The 8 Fest: Small-Gauge Film Festival

The 8 Fest was ini­ti­ated four years ago under the ban­ner of — the 8 fest: Small-Gauge film Fes­ti­val: Super 8/ 8 mm. – 9.5 mm / Loops, zoetropes & their kin and “a lit­tle fes­ti­val for small films”. Small-gauge film refers to 8mm, Super‑8 and relat­ed film for­mats. Orig­i­nally intro­duced for ama­teur use, small-gauge was soon tak­en up by artists as an inex­pen­sive and sim­ple way to make their own films. Even in a grow­ing dig­i­tal age, small-gauge is still the most inti­mate, spon­ta­neous, tac­tile and imme­di­ate form of mov­ing image. Small-gauge is low-tech and do-it-your­self. Small gauge is rich sat­u­rated colours and vis­i­ble grain. Small-gauge remains a vital form of film­mak­ing. The 8 fest is the only fes­ti­val in North Amer­ica ded­i­cated to all forms of small-gauge film. Oppor­tu­ni­ties to exhib­it these films in their orig­i­nal small-gauge for­mats have decreased as pres­sure has increased to screen and fin­ish work dig­i­tally. Toron­to con­tin­ues to be one of the strongest cen­tres of small-gauge film pro­duc­tion in Cana­da. The 8 fest pro­vides a forum for small-gauge to be present of film. It presents every­thing from his­toric works to con­tem­po­rary works from Ontario’s film com­mu­nity and abroad. The 8 fest also high­lights the wider cul­tural use of small-gauge such as home movies, instruc­tional loop films, zoetropes and their influ­ences back on the visu­al arts.

www.the8fest.com/