Unscripted Twillingate is a four-day digital arts festival focused on documenting the beauty of Twillingate in the fall, beginning on Wednesday, September 21st.

The festival’s seventeen events include filmmaking, photography, and pottery workshops, foraging expeditions, feasts, film screenings, and kitchen parties. But every one of the Festival’s wide ranging events has a digital media component.

“The digital experience is what ties them all together, whether we’re doing a forage or a feast or a kitchen party it’s all about people wanting to capture and share that experience,” Festival Manager, Kate White said.

White explained that the tourist industry in Twillingate booms during the summer but things tend to fizzle out after Labour Day. In part, the Festival was founded to give people an appreciation of the unique majesty of the area in the fall.

“In the fall there’s berries and wildlife and even a different look to the sunset. Why not take Twillingate to the next level and start offering people the experience of fall in Newfoundland?”

White says that the Festival aims to celebrate the province’s rich history of oral storytelling as well as the physical beauty of Twillingate as summer is ending through digital storytelling.

The Amazing Root Seller Race is one example of the creative ways the festival uses digital media to explore Twillingate’s history and culture. Participants in the race will use GPS coordinates and an online map to navigate a predetermined course through the community’s 232 root sellers.

White is especially excited for From The Bog And The Bay – A Feast!, where Chef Roary MacPhearson, recent Chopped Canada winner, will prepare a three-course meal with a menu based on local cuisine.

“I grew up in Twillingate, I’ve eaten a lot of fish n’ brewis but to eat cod prepared by someone as renowned as Roary is going to be a whole new experience,” White said.

At the feast, people will be encouraged to engage with their meal as both an aesthetic and culinary experience by photographing it.

Unscripted Twillingate also offers several workshops that aim to give people practical skills and artistic guidance that will help them use digital media in new and innovative ways.

Roger Maunder will be back at the festival for a second time to offer a Digital Filmmaking Workshop. Maunder will help participants write a script, scout locations, shoot, and edit a film over the course of a three day workshop.

John Elliot and Terrance Hounsell will be teaching a two-part workshop called Light Painting Adventure. They will demonstrate a technique for creating interesting patterns on photographs taken at night. Participants will bring digital cameras and tripods outside after it gets dark to learn how to achieve the technique.

Unscripted Twillingate will wrap up on Saturday, September 24th with the Final Showcase And Show where guests will get to see highlights of what was created over the course of the festival. Newfoundland singer-song writer Sherman Downey will close out the festival.