Roots. Rock. Reggae. It’s the second track on Bob Marley’s 1976 album Rastaman Vibration and it’s an accurate description of what the community can expect at Powell River Film Festival’s upcoming fundraiser being held on Friday evening and Sunday afternoon, October 19 and 21.
Friends of Film Society of Powell River will host the fundraiser to raise money for the film festival held in February 2013.
Doors open at 7 pm on the Friday and tickets include appetizers from The Hub 101, across from the Patricia Theatre, live music from Neko Rei, a blend of bass, drum and didgeridoo, and Kevin MacDonald’s biography of Bob Marley, called Marley. A cash bar will be available at both The Hub and Patricia.
The film takes a look at Marley’s life as a musician and his impact on music history, plus his role as a social and political prophet. It includes rare footage of Bob Marley and the Wailers’ concerts, interviews with his wife Rita, his son Ziggy, bandmates and others who knew him well. The film was released in April 2012.
While organizers at the society usually use Evergreen Theatre for film festival screenings, they have decided to change location to the Patricia to take advantage of the theatre’s digital upgrades that were completed this year.
“It’s exciting to join the ranks of towns that have their film festivals in dedicated theatres, instead of multi-purpose auditoriums where the sound is not so good,” said Ann Nelson, owner of the Patricia.
Film festival assistant director Michelle Hignell agrees. “Unfortunately our big community theatre did not do the upgrade, so we’re jumping over to the smaller theatre. There are a lot of good things about it. It’s a heritage theatre. The community has really shown it loves the theatre and wants it to stay.”
While there will be some changes, Hignell said they will try to keep the same feel of the festival.
“We have a sense of what people really enjoy and we’ll just have to rework the logistics,” she said. “We’ll have the contests. We’ll have the film camp. We’ll have the receptions.”
Because the Patricia is a smaller venue with 270 seats compared to Evergreen’s 800, festival organizers are planning to have more screenings of the films. It will extend the film festival, but it will give audiences more chances to see the films, said Jan Padgett, film festival director.
Tickets for the fundraiser are available at Breakwater Books and Coffee. Tickets for the Friday night event cost $20 and tickets for the Sunday matinee at 1:30 pm cost $10. The matinee is just the showing of the film. More information about the fundraiser or the film festival can be found at the film festival website.
