Herzog and the Monsters

VFF: On the (Con)verge

Find a new way to watch with the Victoria Film Festival

If you’re wandering around Chinatown this Saturday and see folks scurrying into alleyways, watching movies in the back of Kabuki Kabs or projecting short films while walking down the street, don’t be alarmed—it’s all part of Converge, the latest programming addition to the Victoria Film Festival lineup.

The two-and-a-half-hour event, happening in 15 different venues around Chinatown, is showing a variety of short films in an even wider variety of spaces, ranging from rooftops to tattoo shops.

“We’re trying to tackle the idea that video and film are portable a lot of the time,” says Scott Amos, a local filmmaker who is helping to put on the event. “Because of the web and video walkmans, there are different ways to watch film now. Short films are a great vehicle for things like that, because features, you don’t want to watch them on a small screen.”

Converge-goers get a map of the various sites and then wander from venue to venue to take in short film programs at their leisure. The film lineup includes titles from as far away as Australia (Music Box), Iran (Supposed Lines) and Scotland (How to Save a Fish from Drowning, Dog Altogether, Herzog and the Monsters) as well as a large number of films from Canada, B.C. and Victoria—including the My Victoria film contest entries, which will be screened at the Kabuki Kab office.

“You get to sit in the cabs and watch the films,” says Amos. “It will be like a Kabuki Kab drive-in . . . or would that be a ride-in?”

Indeed, Amos says the event is as much about the venues as it is about the films.

“There’s a rooftop in Dragon Alley, someone donated their loft in Chinatown that they actually live in, so we get to watch films in somebody’s home. Their house is really weird, which helps,” he says. “That’s a big draw for it, that you get to see these places that even if you lived here, you wouldn’t get to see because they aren’t accessible to the public most of the time.”

Another big appeal is the whole atmosphere that will be created by superimposing film on a quirky part of Victoria. “It’s about different formats, different experiences, different places that all involve film and video,” says Amos.

Doesn’t sound like a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

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Converge
2pm Saturday, February 7
Various Chinatown venues
Tickets $10 • victoriafilmfestival.com