A free double-bill screening will be held at Imperial Theatre in Sarnia to honour the memory of Ravi Srinivasan, who created the now discontinued Southwestern International Film Festival (SWIFF).
"Ravi's Night: A Tribute to Ravi Srinivasan" will be held on Saturday, November 18.
Srinivasan passed away at the beginning of the year at the age of 37.
In September, members of the SWIFF board announced the discontinuation of the film festival.
However, Adam Cook said the screening event is being held the same weekend of what would have been the ninth edition of SWIFF.
"And that's no accident. Looking ahead to that mid-November weekend when we're always gearing up for SWIFF, we just couldn't let those dates come and go unmarked," Cook said. "We need to, in some way or another, attempt to fill that void and pay tribute to [Srinivasan]."
The screening will feature two films, beginning with The King Tide (2023) at 4:30 p.m.
The movie premiered at Toronto International Film Festival and Cook said it would have been shown at SWIFF had the event continued.
"[Srinivasan] was such a passionate champion for Canadian cinema and Canadian talent so we knew we wanted to have a film that fit that SWIFF mandate," Cook said. "It also is co-written and produced by Will Woods, who is one of the organizers of the event and was one of [Srinivasan's] closest friends. The film's actually dedicated to [Srinivasan]."
Cook said organizers will conduct a "SWIFF style" Q-and-A after the film. The second film chosen for the event is Do the Right Thing (1989), one of Srinivasan's favourite films.
Guests are asked to preregister for the event online (only one registration is required in order to view both films). As of November 7, Cook said about 150 people had registered.
An afterparty will be held at Collide on Front Street North, beginning at 9 p.m. Cook said the afterparty will also be free entry.
"It was important for us to make sure admission was free for these events and that everyone was welcome. SWIFF was very much about bringing everyone together - [Srinivasan] was all about bringing people together and that's what we're going to try to do on the 18th."
