Blue Mountain Film and Media Festival: Five and Fabulous

By Chris Knight

It may not have the big-city cachet of “TIFFty,” the rather annoying catchphrase adopted by TIFF last year to mark its 50th anniversary, but the Blue Mountain Film and Media Festival boldly turns five this year. (No “oh.” Just the big “five.”)

A scene from The Bruce Peninsula

But it has come a long way already and shows no signs of slowing down as it heads toward the second half of its first decade. Lead programmer Jason Gorber just unveiled the lineup for this year’s event, which runs from May 28 to 31 just outside Collingwood, ON.

The 33-film list includes features from 16 countries, but opening night belongs to Canada, with a screening of Dancing on the Elephant, a Halifax-shot comedy-drama about two friends (Sheila McCarthy, Mary Walsh) who attempt to break out of a retirement home. McCarthy and others from the cast and crew will be in attendance.

Also on the menu is the breathtakingly titled You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution, Spread Love & Overalls, and Created a Community that Changed the World (in a Canadian Kind of Way). The doc from Nick Davis revisits the legendary 1972 Toronto production of the musical Godspell. One of the original cast, Jayne Eastwood, will be in attendance.

And staying with Canada, the festival also includes world premieres of two Canadian films. Matthew Poitras’s The Bruce Peninsula is about two half-brothers who meet after the death of their father and head across Northern Ontario to spread his ashes. The Northman Way: A Lacrosse Story examine how Orangeville, ON became a lacrosse powerhouse.

Gorber is aided in his programming duties by fellow Toronto Film Critics Association stalwarts Rachel West and Pat Mullen. “My programming associates and I are extremely pleased to help make the festival's fifth year the most extraordinary yet,” he says. “Many screenings will have in-person or pre-recorded Q&As, and we are there at every showing to encourage our engaged audience members to continue the conversation long after the credits roll, and share our passion for these movies.”

Such enthusiasm and hospitality was on display this week when the Fox Cinema in Toronto’s Beaches neighbourhood played host to a repeat performance of Aontas, which screened at Blue Mountain last year.

Filmed in the remote village of Glenarm, Northern Ireland, and in Irish Gaelic with English subtitles, it’s a dark and twisty crime thriller that opens with three women robbing the local credit union — then spools backward, Memento-style, to reveal what led to this seemingly mad act. It was, if I may slip into an Irish accent for an enthusiastic moment, feckin’ brilliant!

West told the crowd at the Fox that if they liked Aontas they might also enjoy Báite, a 1970s-set moody Irish crime drama that is part of this year’s Blue Mountain lineup. But there’s plenty more to enjoy.

Among the highlights:

Sirât, Oscar nominated in the best international feature category, tells the story of a worried father traversing the Moroccan desert with his son, following a trail of underground raves in search of his missing daughter.

Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass, in which a woman poses an innocent question to her fiancé, then finds herself on a madcap mission to sleep with Jon Hamm.

Late Shift, a Swiss-German film about a nurse in an understaffed, over-busy hospital ward. Das Pitt?

Tuner, from director Daniel Roher, features a piano tuner who is drawn into a world of crime in a film that continues to wow on the festival circuit.

A Life Illuminated is a documentary that follows marine biologist Dr. Edie Widder to the depths of the ocean to uncover its most luminous secrets.

The Art of Adventure, another doc, looks back at painter Robert Bateman and biologist Bristol Foster and their madcap 1950s road trip around the world. Read our review.

The festival also features free outdoor screenings of the great Rob Reiner’s The Princess Bride, and the documentary Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind, shot just a few years before the musician’s death in 2023.

For more information on the Blue Mountain Film and Media Festival go here.