One day to a SpIFFy movie fantasy

One day to go until the opening of the 15th Spokane International Film Festival.

Who would have thought that the little event, which began in 1999 as the Spokane Northwest International Film Festival with a handful of U.S. and Canadian films, would still be going all these years later? Especially when those who were so instrumental in the festival's founding — Bob Glatzer, Leslie Ronald and various others involved in the Contemporary Arts Alliance — are no longer around.

Artistic director Glatzer, of course, passed away in 2010. Ronald passed the festival director's reins to Pete Porter a couple of years ago. The festival endures because Porter and his crew put in hours, days and months of volunteer — say again, volunteer — work.

To make a full disclosure, I serve on the SpIFF Board of Directors. But my participation is minimal, amounting to a few previewed films, a couple of minor writing assignments and I typically moderate one of the festival's annual filmmaker forums. The others, though, they work.

And the results will be on display for all to see beginning tomorrow. I've embedded a trailer for Friday's main opening feature, "The Iran Job," which will screen at the Bing Crosby Theater at 7 p.m. (a second program will play at the Magic Lantern).

Check the festival out. SpIFF is gradually becoming one of Spokane's enduring movie legacies.