{"id":544389,"date":"2026-03-18T11:36:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T11:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/544389\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T11:36:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T11:36:37","slug":"ottawas-international-film-festival-brings-diverse-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/544389\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa\u2019s International Film Festival brings diverse stories"},"content":{"rendered":"

The International Film Festival of Ottawa (IFFO)<\/a> kicked off its sixth edition, bringing in a curated selection of 22 Canadian and international films to screens in downtown Ottawa across 11 days.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s festival takes place at cultural locations in the downtown core, including The Ottawa Art Gallery<\/a>, Bytowne Cinema<\/a>, The Korean Cultural Centre Canada<\/a> and others until March 22.<\/p>\n

The IFFO shows new films like Chandler Levack\u2019s Mile End Kicks<\/a> \u2014 a romantic-comedy about Montreal\u2019s vibrant indie scene \u2014 as well as older flicks like Guy Maddin\u2019s Careful<\/a>, which is an eclectic 1992 Canadian fantasy film.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The event focuses on highlighting Canadian cinema, with various guest series such as Canadian Masters<\/a> and SAVE AS<\/a> inviting viewers to discuss history and heritage in the Canadian film industry.<\/p>\n

\"\"Audiences gathered for a plethora of diverse film stories at Ottawa\u2019 International Film Festival. [Photo by Itoro Umanah\/the Charlatan]<\/p>\n

Tom McSorley, a curator with the festival and the executive director of the Canadian Film Institute, said he looks to bring contemporary Canadian and international films to Ottawa audiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bit under crisis,\u201d McSorley said of cinema preservation. \u201cIt really is an essential battle because otherwise, the memory of our cultural heritage, cinematically, is lost.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Tom McSorley, who is also a film studies professor at Carleton University said he aims to reflect these values in his classrooms, providing students an opportunity to engage with films from a range of backgrounds and genres. [Photo by Itoro Umanah\/the Charlatan]<\/p>\n

The festival\u2019s Wednesday event kicked off with the film, Et Maintenant?<\/a> by Montreal-based filmmaker Jocelyn Forgues, sharing the story of a singer-songwriter diagnosed with stage four tongue cancer.<\/p>\n

Forgues produced and shot the film in Ottawa, drawing inspiration from his own experience with his tongue cancer diagnosis 12 years ago.<\/p>\n

\"\"The feature film won Best Editor at the Toronto International Women Film Festival and Best Actor at the Montreal Independent Film Festival. [Photo by Itoro Umanah\/the Charlatan]<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I was going through the treatments, I was going through a lot of emotions, a lot of questions,\u201d he said. \u201cI thought, \u2018Maybe there\u2019s a story behind this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought if I could allow an audience to follow in the footsteps of someone who\u2019s going through a similar process, maybe they would be able to understand what is really going through their mind.\u201d Forgues said.<\/p>\n

Forgues said he hopes the film can accompany someone going through cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor any filmmaker to have your work selected at any film festival is an honour and privilege \u2026 to open a festival is an even bigger honour,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\"\"Forgues said he wanted to be able to capture his own emotional states and put them into a fictitious film to share with others. [Photo by Itoro Umanah\/the Charlatan]<\/p>\n

A festival discussion series titled The Gaze<\/a>, created by Tish Black, aims to engage audiences about diversity on and off the screen. Viewers gather to partake in what it calls a \u201cthematic talk\u201d of a film screening \u2014 creating a space for a range of personal and cultural understandings.<\/p>\n

The discussion segment was originally called The Female Gaze and started online as COVID-19 restrictions were lifted to discuss films made by and for women. Recently, the series has expanded to highlight other underrepresented and lesser-known filmmakers.<\/p>\n

This year, The Gaze discusses how ghosts can help shape our moral compasses through the film A Useful Ghost<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Black, who is a film programmer at the festival, said the idea was to broaden programming throughout the year with a specific focus on underrepresented films.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just about talking in the hallway after a film or just exposing people to some different kinds of films, but getting them to really think about it and think about it in community and for themselves,\u201d Black said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Tish Black says that in the midst of large crowds at the festival, The Gaze is a \u201csafe space\u201d that gives audiences a chance to talk intimately about what they are shown on screen. [Photo by Itoro Umanah\/ the Charlatan]<\/p>\n

Other Films screening at the festival include Little Trouble Girls<\/a> by Ur\u0161ka Djuki\u0107, Cotton Queen<\/a> by Suzannah Mirghani and Love Letters<\/a> by Alice Douard, which tackle themes of sexuality, navigating political turbulence and adoption within a same-sex relationship.<\/p>\n

McSorley with the Canadian Film Institute said that the growing representation of filmmakers from the 1980s until now has changed drastically for the better.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing audiences that are more diverse looking at films that are more diverse, and that\u2019s taken some decades to evolve, but I think it\u2019s really healthy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s never enough, but it\u2019s certainly much better than it used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Featured image by Itoro Umanah\/the Charlatan<\/p>\n

This article, and all of the Charlatan\u2019s work, is brought to you by an independent student newspaper dedicated to informing, uplifting and entertaining the Carleton University community. We are a levy-funded organization which plays a role in the broader, vibrant student culture on campus. By reading this article, you are supporting our efforts.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The International Film Festival of Ottawa (IFFO) kicked off its sixth edition, bringing in a curated selection of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[212289,49,48,75991,52341,94271,212290,20739,212291,212292,212293,212294,212295,212296,212297,212298,212299],"class_list":["post-544389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-bytowne-cinema","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-carleton","tag-carleton-university","tag-filmmaker","tag-international-film-festival-of-ottawa","tag-ottawa","tag-ottawa-art","tag-ottawa-artist","tag-ottawa-arts-council","tag-ottawa-film","tag-ottawa-film-festival","tag-ottawa-filmmaker","tag-ottawa-international-film-festival","tag-ottawa-movie","tag-ottawa-screening"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}