After a sellout in the fall, Film Fest Port Alberni is returning with its Winter 2024 film series. The series will kick off on Sunday, Jan. 21 with a feature-length documentary about Canada’s favourite children’s show, Mr. Dressup.
With never-before-seen footage and intervews, Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make Believe reveals Ernie Coombs’ two passions: entertaining others with childlike wonderment and kindness, and the love for his wife and family, who were his support system and biggest fans.
From his early days working with Fred Rogers, to his remarkable creative collaboration with puppeteer Judith Lawrence, to the struggles to fund the iconic series, and, finally, his second act touring college campuses, the documentary shows the highs and lows of the creative force that helped raise Canadian children for well over four decades.
The second show in the film series will be Riceboy Sleeps on Sunday, Feb. 25. In the 1990s, a young widow named So-young (Choi Seung-yoon) moves from South Korea to Canada with her young son, Dong-hyun (Dohyun Noel Hwang). Neither of them speaks English very well, or understands the cultures of their new home. But this is where they live now, where Dong-hyun will grow up, and they’ll make the best of it.
On Sunday, March 24, the film fest will show Joan Baez: I Am A Noise, an unusually intimate portrait of legendary folk singer and activist Joan Baez. Neither a conventional biopic nor a traditional concert film, this immersive documentary moves back and forth through time as it follows Joan on her farewell tour and delves into her extraordinary archive.
Finally, the film fest will end with The Persian Version on Sunday, April 21. Writer-director Maryam Keshavarz returns with this uproarious, genre-blurring crowd pleaser about identity, belonging, and secrets — those that tie families together and pull them apart, perhaps at the same time.
All shows take place at 5 p.m. at Landmark Cinemas Paramount. Tickets and series passes are available at the Alberni Valley Museum, which is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (open until 8 p.m. on Thursdays).