The Free Thinking Film Festival that generated controversy last year is back for its third edition. It will be hosted from Nov. 1-4 at the Library and Archives of Ottawa and despite its founder’s political affiliation, it doesn’t cater to conservative thinkers.
The festival, organized by the Free Thinking Film Society, will include film screenings and book launches addressed by speakers such as Pierre Desrochers and Martin Gladstone.
Fred Litwin, founder of the festival, says he created the society to show films in Ottawa that no one else was willing to show. Most of the films are considered right-wing because he thought this perspective was missing in the films being shown in the city.
The festival garnered a lot of attention last year when the host decided to cancel the screening of the polemic documentary Iranium. When the screening finally happened a few months later, the audience had grown. It continued to grow at the subsequent events held by Litwin.
“Iranium was fantastic publicity for us,” says Litwin.
Matt Bufton attended the second edition of the festival. “It makes sense in a city like Ottawa where a lot of people are interested in politics that there is a demand for that kind of festival,” he says.
Many of the films this year will be Canadian premieres, covering topics such as human rights violations in China and the tyrannical North Korean regime.
“The topics may be controversial but they are very important,” Litwin says. “There could be protests again this year, I’m in favour of free speech so I encourage people who have a problem with the initiative or the films to come talk to me about it.”
He says he is a conservative but it doesn't mean the festival is.
“The films all promote liberty and democracy and I believe that these values are not only conservative values,” he says.
The films received good reviews in major publications and some were even presented in the Sundance Film Festival.
Bufton says they deserve to be seen regardless of political point of view.
“For those looking at it as a conservative or libertarian festival, just go and try to look for things where maybe there is a common cause, there is a common interest that spreads across ideological camp that you were not aware of.”