Somewhere nearby, is the Okanagan area. Despite my frequent travels throughout certain locations, I’m not sure I’ve been out there much, if at all. And I ought to go out there sometime. Maybe this week? Perhaps a lot of people should go out there this week because it’s the week of the Okanagan Film Festival which will go from the 15th to 18th. It’s starting, after a bit of a hiatus, and while plenty of locals are sure to attend, perhaps some of us from Vancouver ought to come too. In fact, it’s pretty dry out there and they could use some of our rain. I’ve been sending some via airmail, but I don’t know if they received it. If anyone’s going out to Okangan this week, bring some buckets of rain. They’ll appreciate the kind gesture. Okanganan International Film Festival, or OKIFF will include 52 films playing at 6 venues for 4 days, in a specific type of schedule, or course. Submissions have come from 9 different countries, and there are 12 languages featured. The festival has a great opening film called Nothing to See Here: WATTS, which is a documentary made by students, rival gnag leaders, police officers, victims, and leaders of local communities in a small but dangerous town of California called Watts. After this documentary was made, everyone in that town got a better understanding of community, and a great movie that features an interesting amount of perspectives. While I didn’t chat with anyone from the crew of this film, I did talk to OKIFF’s festival director, Damon Gregory who has recently taken the reigns.
Damon has had some history with festivals having volunteered for VIFF 97 when he had first come to Vancouver. From there he worked as a theatre manager for the next 5 years. If it weren’t for those amazing films, he never would’ve gotten a better understanding of the film world and going on to have such an involvement in the film industry. Thanks to him, OKIFF has lots going on for this year. This event will include local community film screenings, industry events through another organization of theirs known as a forum, but it is open to the general public like any film festival would and should be. I spoke to Damon regarding this festival, and learned all about what to expect for October 15-18.
HNMAG: So how long has OKIFF been running for?
Damon Gregory: This is the inaugural Okanagan International Film Festival under OUR leadership, I understand that there was another festival run by some other folks that started in 2004. Jason Woodford and his dad were instrumental in getting that off the ground. It ran successfully until 2017, for whatever reasons it just changed and slowed down, lost its energy and that was its last year for it. We have been doing the Okanagan film and TV forum since 2022 which was our way of starting the conversation with the community about the TV/film industry and its rapid growth here in the Okanagan. Also pulling back the curtain and exposing the moving parts and people behind the industry. Showing people the many ways that they could get involved. We’ve run 4 successful forums since, the last one being last May 2025. That’s when we announced we were going to do the international film festival.
HNMAG: So it was something you’ve been planning for a while.
Damon Gregory: It was a natural conversation of sorts that progressed as it grew bigger and the industry continues to grow at such a steady strong pace. We need crew, people to popuate both sides of the camera, folks getting into background acting and acting in general. I have a small acting studio here that helped a lot of people get into the industry. The film festival is our way of trying to help the region grow and gain an international scope, but also showing the community what film has the power to mediate cultural conversations and to show people what we have in common. That international film is an exposure to those other worlds and similar people with similar problems if you will. Our hope is to bring that to Kelowna, it’s much more multicultural than it’s ever been. We want to bring those people together in a place to share stories and conversations in a place and hopefully build the community a little stronger. With a big focus on the next generation, one full day dedicated to just introducing the industry to a younger generation and showing the many viable career options which are in the industries. Hopefully it will continue our mission with the forum.
The original organizer Jason Woodford did in fact call Damon and they made a plan to let Damon take over. While Jason had some involvement, so he will get a 2 1/2 minute tribute short film presented in both honour of him and his father for all they’ve done during the awards gala.
HNMAG: Now it takes place in a lot of locations: Kelowna, West Kelowna, Vernon, and Penticton. Do you believe it’ll spread out even more in the near future?
Damon Gregory: (laughs) Well, this is really ambitious as it is, but in the Okanagan it’s important for me, and I’ve seen it happen before. So many events take place in Kelowna, that Vernon and Penticton often feel left out. But this is an Okanagan festival and so for Saturday we have a couple of screening blocks that are going to be simultaneous and concurrent through the valley, so that covers the region well enough. I don’t think we need to expand, we had thoughts of the weather and how things might go if we include the Enderby Drive-in as a bit of nostalgia. I think those areas are enough that everybody in the region can access. It should be good.
HNMAG: What are you looking most forward to upon the return?
Damon Gregory: That’s an interesting question, I’m really looking forward to seeing how the people react and we see those conversations happening. The excitement of the lobby, waiting to get into the theatre and then the conversations amongst general strangers that will begin because of what they’ve all experienced in that cinema. A lot of our film blocks have 2-6 films in each 2-hour block and a big sum of things that revolve around a theme. It’ll be really great to see those reactions and those people, i’m also really looking forward to the awards gala, to see where it ends up on that last night. But I’m really fixated on the next generation day hoping to really open some eyes and show them this industry has a place for everybody and anybody.
HNMAG: It also features both International and Indigenous films, among interesting events. Is there a selection process that goes into the films?
Damon Gregory: We did that process beginning around when we took submissions March-August 15. Then a selection comittee was created that reviewed the films and we have a simple formula that many festivals follow: To determine which would make it in and which would not, we ended up with 52 films from 12 countries that had passed the process of 246 submissions. Now that they’ve been selected, they have been sent off to the rewards jury. We have 7 members for each type of film: Short film, short doc, and feature films.
He also mentioned some amazing Indigenous films and even brought up the opening-night film, Nothing to See Here: WATTS, which is having its BC premiere. Damon calls it a powerful film, explaining it to be a documentary that’s a first of its kind with no director and made entirely about the community of a violent city in Southeast LA that managed to solve its problems just from working on the film together. I liked the sound of that, but wanted to know more regarding what else was happening at the festival first, given the widespread of the location.
HNMAG: How are the events planned?
Damon Gregory: We’re at a home base location called the Metro Hub, in downtown Kelowna, and that’s where we’ll have the majority of the main events and our awards gala. All the screenings will take place at Landmark and Cineplex theatres. The opening night starts at the Metro, a block away we go to the theatre to watch then come back to have a gathering. Then on the Friday is the next generation day, for the younger highschool demographic and people seeking career change. That night, there will be our first panel discussion on how to break into the biz, and then we’re having community film night which is a collection of locally produced independent films that have all won film awards, to just show people what our film scene is capable of and there’s some really great material in there, then there’ll be a Q&A with the directors. On Saturday, we have three different panel discussions. One is how to get it made, and that’s talking about how to take an idea from start to finish. Then the second one is around the changing world of distribution, what is the future of how we will see film. Is it TV, is the theatre dying, is streaming the way to go. Is Youtube the next television channel, so just some perspective around that so people can understand where material is and if they get into filmmakiing where they need to focus as it is constantly changing. The third workshop’s on co-production which is just what it sounds like. It’s countries coming together to bring us these films sharing resources and talent. Canada’s very well known as a big area in the co-production world and that is around building international relationships. Oftentimes, three or four countries get together to make a film and there’s the advantages of that collaboration. Then there’s the awards gala on Saturday night. On Sunday, we have some film screenings and then have an Apre film festival at a local winery and we’re waiting on some confirmations from pretty distinguished guests who represent some of the Indigenous films in that final block followed by a Q&A with the people from these films which is also really great because we’ll be on the west bank first nation lands and talking about Indigenous film with Indigenous filmmakers.
HNMAG: What is one of the biggest challenges of organizing this festival?
Damon Gregory: That’s a toughie, but I think just the many moving pieces, the mulitple venues, gathering quality volunteers. We’ve got some really great people on the team, but it’s just an awful lot of organization. You’re herding kittens in a lot of different departments, gathering the films from the filmmakers, trying to communicate who’s going to be there and the requirements for their film and getting that to theatres in the proper format so it can all be screened. Of course, fundraising is a challenge. A lot of sponsorship needs, and organizing a major caterer. It’s all part but I think the hardest of all has been getting the team big enough to handle all of those things in our first year. I think it’ll be easier once we have one behind us and then people will take it seriously.
HNMAG: How many people does it take to keep the festival going?
Damon Gregory: We’ve got about 15 people in pre-planning, we’re getting more as we go, maybe 65 people will have helped out in some form or fashion.
HNMAG: Do you have any fascinating stories about what happened in previous events, such as when it all started?
Damon Gregory: I wasn’t around for the festivals as I was living in the States. But I’ve been in Kelowna an awful long time. My greatest memory and the greatest thing that happened was last forum on May 1st 2025, when we had a teriffic panel, 2 panels actually. One that was oriented to crew and one that was oriented to cast. It was a full day at the Metro Hub and we had a really great turnout. A special guest we had just called up and asked if he could help. He said, “Tell me what you want, tell me where to be and tell me what time” and it was his last public appearance. We were fortunate to have Danny Virtue travel over to Kelowna. He was at the time, diagnosed and had been in and out of hospital with lung cancer. He came and spoke at the forum and shared his personal story of how he was in trouble as a youth and how he got into the film business. Even as essentially as an illiterate troublemaker, how he was given an opportunity to work in California and then going on to write one of the first big series called Neon Rider and brought that back to BC and was a big part of building our industry from the very beginning.
Damon went on explaining how Danny created an organization to help out troubled youth, and how Danny is living proof that there is a place for anyone in film. It sounded like a special moment with him sharing that story and his career path with everyone attending. The pictures and chat afterwards made that even better. But I wanted to know more about Nothing to See Here: WATTS since it was brought up earlier.
HNMAG: Now I’m curious about the opening film. Why was Nothing to See Here: WATTS chosen as the opening film?
Damon Gregory: I had been monitoring the filmfreeway platform where films are submitted, they often would throw up am email saying ‘Here’s a project spotlight’ and it would include a few films that were “trending” if you will, in the festival circuit. I was checking them everyday because you have the opportunity to see a trailer for a film that may have not been submitted to your festival but then you may get a chance to invite them to submit, waive the fee or give them a discount. So I opened the film and watched the trailer which is about 3 1/2 minutes and I just said to myself, “I need to have THIS as our opening film, it was so powerful, just the trailer alone.”
I tried to track someone down through social media, they had an email address foundation they had started. I was getting no contact, finally I kept hounding these people. Finally one of them replied, the guy who did the soundtrack, and he was one of the producers. He said, “Yeah, I’ll put you in touch with the other guy. Let me have a minute” and this went back and forth, and then radio silence. All in all, it was 2 1/2 months for me to finally get in touch with the producer. We had a nice phonecall and he told us how this project got made and how it affected him, what it’s done to the community, what’s going on since. He basically said, “I’ll send you the film, you can watch the whole thing. If you like it, you can screen it!” I was just so struck by the content and his story of what’s happened since, places throughout the world are screening and being asked to implement this model into other communities. Dr Bernice King has embraced this, they had a screening at the King Centre in LA, she’s calling it the next peace march because of its power.
HNMAG: And this is its first Canadian screening or BC screening?
Damon Gregory: It is the first BC screening, it did have a screening in July out east, we will have it for October and then it will have a screening in Toronto in November. What’s cool too is there’s such demand. Part of the team is in Austin for a screening, another part is in Chicago for a screening, and another in Detroit for a screening all in the same week as ours. But what they have arranged is one of the LAPD officers who was part of making the film. He’s flying up to Kelowna, and he’ll be in the audience. He’s going to do a Q&A and we’re going to patch in 3 of the other members virtually and have a live Q&A afterwards.
It’s going to be an amazing festival for sure, but most interesting is that the festival will be running the same week as the civic elections. While the polls will close early, there is a lot of advance polling and a big race. While the opening isn’t up for political discussion, Damon has invited members of city council (current and running) because he believes people will see the community in a new and entirely different way.
Of course, that’s Damon’s biggest hope: for the opening film to change some perceptions and hopefully reduce some crime around their area as well. If the opening film can make a change for the city involved, it may also help out Okanagan too.