The Blue Mountains council has reversed an earlier decision and will provide the Blue Mountain Film Festival with funding in 2024.
At its meeting on Jan. 29, council overturned a decision made two weeks earlier to remove $27,800 in funding for the festival from the 2024 budget. Council instead voted in favour of providing the festival with $20,000 in municipal funding.
At its committee of the whole budget meeting on Jan. 8, council had decided to remove the funding from the operating budget. Committee of the whole decisions must be ratified at the next full council meeting and by then members of council were having second thoughts.
“I look at this item as an investment,” said Coun. Paula Hope, who was absent from the original debate. “We don’t want to step away from our own branding. I’m really struggling with this decision.”
The discussion about the issue consumed close to one hour of the council meeting. Council wrestled with how much to provide the film festival and whether or not they wanted to ask the festival’s organizers to hold events or film screenings outside the Village at Blue. Initially council discussed a $25,000 grant, but that was later reduced to $20,000.
Council discussed the idea of encouraging festival organizers to hold some events in Clarksburg at the Marsh Street Centre. However, some members of council were leery of this suggestion as the Marsh Street Centre is an independent organization.
“We don’t own it,” said Coun. Shawn McKinlay, who said he thought film festival events at the Marsh Street Centre was a great idea, but ultimately was not council’s decision to make. “It’s not our facility.”
Council settled on a $20,000 grant, a suggestion that the festival organizers consider events outside the village and a request that the town be the exclusive municipal sponsor for the event. The resolution was passed in a 5-1 vote with Coun. Gail Ardiel opposed and Coun. Alex Maxwell absent.
“We made a decision, we should stick to our decision,” said Ardiel.
During the discussion council also directed staff to find a source of revenue for the film festival sponsorship to avoid adding the $20,000 to the tax levy.
The film festival will be held at the Village Conference Centre from May 30 to June 2.
The festival's website states: “Blue Mountain Film + Media Festival presents inspiring feature-length films and screenings from television and the digital media space over four days, including award-winning stories from around the globe and breakthrough Canadian content. Along with exceptional films, shorts, docs, and an industry creative forum, the festival goes beyond great cinema with events, parties, entertainment, outdoor adventure, and star appearances from film, YouTube, TikTok, and more.”
