Actor Jeff Voorhees from Jaws, and CKIFF organizer Rob Bellamy. (Photo by Cheryl Johnstone)
Chatham

Jaws actor in Chatham to discuss film

The Chatham-Kent International Film Festival is celebrating its sixth year with a special guest.

Jeff Voorhees, who was in the 1975 movie Jaws, will be doing a Q & A after a screening of the film on Thursday, October 24 at 7 p.m. at the Chatham Capitol Theatre.

He played Alex Kintner, the kid in red swim trunks on a floatie raft that was eaten by the great white shark. Even though it's been 49 years, Voorhees said he still gets recognized by fans.

"That's the funny part about it because I get people, 'Oh, you were in that movie Jaws.' It's like how can you even tell, I was 12 years old," said Voorhees. "But I still run my dog on the beach where I got eaten, I was eaten by Jaws back in the 70's."

Even though he was young at the time, Voorhees said he wasn't scared when the movie came out because he spent a lot of time with the set pieces.

"The mechanical shark, we knew where they stored it, and back then they didn't have alarms and cameras," said Voorhees. "So 8 o'clock at night, it's dark, you go over, 'This window is open at the yacht club warehouse, we could break in,' and we could climb all over the shark."

The Chatham-Kent International Film Festival will begin screening films from around the world on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

"A lot of really good stuff, every year it gets tougher to judge," said organizer Rob Bellamy. "Then Saturday night at 8:30, we have a Halloween party at the Kiwanis Theatre, with a midnight screening of 30 Days of Night, as well as a costume contest and music."

Tickets are available online at https://cktickets.com/ for each day, or there is a weekend pass, an ultimate pass, which includes tickets to the Halloween party, or just tickets for the party.

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