The Atlantic International Film Festival (AIFF) has unveiled its opening night premiere film to kick things off on Sept. 16 in Halifax. The week-long festival’s first night will see the world premiere of “111 Echoes from Halifax,” a dramatization of the 1998 Swissair Flight 111 crash off the coast of Peggy’s Cove and its aftermath. The flight departed from New York set for Geneva, but crashed on Sept. 2, 1998, killing all 229 passengers and crew on board. It was the second deadliest air accident to occur in Canada. “111 Echoes from Halifax” follows intersecting stories through the lives of a surgeon, a flight attendant, a stepfather and daughter, and family duo of lobster fishers in the wake of the tragedy. “Obviously this film has deep resonance in Nova Scotia,” says the AIFF executive director Martha Cooley. “There was a lot of people directly impacted, you know, it was only [28] years ago that the crash happened.” She says a lot of memories and connections to the event still linger in the community. “I think it’s a really important way to talk about that story again and to process some of those stories and emotions through cinema,” Cooley told CTV Your Morning Atlantic’s Brianne Foley. The opening night is the first of the festival’s screenings to be announced, with the rest coming Aug. 12. Early bird tickets packages are available for the festival with more information available on the festival’s website. For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
