-based work in a collaborative, learning environment.

AFCOOP operates with generous support from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Province of Nova Scotia and the City of Halifax.