Personal touch key to booking famous jazz musician

By Dylan O’Hagan    

BELLEVILLE – By using a personal touch to reach out, the organizers of DocFest scored a rising jazz musicians for the opening of its upcoming gala in Belleville.

Jazz musician and star of the film Keep on Keepin’ On, Justin Kauflin, a 28 year-old pianist who lost his sight at age 11, is making his Canadian debut at this year’s DocFest with a little help from his mom.

Chair of Belleville DocFest Gary Magwood says, the committee was able to bring Justin to Belleville only after a personal conversation with Justin’s mother.

Justin will be performing at the opening Gala for DocFest on Feb. 27 and it will be his first performance on Canadian soil. Magwood says he is excited to see Justin premiere in Belleville and happy to see DocFest could scoop a big name to premiere in Canada.

Personal connections don’t end there though for Justin. His visit to Belleville will also include a unique one-on-one workshop with jazz musicians and high school music students at Centennial Secondary School following a screening of Keep On Keep’in On.

Instrumental music teacher for Centennial Secondary School Blair Yarranton believes its a great opportunity for students to meet and interact with Justin in a compelling way.

“Having the students see him on the screen and then having him in person, I think especially for teenagers really makes it feel real. That these people they see on the big screen are actually real people and be able to interact with him. He has such an immense musical talent and ability as well to be able to interact with him that way, again it puts sort of a human touch on those sort of things,” he said.

Magwood says the workshop is a great use of Justin’s time as he’s able to interact and have a real impact on the community before he leaves Belleville. He added, a large part of DocFest’s recent success is because of the personal connections made with artists and local filmmakers.

“It’s not just about how big you are or how important you are. An awful lot of it has to do with personal connections and that’s a large part of why DocFest has succeeded,” he said.

Magwood has been involved in the festival since it began in 2011 and has watch it grow since. The festival started as a two-day documentary festival but has changed over the past four years. DocFest now offers a combination of documentary film and live performance to make it one of Ontario’s most unique film festivals.

Magwood says they have doubled sales for their early-bird deal since last year and now have over 10 films from local film makers or local themes and 54 total. He says he expects the event to sell out again this year.  The festival shows documentary films and performances from Friday, Feb. 27 to March 1 at three venues close to Belleville’s downtown. The venues are the Empire Theatre, the Belleville Public Library and the Core Centre. Passes are $45 for the entire event.