The Big Sound International Film Festival is an annual multi-day event that intertwines the spell-binding nature of Georgian Bay with the sophisticated talent of international filmmakers, to create an unforgettable cinematic experience, and a festival for films and filmmakers to advance, and be recognized.

Hosted by The Stockey Centre in Parry Sound the venue overlooks the big sound of Georgian Bay, where filmmakers will enjoy live screenings inside our state of the art theatre that draws audiences from around the globe.

Organized by filmmakers with filmmakers in mind, Big Sound creates an atmosphere of collaboration on new and existing projects with like-minded artists, entrepreneurs and experts from all areas of the film industry. It is a networking event with patio parties overlooking the water at sunset, on a lake that is a rare jewel of freshwater beauty. Let blue skies, and evening starlight soothe you while you build a network that can last a lifetime.

Join us for two days of celebration, inspiration and collaboration where creativity thrives, and talent turns vision into reality.

All films are general seating.

Film Schedule:

December 6th 2023

5pm: Short Films (99 minutes), This event is free admission – no tickets required, seats are first come first served for this film block only!

• All Sacred Things
  • In “All Sacred Things,” a moving and emotional 25-minute documentary, Indigenous college students Summer, Shawn, and Zarah embark on a reconnecting journey back to their culture, guided by spiritual leader Andria. Set against the transcendental backdrop of the near-extinct Ojibway Spirit Horses, the film encapsulates their quest for vision, identity, and reconnection. Through intimate sharing circles and raw emotional exchanges, the film explores the students’ awakenings, making it a compelling story of Indigenous resilience, spirituality, and the profound role of the Spirit Horses in fostering reconnection and reconciliation.
• Logging in Algonquin
  • Logging Algonquin is a 28 minute documentary film that looks at the historical and on-going logging happening in Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada. Through conversations with indigenous locals, scientists, foresters, and political experts, the film asks the question: ‘Does logging belong in our modern day park?’
• Ecotone
  • An ecotone is like a frontier, where two distinct ecosystems interact and communicate. Here, this concept serves as a metaphor for humans and nature as separate entities but still thriving together through sound. In La Gomera (Canary Islands), people speak through the clouds. They use Silbo-Gomero, a long-lasting trait of human connection to nature, which mixes with the natural soundscapes: birds, insects, wind, rain…, all blending in a single symphony with its own seasonal and social dynamics. In a hyperconnected digital world, this place encourages us to stop and listen, just like our ancestors, and reflect on our place within the ecosystems.
• Tollermania
  • In this film, Ukrainian-Canadian ceramic artist, Natalia Laluq, interprets the life and work of Canadian world champion figure skater and artist, Toller Cranston, through a stop-motion installation of individually crafted ceramic plates. The art project itself was almost 2 years in the making. The show took place at Toller Cranston’s studio in Mexico in 2014, the year before Toller died. This documentary shows the work from initial concept through process and completion. It is one artist interpretation of another artist’s work and life.

7pm: Feature Narrative: The Founder Effect (Length TBA), Tickets are $12 each to this film.

 A perfect family getaway is suddenly upended when a policeman’s grandson disappears. Jack Rooney (Rick Edwards) has already lost a son. He’s not about to lose his grandson, too. Forced to reckon with family history, he sets out to rescue the boy from the shadows… a journey of conscience rippled by the voice of a visiting missing persons expert (Greg Sestero), whose haunting tales of the vanished illuminate the mysterious phenomena that seem to be in Jack’s way. In a town called Hope, can redemption be found? 

December 7th 2023

6:30pm: Feature Documentary: When Hope Breaks Through (89 minutes), Tickets are $12 each to this film.

From Award Winning director Matthew Wagner comes When Hope Breaks Through, the inspiring story of Mike Shoreman, a disabled paddleboarder who attempts to become the first person with disabilities to cross all five Great Lakes. In 2018 Mike was diagnosed with a neurological condition that left him paralyzed, with vertigo, hearing and vision loss, ultimately leading to depression and a mental health breakdown. This riveting documentary explores the current state of the mental health crisis in Canada and our relationships with our own mental health. The film immerses the audience in Mike’s epic five crossings, encompassing over 300 kilometers of open water paddling with his dedicated crossings team. Together these strangers come together and form an inseparable bond as they face and conquer obstacles from boats breaking down, medical emergencies to hallucinations and everything in between.

8:30pm: Manufacturing The Threat (84 minutes), Tickets are $12 each to this film.

Manufacturing the Threat is a thrilling and emotional film, which examines a deeply disturbing episode in Canadian history when an impoverished couple was coerced by undercover law enforcement agents into carrying out a terrorist bombing. Shining a light into the murky world of police infiltration, incitement, and agent provocateurs, the film shows how Canada’s policing and national security agencies, granted additional powers after 9/11, routinely break laws with little to no accountability or oversight.

December 14th 2023

7:00pm:  Five Films From The War, Tickets are $12 each to this film.

The project was initiated shortly after the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Already before the start of the war, the Ukrainian ESSE Production House had made initial plans on how to secure footage and documentation in the event of a war. They, therefore, quickly became a hub in Kyiv, shooting, collecting, documenting, and archiving material from the war-torn areas. But it was also essential to get this footage out to the world and offer new perspectives on the war, mainly focusing on the civilian perspective.

Through the Copenhagen-based NGO IMS (International Media Support), a connection was established with the Danish Film Directors Association and board member Ida Grøn. From the wishes of the Ukrainian filmmakers, the idea emerged to have Danish directors make short creative documentaries from the Ukrainian material and, in this way, offer new eyes and a poetic, creative take on images often too present and too close for the Ukrainian filmmakers themselves.

Five Danish directors boarded the project and got access to a server with all the material from ESSE, and out of access to the same material, five different films emerged. Still, all with the same focus—going beyond the news reportage and taking a deeper look at the everyday consequences for the civilian population.

Presenting the five films in a joint programme showing five different approaches to a unique collaboration. Together, the five films become a powerful statement on the consequences of war, forcing the viewer to look and not forget.