The Yorkton Film Festival has been a part of the city's cultural fabric for going on seven decades.
And as the longest-running film festival in North America it has a well-deserved reputation in the film industry across Canada.
Within the city, the public view of the Festival has been an evolving one, changing with the mandate of event organizers, and the amount of funding available. Over the years both have changed significantly.
Festival organizers have always had to work something of a balancing act with the needs of filmmakers and Festival participants being of primary importance, but with a realization the Festival needs some local relevance as well.
When funding sources were more easily accessed, keeping local interest was easier. In the not so distant past for the Festival western stunt crews and medieval actor troupes brought crowds to Second Avenue for outdoor events focused on drawing local people.
Golden Sheaf hosts such as Don Harron's character Charlie Farquharson, and professional wrestler Brett 'Hitman' Hart also brought local fans to the Festival.
With funding reduced from many sources, the Festival took on a different approach, one more focused on filmmakers, in particular newcomers to the industry with a day focused on high school students, and panels throughout the three-day event detailing how emerging filmmakers can maneuver through the changing film sector.
In some respects the change in recent years has relegated local involvement to the back-burner, with the connection to most in the City being the option to screen films throughout the Festival.
But this year we have seen some positive local efforts to reconnect city residents with the YFF.
It started the night before the actual Festival with the screening of the feature-length film Twice, co-produced by Yorkton's own Terry Ortynsky (see related story this issue).
And it gets better as Ortynsky revealed he has an interest in directing a short film, likely shooting locally, with an eye to being part of a future Festival. To have a film shot in the city would bring filmmaking more into focus for many residents.
The Yellowhead Flyway Birding Trail Association became involved in a panel discussion after the screening of Nature's Invitation. Their local perspective, when combined with that of the attending filmmaker brought the content more into focus for a local audience.
Bringing local groups into discussions on films of interest is something the Festival certainly needs to do more in future years.
Certainly a look through the list of Festival entries shows many instances where the film could have been screened with local involvement enhancing the experience and making it more personal for local audiences.
It would have been relatively easy to bring a personalized touch to 'Silk Dance', a film on the 1912 Regina tornado with a historian from the Queen city in attendance, 'Métis Rose' could have had local Métis elders relating their own stories after the film screened, 'Fallen Soldiers' could have been made more poignant with local veteran involvement, and some local Roughrider fans could have added to a post film discussion of 'The 13th Man'.
The Festival has history, and remains a vibrant event for the Canadian film industry, and it is to be hoped efforts will continue to bring more local interest to the great short films entered each year.
