The American founders of the Tumbleweed Film Festival believed they had “picked the perfect location” to stage their small and intimate festival and believe they are here to stay after near-capacity crowds showed up this past Friday and Saturday evening for the third annual festival – and second here in Osoyoos.
Geoff Klein and his partner Mo Fine, who are both from Seattle, had worked together over several years as friends and small, independent filmmakers and helped produce four short films together before coming up with the idea to stage a festival featuring short films from around the world.
After staging their first festival in Oroville, Washington in 2010 and being overwhelmed with the response, they immediately looked to expand across the Canadian border and selected Osoyoos as the Canadian home for the Tumbleweed Film Festival.
This past weekend, a total of 34 short films, ranging from three minutes to 18 minutes in length, were shown before appreciative audiences on the screen inside the Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre.
The concept behind the film festival is to promote smart, quality, independent film from around the world and mix it with having a good time and drinking world-class wine, said Fine.
“Our motto this year is, ‘watch globally, drink locally’,” she said. “The basic premise is to combine our love of independent filmmaking and film in general and bring it to a place where the people would appreciate the combination of quality films and quality wines.
“The size of this town is just perfect as all of those attending our film festival can watch short films from around the world and then head outside and enjoy everything this town has to offer.”
Klein and Fine were thrilled with the response this past weekend.
“We were nearly sold out both Friday and Saturday night, so we’re amazed by the response,” said Klein. “To have such a positive reaction in only our second year here in Osoyoos is very encouraging.”
There were five Canadian films shown at the 2012 festival as well as films from France, Germany, the United States, Belgium, Uganda, Spain, Puerto Rico, Iceland, Australia and the United Kingdom, which clearly indicates their desire to make this a truly international festival, said Klein.
All of the films shown were submitted via the popular website called withoutabox, which allows films to be downloaded simply and quickly, said Fine.
“The people send us their movies without having to go through a whole lot of paperwork and red tape and it allows us to sit back and take our time selecting which films we want to show at Tumbleweed,” she said.
When they’re not working on the Tumbleweed Film Festival, Klein and Fine are business partners who have started their own film production company where they put together short promotional films for businesses.
“We take the creativity and energy of independent filmmaking and apply it to promoting businesses,” she said.
Top brass with the Seattle International Film Festival have been extremely supportive as they planned to start their own film festival and administration with the Osoyoos Indian Band has also been very easy to work with in helping bring the Canadian version of Tumbleweed to this town, said Klein.
Special guests they invited from the film community were treated like royalty all weekend and participated in wine tours and stand up paddling demonstrations on Osoyoos Lake, he said.
“All of our guests had just a wonderful time all weekend,” he said. “The hospitality was amazing and shows us that the people in this community enjoy our festival and want it to return.”
Because of the great success in only two years in Osoyoos, Klein and Fine said they are considering expanding the Tumbleweed Film Festival into other communities in the South Okanagan, perhaps as soon as next summer.
“We’re looking at other locations that might be interested in hosting the festival up and down the Okanagan Valley,” said Fine. “We think our idea lends itself well to smaller towns like Oroville and Osoyoos and hopefully other communities will be very interested.”
Klein and Fine are also looking to work with school boards in Washington State and B.C. to bring their expertise and passion for cinema and film to school children.
“We would be very interested in talking to school-aged children about the process of making films,” said Fine.
The Tumbleweed Film Festival now has its own Facebook page and website that can be accessed at www.tumbleweedfilmfestival.com.