One of the most unique things about a film festival are the filmmakers and guest speakers who attend and provide insight into the film or the topic at hand. Every year the Victoria Film Festival works hard to find interesting guests to attend our films and give audiences a behind the scenes look at filmmaking. Here’s a quick look at just a few of the film industry folks we have confirmed for the 2010 Festival.
Recently, we added Like Dandelion Dust starring Barry Pepper and Mira Sorvino to our festival lineup.  Barry Pepper will be in attendance to provide insights into his experiences with the film. Born on Vancouver Island in Campbell River and graduating from George P. Vanier High School in Courtney, Barry is a star Vancouver Islanders can call their own. In Like Dandelion Dust, Pepper plays a character that goes through therapy for alcoholism and anger management and while in prison he trains himself physically and spiritually in order to be reunited with his wife, and they then seek to reunite with their son who had been adopted out. Being a father of a nine-year old daughter himself, he was deeply moved by the emotionally provocative material. "You'd have to have ice in your veins not to be moved by this story," Pepper says. "It doesn't allow you to turn away from the honesty of the situation." Starting his career in 1992, Pepper obtained his breakthrough role as a Bible-quoting sniper in Steven Spielberg's WW II drama Saving Private Ryan in 1998. With the success of the film came sudden stardom for its cast, including Barry. There were photo spreads, interviews and even some Oscar buzz. His career has been in an upward spiral since. We are very excited Barry Pepper has agreed to join us.
 A Bridge Life, directed by attending filmmaker Joshua Grossberg, focuses on the struggles of Hurricane Katrina victims. In what is his directorial debut, Josh follows Dan Sheffer in his attempt to do-good by bringing ten Katrina victims to safety and helping them find new lives elsewhere. When Directors attend, they can share interesting moments from filming that you don’t get otherwise, such as this interesting anecdote Josh provided us about their last day of shooting;
“Monday morning, May 7th, was our final day of shooting. We arrived at the Astrodome at about 10:15 a.m. in advance of our 11 a.m. appointment with Shea Guinn, head of SMG, the company that operates both the Astrodome and the New Orleans Superdome. We set up in Shea's office, which had a big window with the dome in the background. I started off asking him questions about what he knew about the situation in the Superdome. As expected, he noted the poor communications between government officials that led to the breakdown there. I then shifted to the Astrodome.
“Shea told us how Judge Eckles came to his doorstep at 5 a.m. and asked for his help in housing thousands of evacuees who were en route as they spoke from New Orleans. He and his team immediately went to work and within 24 hours had the Astrodome and surrounding facilities including the Reliant Center in shelter mode, getting various relief agencies in to help set up cots and make room for the vast donations of food and clothing that were already pouring in. What struck me about Shea and all the officials in Houston we talked to was the moral imperative they felt they had to do whatever it took to get aid to the folks who needed it. Suddenly, they were thrust into this massive logistical operation with little warning and responded admirably. Nothing on that scale had ever occurred before in American history. And hopefully, it won't again.”
Special Guest appearances are what sets the Film Festival apart from just going to a movie. It really is a once in a lifetime opportunity to hear the thoughts of great filmmakers and their subjects. Expect more guest announcements in the near future as we try to make each film an experience rather than a movie.
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