70 Years of Yukon Cinema Celebration!

Friday, November 8 until Thursday, November 21, 2024Yukon Theatre

To celebrate the iconic Yukon Theatre’s upcoming 70th birthday as well as the Yukon Film Society’s 40th, YFS is presenting a celebration of films and events in November! Guest filmmakers! Live events! Yukon films and music!

This celebration will take place over two weeks in November and will include experiences such as: 2 to 4 films from the past seven decades of the Yukon Cinema's time as a landmark community building; 24 Yukon-made shorts to play before the features; panel discussions and workshops moderated both by local and visiting filmmaking talent; and two silent-era films accompanied by live scores by northern musicians.

On Friday, December 3, 1954, the Yukon Theatre opened its doors to the public with a sold out screening of The Glenn Miller Story, directed by Anthony Mann. It was Whitehorse's first purpose-built space for the community to gather for arts & entertainment. The Yukon Film Society was founded thirty years later, in 1984, by community-minded folks who wanted to bring independent, arthouse and documentary films to Whitehorse to feed Yukoners' craving for engagement with the world outside the Territory and to experience films pushing the artform in new ways. To celebrate these meaningful anniversaries, YFS is organizing this festival to honour the longevity of filmgoing and filmmaking in the territory. Programming will represent the ways in which cinema has changed and progressed—by highlighting works created by underserved filmmakers—while also paying tribute to the rich and expansive history of film and the artists who have altered, added, or experimented with the form, forever changing the medium. As such, we will screen at least two films from each decade, beginning in the 1950s and ending in the 2020s.

Plus the 2024 Yukon 48: Film Challenge screening will coincide with the festival and kick off the event on the opening night.