Kamloops International Short Short Film Fest shines on Sunday

Mar 5, 2018 | 4:14 PM

KAMLOOPS — With Kamloops Film Festival in full swing, it’s a good time to be a cinephile in the city. On Sunday, Kamloops and area filmmakers took centre stage, as the Kamloops Independent Short Short film fest was held at the Paramount theatre. The KISS Fest is in its 11th year showcasing local filmmakers and evidenced by films on display Sunday the quality of the local productions just keeps getting better and better.

There’s no feeling quite like screening a film you’ve made in front of a theatre full of people, so for around 20 local filmmakers, Sunday was a special day. The 11th annual Kamloops Independent Short Short Film Festival (KISS Fest for short) took over the Paramount Theatre as part of the Kamloops Film Fest.

“It gives kids, adults, anyone who’s just a beginning filmmaker a platform to showcase their work,” KISS Fest Chair Jon Fulton explained. “There’s nothing like your showing your film. Y’know, blood sweat and tears in your film and you get to see it in a real theatre with popcorn and your friends. We want to make sure as many people as possible get that opportunity.”

This year’s KISS Fest featured 23 entries, and according to Fulton, the entries continue to get better and better year after year.

“It’s getting harder and harder every year,” Fulton said. “The bar has been raised. There’s some incredible talent and it gets harder and harder to judge.”

Once the final awards were handed out, the big winner was Josef Person, for his film “Holy Dungarees”.

For KISS Fest organizers, they hope the filmmakers who take part in the festival each year gain inspiration from seeing each other work and continue to create.