Langley City’s first-ever film festival to return 

Organizers plan ‘bigger and better’ follow-up

Date: October 24, 2023

Langley City’s very first film festival wrapped on Sunday night, Oct. 22, with a series of shorter-length productions for adults showing at the venue, the Lumiere Film Studios production space on Logan Avenue, which had been transformed into a movie theatre.

There were 76 entries, and 37 films were screened.

Walnut Grove filmmaker Bowen Munsil was among the dozens of creators who presented films during the two-day event.

On Sunday, shortly before his 10-minute portrait of a bankrupt film theatre owner, “The Last Fickers of the Long Lost Time” was about to screen, Munsil was explaining the choice the character faced.

“He’s kind of got to choose between his love for the theater and his own kind of moral principles,” Munsil summarized for the Langley Advance Times.

Munsil has been making films since he was in “late elementary school,” he estimated.

“I, just a few years ago, made my first feature, and I’ve been working on a bunch of other indie and kind of side projects,” he said.

With a theme of “transition,” the Langley City Film Festival (LCFF) was hosted by the City of Langley’s Arts, Recreation, Culture, and Heritage (ARCH) Committee in partnership with the Langley Arts Council.

City councilor Rosemary Wallace, chair of the committee, said they wanted to “touch on another art form. Wallace described day one of the festival, which was devoted to 18 and under filmmakers, as “inspirational.”

“We had a filmmaker from Prince Rupert who was excited to be here, we had a school from New Westminster,” Wallace said.

Claire Sarfeld, executive director of the Langley Arts Council, called the festival “wonderful” and thanked Lumiere for partnering with the festival.

Sarfeld is optimistic there will be another festival, promising organizers will “see how we can make it bigger and better.”

First place winners included: Apple Boy – an apple becomes a boy to escape his fate; Fade – a girl’s trip down memory lane; MINE: two friends realize a free necklace may come with a cost; Emergence: out of the shadows: a full-length documentary about marginalized queer youth and their families; Labelled: about a girl struggling to find herself; and, For Roy – about a girl folding 1,000 paper cranes for her dying father.

Walnut Grove filmmaker Bowen Munsil took part in the first-ever Langley City Film Festival (LCFF) Oct. 21-22.Photo Credit: (Dan Ferguson/Langley Advance Times)

 For the first-ever Langley City Film Festival (LCFF) Oct. 21-22, the production space at Lumiere Studios was transformed into a movie theatre. (Photo Credit: Dan Ferguson/Langley Advance Times)

‘Chris’ from Abbotsford’s MS Productions makes an adjustment prior to a screening. For the first-ever Langley City Film Festival (LCFF) Oct. 21-22, the production space at Lumiere Studios on Logan Avenue was transformed into a movie theatre. (Photo Credit:Dan Ferguson/Langley Advance Times)

Rosemary Wallace and David Johnson were co-hosts of the first-ever Langley City Film Festival (LCFF) Oct. 21-22, with the venue in production space at Lumiere Studios. (Photo Credit:Dan Ferguson/Langley Advance Times)

Claire Sarfeld, executive director of the Langley Arts Council, which partnered with the City to present the first-ever Langley City Film Festival (LCFF) Oct. 21-22. (Photo Credit:Dan Ferguson/Langley Advance Times)