18th Annual $100 Film Festival: The Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers (CSIF)

5 local independent Calgary filmmakers give their top picks to watch from the CSIF collection.

From March 4 to 6, the Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers (CSIF) hosts the 18th Annual $100 Film Festival, a showcase of low-budget, independent movies shot by contemporary filmmakers on Super 8 and 16 mm film.

With digital becoming the industry norm, this is a dying art form. Luckily, the CSIF film library is preserving the tradition of feeding large spools of crackling celluloid through a projector. More than 2,500 films and projectors are available for public rental all year long. We asked five local $100 Film Festival directors for their top picks from the collection.

Duck Soup (1933) Directed by Leo McCarey "This non-partisan flick takes aim at economics, war, politics and corruption with rapid-fire wit. Stir together vaudevillian musical numbers, enduring characters, slapstick sight gags, punny word play, witty quips, a dash of innuendo, lots of memorable calamity, some gorgeous vintage gowns and even an animated tattoo, and you’ve got Duck Soup." — Julia Burns, director of Wandering a Path: Sammy Bunny Keith New York (2007)

The Maltese Falcon (1941) Directed by John Huston "I love everything about The Maltese Falcon — the shadowy faces, the extremes of light and dark, the claustrophobic sets, looming shadows, unusual camera angles, cheesy dialogue and the wonderful Humphrey Bogart. It's an American film noir classic." — Doreen Wood, director of I'll Never Let Go of Your Hand and True Love Forever (2009)

Paths of Glory (1957) Directed by Stanley Kubrick "Early Stanley Kubrick on 16 mm — what more could you want? Not only is Kubrick an unparalleled master of the filmic art, he's also a natural storyteller whose deliberate style and influence allow even detached viewers to enjoy the show." — Luke Black, director of Heart, Brain, Super 8 (2008)

Night of the Living Dead (1968) Directed by George A. Romero "It's a seminal independent horror film classic, and there's a grit to the way that it was shot. Digital releases have done everything they can to clean up film prints, reduce the grain and sharpen everything, in turn distancing us from that dirty underground feel that audiences fell in love with back in '68." — Alex Mitchell, director of Werewords (2009)

Cannibal Tours (1987) Directed by Dennis O’Rourke “O’Rourke turns the tables on a group of German tourists in New Guinea and has us gawking in disbelief at the swarms of presumptuous camera-obsessed Westerners. This film essay is a powerful critique of the history of colonialism, capitalism and tourism.” — Gerald Saul, director of Cake (2009)