film festival's a wrap and so is bull moose!

Tuesday....a sunny Tuesday and our second day off in a row!!! The Wilno Film Festival has come and gone and successfully so. I am always amazed at the variety of cinematic portrayals of this area and its people...and more every year. This year we had a great little doc by a student filmmaker...Andrew Brose from Lake Dore who brought us a hilariously funny piece called "Six Packs, Sleds and Pigeons". Watch for the flat dead cat shot! And we had six short pieces from a former student Adam Thompson who is now travelling the world doing all sorts of really professional and interesting films...a Cuban music doc and a piece in Africa on local peace activist Ben Hoffman...And we had a second screening of the Marija Gimbutas doc as well as a piece on Madonna House in Combermere. The goddess in all her forms shows up on our screen!

A day of rest and lounging about with my new hi speed internet connection here at our winter hideaway. Life in Wilno is truly a mixture of old and new technology. Our wood stove is chugging away with nice dry firewood from the bush in Brudenell (my home village) and my internet connection is buried inside old garden hose running under the snowmobile track, through the trees and via the culvert to this house from the main building. Intrepid ingenuity wins the day every time.

Tomorrow we start to winterize the cafe and the inn and send out publicity for the next event which is our Philosopher's Cafe and Music afternoon on November 11. And of course, hunting season starts next week....doesn't have as much impact here as it does in some villages. At home, at Oma's farm...the gigantic bull moose who hung on the tractor forks last week has been cut and wrapped and stowed in various freezers. Farm work has resumed for a week before deer season opens. Marty and Daisy Mae were busily mixing and pouring cement to fill in the gutters in what was the dairy barn and will now house Marty's herd of blondes...(Acquitaines or Limousin or Charolais...never sure which province of France these pricey bovines hail from).

Wintery morning...already!!

Saturday, Oct 28: Woke up to four inches of wet sloppy snow and a thick gloomy fog hanging over the village....with the threat of freezing rain hanging over our heads. Hopefully it won't affect the turnout for today's screenings. Last night saw a goodly crowd here to see the artist's videos and a showing of "Signs Out of Time", a film about Marija Gimbutas, the archeologist who postulates the existence of a prehistoric goddess culture. An interesting and provocative film. The goddess returns to the Wilno Hills courtesy of a woman archeologist who was born in Wilnius (now Wilno) Lithuania. Serendipity is everywhere! Barney was most excited as his new photography exhibition features several goddess deities including Hathor the Cow Goddess and this film, of course reinforced his faith in these ancient cultural beliefs. We also saw a short film about Hilkka who is a very talented artist from Finland who lives here in the hills with her ursine familiars...bears visit her cabin regularly...and Adam Thompson, a Wilno boy, sent us a compilation of videos he has produced for such varied interests as Turkish tourism promotors, a Peace Guerilla project in Africa and some really lively Cuban musicians. The children of the village make us proud when they go out into the larger world. We also saw some made for television pieces on artists Linda Sorensen, Alex Sztasko, Joyce Burkholder, Ramona, Ed Roman, the Andermans of MorningGlory with Cool Hemp ice cream and the self-generated hydro created by Andreas and Petra at the old Killaloe Mill. Such a varied and talented group of settlers in these hills.

The lazy snowy morning saw a stream of local visitors in for coffee and chit-chat around the stove. Mike and Liz and Leslie and Henning,Pete and Barney and later Corinne from the Wilno Tavern. Village life is settling in for the long winter ahead. We have inn guests arriving later today. I hope they didn't choose Wilno today for the weather! The rain is steadily falling and we will hope for the best for tonight.

Welcome to the Wilno Station Inn

October 26, 06: It's a gloomy fall day in the village of Wilno, but the woodstove in the cafe is radiating heat and the tempting smells of chicken stew and beef bourguignon emanate from the kitchen. We're in the midst of the Third Annual Wilno Film and Video Festival which happens every year in the Red Canoe Cafe at our inn so we're preparing one dish comfort food meals which the audience can spoon up while staring raptly at the huge screen filling one wall of the cafe. Last night we screened an Ottawa Valley classic called Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar....a film written by Joan Finnegan, well known for her books about this area and a fabulous poet and all around creative spirit. (She won a Gemini for the Fiddler screenplay). We also screened "Shakedown" a doc written and directed and produced by Kathryn Gilday in 1992...this piece profiles our local forest industry and a group called The Forest Industry Survival Association (FISA) which was able to change some long-time methods of allocating Crown Timber to the area sawmills and logging companies. Tom was a pivotal person in that organization and we are both in the film...along with many of our friends and neighbours and so it's always fun to see how we've all changed (or not) after these many years. And to round off the first night of the Festival we showed a half hour piece called Straight Arrow...a profile of aviation pioneer and test pilot of the Avro Arrow, Janusz Zurakowski. Janusz and his wife Anna were also innkeepers in this beautiful valley with their Kartuzy Lodge. Janusz died a couple of years ago but his memory lives on in Barry's Bay's Zurakowski Park with its dramatic flying model of the Arrow. This short film is an inspiring portrait of this unassuming humble and very kind man who made Canadian aviation history.

Later today, Friday, we'll screen a whole selection of short films about our local artisans and some videos made by local film-makers. All in all, a lovely way to spend a dismal October afternoon and evening.

Today's village update: The rest of the red roof has gone on the new front porch at the old general store which is being renovated by its new owners in preparation for a spring opening as a quilt shop and we hear....a Polish Deli. Great news, if that is indeed the case.