Haliburton International Film Festival opened to an almost-packed house on Nov. 3 at the Northern Lights Performing Arts Pavillion. The 11th annual event showcased films from around the world as well as dance and live theatre./SUE TIFFIN Staff

Big weekend of HIFF celebrates the small story

By Sue Tiffin

Pulished Nov. 7 2017

Film lovers flowed from the foyer of the Northern Lights Performing Arts Pavilion into the theatre in anticipation of the 11th annual Haliburton International Film Festival (HIFF) on Nov. 3.

Seven feature films were presented to the audience of almost 200 people who bought a HIFF pass for the Nov. 3 4 and 5 weekend-long event organized by Those Other Movies.

This year’s films representing the Stories in Motion theme included Les Mauvaises Herbes (Bad Seeds) from Quebec The Salesman (Forushande) from Iran I Daniel Blake from the U.K. and A Swingers Weekend from Ontario which brought writer and director Jon E. Cohen and screenwriter Nicola Sammeroff for a question and answer period.

“They’re all small stories” organizer Tammy Rea told the audience. “No one is curing cancer no one is Nelson Mandela but they are stories that tell how people influence people. They’re the stories we’re telling over and over in different ways.”

HIFF featured dance shorts before each film and closed with a live performance of Pakistani Sugar a new work written by local playwright Brigitte Gall which received a standing ovation.