LOCAL HEROES FILM FESTIVAL, EDMONTON (3/16-23/01).

When I left Edmonton in 1985 for what I expected to be the sunnier cultural climes of Vancouver, I had no idea what I was actually leaving behind. Naively, I believed that Vancouver, being bigger, would probably be better. It wasn't, at least not back in the mid-1980s. Still the West's best-kept secret, Edmonton's cultural life encompasses everything from a burgeoning movie industry (writer/ director Anne Wheeler and producer Arvi Liimatainen got their starts there) and a fantastic theatre scene (the Edmonton Fringe Theatre Festival annually attracts more than 100,000 patrons and is justly famous worldwide) to a community of sculptors whose work was championed by no less an authority than New York art critic Clement Greenberg. And because on the prairies these things matter, Edmonton also has the best bar scene west of Toronto, not to mention the best folk music festival. Need more convincing? If you look at voting patterns you'll see this enlightened cultural attitude reflected in the fact that Edmonton has consistently bucked the Alberta-wide trend, refusing to embrace the extreme right-wing, cutback mentality espoused by Ralph Klein's Big Blue Machine.

For the last 15 years, Edmonton has also been the home to the Local. Heroes Film Festival, an institution in itself that has been likened to the Telluride of 10 years ago by Variety, no less, for its anti-hype attitude and easy atmosphere. A celebration of the spirit of independent filmmaking. Local Heroes has played host to such directors as Paul Cox, Krzysztof Zanussi, Werner Herzog (particularly memorable for advising would-be filmmakers to steal cameras and learn how to pick locks and forge documents in order to get films made), Costa-Gavras, Bruce Beresford and Iceland's Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, as well as the usual Canadian suspects--the three Ms (McDonald, McKellar and Maddin), Patricia Rozema, Lynne Stopkewich and many others.

The 15th edition opened with the homecoming of Wheeler and Liimatainen, whose Marine Life kicked off a festival that delivered 38 features and a handful of shorts over a week. The de rigeur champagne reception followed the sold-out screening where Arvi could be found in the corner counselling younger filmmakers and dispensing advice.

That image of Liimatainen giving the benefit of his experience to newcomers serves as a perfect example of what separates the Local Heroes experience from the norm. The usual barriers between filmmakers and the public that exist at most film festivals are nowhere to be found in Edmonton. Daily afternoon "Pub Chats" feature guests and interested audience members drinking and talking film at Sorrentino's restaurant in the festival's host hotel, the Varscona on fashionable Whyte Avenue in the heart of the Old Strathcona district. Post-screening revelry continues at the Savoy or the Black Dog pub located on a two-block stretch of Whyte Ave. that has more bars per block than any city this side of Berlin or Prague. It's common (more like a dead certainty) to find guests, festival staff and anyone else who cares to join in hunkered down at the bar until the wee hours, enjoying Edmontonians' legendary friendliness, openness and capacity for ale.

For many - me included - the highlight of the festival was the chance to meet and talk with self-titled "filth elder," John Waters, who blew into town to give a sold-out presentation of his Shock Value talk. As friendly and forthcoming as he is intelligent and urbane, Waters had the audience laughing out loud and giving him a standing ovation by the end. At his press conference he entertained the media by calling Patch Adams the "scariest" movie he'd seen in a long time and listing Dancer in the Dark and Volker Schlondorff's The Legends of Rita as two recent favourites. Festival boss Bill Evans was all smiles after that event and was doubly happy by the festival's end, citing the sold-out, closing-night international premiere of Lyndon Chubbuck's Canada/U.K. co-production The War Bride (with Anna Friel, Brenda Fricker and Molly Parker) and overall attendance figures approaching 10,000 - a new high for the fest - as reasons for his happiness. He was probably a little relieved as well, because the brouhaha that surrounded the future of the festival was finally settling down.

When the NSI - the festival's organizing body - announced in February that it was pulling out of Edmonton to concentrate on training filmmakers and putting on the Winnipeg edition of Local Heroes, the Edmonton media were angry. After all, Edmonton had supported the Local Heroes festival from the beginning; the NSI's move to Winnipeg and subsequent decision to shutter the Edmonton fest was seen as a betrayal. The good news is that the NSI has handed over the reins to a three-year-old organization known as the Edmonton International Film Festival Society, a coalition of arts representatives, under the interim chairmanship of Josh Keller, that was formed when it began to look like the NSI's long-term plans might not include Edmonton. Keller told the Edmonton Journal that the 2002 edition will "follow the concept that has been successful over the past years," which is good news for Edmonton and film fans of independent cinema throughout the West.

And it is good news for Bill Evans, who will be moving to Winnipeg in May to assume leadership of the Winnipeg fest. Evans took the brunt of the media heat, despite the fact that he's been one of the strongest champions of Canadian and international cinema in Edmonton for many years, first as a filmmaker, then as programmer at the Metro Cinema art house and finally as Local Heroes director. As a former Edmontonian, a frequenter of both the Metro and the Local Heroes festival, and a friend, I would like to thank him for his work and wish him all the best.