Festival film tour announced

For the sixth year the Yorkton Film Festival is taking Canadian short film to communities across the country via its Golden Sheaf Awards (GSA) tours.

The Yorkton Festival is the longest-running film festival in North America, attracting Canadian short film from across the country. With the GSA DVD Tour, audiences across Canada have the opportunity to view some of the best submissions from the festival.

Through the tour program more than 30 nominated films from the 2011 festival season have been placed on DVDs for the public to view free of charge, explained festival manager Randy Goulden at a media launch last Wednesday.

"Most of the films were either nominated, or winners," she said.

In 2010 the tours attracted some 8,900 viewers across the three Prairie provinces, added Goulden. "It's building an audience for short film in Canada."

Goulden said the response to the films has been positive as witnessed by some of the comments received by the YFF and presented to media Wednesday.

"The material was interesting as well as educational," said Christopher Harrow, Weyburn Public Library.

"Great films! Would love to do this again next year," said Wendy Thienes, Grand Couteau Heritage and Cultural Centre.

"A favourite was a film called Norman's story; great message of finding a way to look after loved ones," said Lindsay Johnson, Kindersley Composite School.

Each tour is centered on a theme, designed to cater to different age groups and interests, explained Goulden. This year, the Yorkton Film Festival in partnership with the Sunrise Health Region have created a new DVD tour entitled, Health Living. This tour features films that deal with modern health issues.

The complete themes of the 2011 DVD tours are as follows:

Aboriginal GSA Tour
Senior's GSA Tour
Children's GSA Tour
Healthy Living GSA Tour - Sponsored by the Sunrise Health Region
Multicultural GSA Tour - sponsored by the Multicultural Council of Saskatchewan
Arts & Culture GSA Tour
Nature & Environment GSA Tour
Parks GSA Tour
Young Adult GSA Tour
General GSA Tour

The DVD tour is simply a DVD that is mailed to groups, clubs, libraries, or schools free of charge - minus the cost of mailing the DVD back to the festival. Tours can be booked through the festival - booking forms and detailed information on each film can be downloaded from the festival website: www.goldensheafawards.com. Each tour contains approximately one hour and a half of film material, and each is filled with a variety of short films.

Contact Kyle Markewich, Program Manager at the festival office for bookings or more information - 782-7077 or [email protected].