"Small Town Strength", a film by Grande Prairie's Darryl Haugan, will be one of six Peace Region films included in the online festival, which kicks off on April 26 (Photo: Small Town Strength / Reel Shorts Film Festival)

By Shaun Penner

Reel Shorts Film Festival

Six Peace Region films on the marquee for online Reel Shorts Film Festival

Apr 23, 2021 | 5:30 AM

Short films from the Peace Region and 20 different countries are on the marquee for the 14th annual Reel Shorts Film Festival, which will begin online on Monday, April 26.

It’s the second year in a row the Grande Prairie festival has had to be moved online because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, Festival Director Terry Scerbak says if they can’t hold the typical celebration of cinema in-person, they wanted to make it as accessible as possible for those to join in on the festivities free of charge, from wherever they choose.

“People just need to go online and register, and then log in starting on Monday,” said Scerbak.

She adds that after taking in some late entries this week there will now be 73 films as part of the two-week festival. Of those 73, six are films are made by Peace Region directors and producers, or were filmed in the area.

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Some of those Peace Region films include A Typical Heart directed by Chris Beauchamp and Laura Beauchamp, The Switch directed by Monty Simo, Undefeated: Journey to the Death Race directed by Rew Jones and With The Land directed by Calgary filmmaker Dominique Keller.

The festival will also serve as the world premiere of Small Town Strength, directed by Grande Prairie’s Darryl Haugan.

“What I really like about Small Town Strength… is it’s her first sort of major funded short film,” said Scerbak, noting Haugan has cut her filmmaking teeth in the Peace Region through training from the Peace Region Independent Media Arts Association, Grande Prairie Regional College and the Reel Shorts Film Festival over the last several years.

“But also, it’s so Grande Prairie. It’s about the MMA community here in town, which I certainly didn’t know anything about, and nobody on our programming team who watched it knew much about, so it’s very interesting,” added Scerbak.

The festival will also show some Oscar-nominated content, such as the short film The Present from Palestine.

“Yeah, The Present is up for an Academy Award, which is Sunday,” said Scerbak. “So, it could even be an Oscar winner going into our festival.”

Scerbak notes that one of the biggest letdowns in not being able to hold the event in-person is their typical school programming.

In recent years prior to the pandemic, Scerbak says over 2,000 Grade 1-12 students attended the festival annually. However, she says six of this year’s 11 film packages are designed for such students, adding three of the filmmakers with films in the festival will doing virtual class visits over the next two weeks.

She says though there is something for all ages and everyone in the family to enjoy in the festival.

“We have ones that kids will enjoy, right up to the Psycho Shorts, which is always so popular,” said Scerbak. “There are a lot of films to choose from.”

The 14^th annual Reel Shorts Film Festival goes from April 26 to May 9. Anyone can register free of charge at the Reel Shorts website.