Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is going to be a very scary weekend in Yellowknife. People from all around the circumpolar world are going to invade the capital, making our townsfolk quake in their boots and hide their eyes.
No, Mr. Speaker, it's not the zombie apocalypse, and it's not mosquito season. No, tonight is the kickoff to the Dead North Film Festival. This festival is entering its eighth year showcasing independent short horror films produced around the north.
Dead North is, as they call it, the "twisted brainchild" of two Yellowknife filmmakers, Jay Bulkaert and Pablo Saravanja of Artless Collective, a Yellowknife North media production company, by the way.
Since 2012, over 130 short films have been produced for Dead North by filmmakers from the NWT, Yukon, Nunavut, and as far away as Iceland. After Dead North, many of those films have travelled even further to festivals around the world, including Fantasia, imagiNATIVE, New York City Horror Film Festival, and the famous Cannes Film Festival.
This year's Dead North Film Festival will screen a record number of films. As well as screenings, the festival has visiting guests and offers workshops that provide mentorship to young northern filmmakers just learning their craft.
Mr. Speaker, Dead North is just one example of how the NWT arts industry is growing and succeeding. Over the last 10 years, the Yellowknife International Film Festival, sponsored by Western Arctic Moving Pictures, has also grown by leaps and bounds. WAMP's annual 48-Hour Music Video competition also draws a large turnout every year.
These reveal something great going on, Mr. Speaker. The northern arts community told us for years that they were ready to grow and expand into new things. This government has listened by expanding our support for the arts. Soon our new arts strategy will be released, providing further support for filmmakers, visual artists, carvers, writers, craftspeople, musicians, who all make up essential parts of our growing arts community.
Mr. Speaker, our mandate goal of economic diversification has not been achieved equally well in all areas, but in the arts, and film and TV in particular, I think we can all be proud of its success.
In particular I want to congratulate the founders of Dead North and all of the filmmakers, actors, technicians, and volunteers who work hard to make it possible. Thank you, and we'll see you at the movies, Mr. Speaker.