By Shelley Fashan
The Emerging Lens Cultural Film Festival is celebrating its 11th year of presenting unique, original storytelling through film, animation, video and performance. It starts April 21 to April 24th at various venues, (please visit our website at www.theemerginglens.com to get the details.) All screenings are free.
The festival ends on April 25th with a virtual masterclass by our own Floyd Kane who hails from East Preston, creator of the highly successful award winning drama series, “Diggstown”.
The films and videos span a number of subjects and issues from cultural identity, coming of age, to music and much, much more. The human experience is one of connectiveness and we are so proud to be bringing the community together with this incredible collection of stories.
In these past 11 years, the Emerging Lens has nurtured strong connections between our community and their artisans by recognizing this medium of storytelling. We are building positive relationships with communities and their growing interest for cultural films that reflect and speak to their identity. You won’t find our stories on television and yet they are more interesting, powerful and compelling when told in our own way. Every festival night opens with a cultural performance from our local up-and-coming artists, then a Q&A with the filmmakers. We usually end with a networking reception in honour of the artists, but this year due to Covid restrictions that may not be possible.
Tara Taylor and I founded the festival. We had both created films but had no platform to screen them, so we created one and realized there were many aspiring filmmakers with great stories to share.