Dates have apparently been booked for this feature-length film to receive its world premiere. And it won’t be in Regina. Instead, it will screen at the Montreal World Film Festival at the Quartier Latin Cinema Complex (350 rue Emory) Aug. 30 at 7:30 p.m., Aug. 31 at 12:30 p.m. and Sept. 1 at 3 p.m.
In the spirit of films like Paris, je t’aime and New York, I Love You, I Heart Regina, which was executive produced by Vanda Schmockel and Mark Wihak, features contributions from 14 different directors. “While Paris and New York have been visited by millions of tourists and have been the setting for hundreds of films, Regina has been in the realm of the uncharted, the unknown, and dare we say … the unfathomable.”
So reads a publicity blurb on the film. With its riff in the title on the boosterish slogan embraced so enthusiastically in recent years by Regina movers and shakers under the leadership of Mayor Pat Fiacco, the film is definitely not a love letter to Regina. But neither is it necessarily an outright slag of the city. Love, hate, anger, attraction, those are some of the emotions that the directors explore in their segments — which makes sense, because while Regina does have many things to recommend it, there’s still plenty of room for improvement.
We wouldn’t exist as a magazine, in our current form anyway, if that wasn’t true. Because that’s really what we’re all about at prairie dog. We advocate for things that we think will make Regina better, and resist those things that we feel make Regina a less pleasant place to live.
Following its Montreal premiere, plans call for I Heart Regina to screen at the Regina Film Theatre Oct. 21-24. So expect to read more on this film in the weeks to come.
