If all goes according to plan Trenton could get a once in a life time opportunity to host a national film festival with key players from the Canadian Film Industry.
Monday night, Bill Marshall and Henk Van der Kolk of the Film Festival Development Consortium pitched a plan to Quinte West council that would see Trenton host ‘Cinema on the Trent’. It would be branded under the Film Street name.
The Toronto International Film Festival co-founders say they are looking for council to contribute $100,000 of the overall $1.6 million cost to get the plans off the ground.
Van der Kolk says it will go towards travel costs to present the festival proposal in major cities such as Ottawa and Montreal adding they have plans to get TIFF involved.
Van der Kolk stold council that while this festival is not something you can make money off but everything around it from hotels to restaurants will thrive. He says it will put Quinte West on the map.
The plan is that multiple venues in Trenton would serve as theatres such as the National Air Force Museum, Military Hangars, the Centre Theatre, the Trenton High School and the Old Church.
Mayor Jim Harrison is very receptive to the idea.
Council agreed to accept their deputation and the matter will come back in two weeks for an official vote.