Filmmaker Spotlight: Lucy Cameron

LUCY CAMERON is a Canadian producer and director working in nonfiction.

What question is not asked of you during these types of interviews that you think that people should ask you about you and your work to get to know you and your work better?

One thing that I like to know about other filmmakers, to better understand their work, which maybe would apply as an answer to this question is what interests you outside of your filmmaking practice? What life, work experiences do you bring to your work beyond filmmaking and your history in this industry? Artists tend to do the same kind of work over and over, so what kind of archetypal is that for you?

Can you answer that question in the way you laid out?

On a larger scale, I'm really interested thematically in institutions of power, and the way that individuals find themselves navigating them, and the places where people find a kind of hope and try to carve out a place for themselves as individuals within these institutions of power. The way that those systems can sometimes – I don't want to be too negative – but erode a person, or challenge them or take them to a breaking point, which is what Basic Training is about. Those are themes that I find myself drawn to in general.

Still from Basic Training

Besides representation, besides having female voices behind the screen, why film?

When I started working in film, I don't know, ten plus years ago, I initially thought that I wanted to be a writer. I never actually intended to go into documentary, but I was always really interested in social justice issues, but also in real people. I always found real people, real characters and real conflicts to be more compelling to me than fictional characters, just the kind of unevenness and inconsistencies and the kind of rawness that comes with real life or even the mundaneness. I find it as a storyteller to be like a really compelling ground. I'm interested in combining elements of fiction and nonfiction. I'm developing a scripted project right now, for example, that's informed by the performer's life. I feel like I could spend my whole life just listening to people and their stories.

So in basic training, what were the systems that you were trying to address and why did you want to address those systems?

When I first met Brandon and he told me the story that resulted in this short film, it was a three hour long conversation. There's so much in the story that didn't make it into the film. The interlocking systems of faith, coming from a conservative religious background, of ideals of masculinity that young men deal with, especially when you're figuring out who you are in the world, what you want to do with your life at 17, and, of course, the Canadian Armed Forces. Those three forces intersected in a particular young man's life, and I wanted to explore these systems of power.

Still from Basic Training

Let's say we were asking you to do a promo for Basic Training to sell the film in 30 seconds. How would you do it?

Basic Training is the true story of a young man who thought that he saw a path for himself. Over the course of a few days, his world turned upside down in ways that he could never have foreseen.

What are the filmmakers who have inspired you?

That's so hard. Can I speak in more general terms? I draw a lot of inspiration from indie filmmakers of the 90s, like Canadian and American. I love a film that seems kind of even a bit weird. You’re not necessarily sure where it's going to go, and you can tell that it kind of came together just around a vision and not a ton of resources necessarily. 

I like American indie filmmakers like Kelly Reichardt and, on the Canadian side, Don McKellar, his film Last Night was a big one for me. Peter Mettler’s Picture of Light. There are a bunch of European filmmakers that I love as well, like Céline Sciamma, Varda, Angela Schanelec, Thomas Vinterberg, the list kind of goes on and on. 

I love an indie film that looks like it was really made with a lot of heart and very cleverly deployed resources. It isn't overproduced. Sometimes big movies seem like they've been so digested by so many different people and market interests.

Do you find yourself referencing those filmmakers that have inspired you? 

When I watch more quiet films, Kelly Reichardt's films for example, I see the possibilities of spending time in quiet moments with characters that can be really compelling. I want to be respectful of audiences and not make work that's boring, but I think that you can make understated, character driven work that doesn't need a ton of bells and whistles or an enormous amount of plot to be moving.

Sometimes, directors encounter a conflict between making a living from your art and actually staying true to your art. How do you navigate this, if it’s something you have experienced?

Making your own art and also trying to make a living in the arts, sometimes can be in conflict especially in terms of like a person's time and like their own resources. I've been really fortunate to receive support from arts councils for my work, which is great, but also support from community. You meet so many wonderful people that are happy to collaborate with you and that you might want to also support them in their work. It's nice to have that kind of network that you built through work that actually pays you; one would hope you can also use it for passion projects on the side. I've also been really fortunate to work for and with filmmakers that I really admire, who have been mentors and always supported me to do my own thing.

Still from Basic Training

If you had advice for an emerging filmmaker, what would it be?

I would say, don't be afraid to make mistakes or something that is bad. Don't worry too much about who's going to be watching your work or what kind of cultural climate it's emerging into, like what festivals might be looking for. You can only make something that really is meaningful to you and hopefully people will connect with it. Don't worry about making stuff that sucks because you'll make stuff and you won't be happy with it, and you'll make other things and you will be happy with it. Just keep going. 

Secondly, the value of community is so huge. I don't just mean like, oh, my friend is an amazing DP and they're also going to shoot my film. That's great. But in your wider community, people who may not work in film or even in the arts, they stimulate you intellectually or support your process in other ways. 

What's next for you in your career?

I mentioned I'm working on a scripted project, which I'm really enjoying with a friend. She is a performer and I've never really done anything scripted before, so it's a little bit of a hybrid short that we're working on. Then I'm developing a doc about the kind of boom and bust of a small town that was built around a resource-based economy in BC, where I’m from. I find BC to be creatively rich. Whenever I go out there, I feel, maybe it's just something about being in nature, but there's more space to have ideas and it's obviously so visually rich. Then, another project with a friend who is an investigative journalist, building off some of their work. Little things simmering along outside of my day job. 

The kinds of documentaries that I think are the best done  are things that deal with issues that are very hot and people have very closely held views about. But it's not like a polemic. It's not “this is good and this is bad.” Maybe here's a character who's struggling with these things, and their reasons for struggling with them are their own and they're valid.

Interview by Breakthroughs Board Member Sunita Miya-Muganzar

*This article has been edited for clarity

Filmmaker Spotlight: Kathleen Burgess and Maria Barr, Dandelion Green

KATHLEEN BURGESS (she/they) is an award-winning Tkaronto-based director passionate about exploring the dimensions of friendship, play, and queerness through a surreal lens.

Typically in independent filmmaking, there's a director who is usually the writer, but this film has a writer and a director. Where did you meet and what made you decide to work together?

KATHLEEN: Marie and I met in our undergraduate program at TMU in media production. We met in a documentary filmmaking class in our third year, and worked on that project together. And it just like all started from there, our friendship as well. We had our thesis film project coming up, and I remember wondering who I am going to work with. We had just started to talk about inspirations and themes we liked, and it came up like an actual question, do you want to work together?

It was a strong intuition. We had all of these conversations about our potential thesis film. After this brainstorm, I felt so inspired, that’s how I knew we'd definitely make something together.

MARIA BARR: Like Kathleen said, we met doing a documentary. We shot it literally the week before lockdown started. We did the whole post-production process over Zoom in March and April of 2020. So it was a memorable start to a working relationship and also to a friendship. And I think it really bonded us. Then when Kat reached out, probably in the fall of 2020, about working on something together, the idea of making a coming of age came really naturally to both of us. It was never a question of what our roles would be. Kat was really interested in directing, and that wasn't something that I was personally ready for or interested in. But I've always loved to write and I like to edit as well. It was really like a creative partnership as co-creators. It felt equal from the start, and I felt we were in the roles that made the most sense for us. 

What led you to film school?

KATHLEEN: Applying for media production programs was like a last minute thing. But I grew up figure skating, so I was always very into performance. I realized, after I quit, I really missed that creative aspect. I did lots of drama and photography in high school, and I never really put it together. I was never in any film classes. But the creative aspect and the team aspect of filmmaking is what I really loved. I like bringing something together that's literally impossible to do by yourself. That's what made me very excited to go to that school.

MARIA: For me, I like that the program we went to is not technically a film school, it's a media production program. I didn't even really realize that I wanted to specifically work in film or television. But I knew I wanted to do something creative, for sure. When I was in high school, I did a really cool summer program at Simon Fraser University Film School. Over the course of either two weeks or three weeks, you make a short film. I did that for three summers. I made a documentary and then two little narrative shorts, which was my first step into filmmaking. I really loved those programs. Looking back, I didn't even realize how much they meant to me. So I knew I wanted to do something in that world. Once I got to maybe the middle of my degree is when I realized screenwriting is where I really wanted to focus. It was gradual. Even now, who knows where I'll end up? I don't know if I'll do film forever. Maybe I'll do something else, as long as it's like something fun and creative.

Still from Dandelion Green

What were some of the filmmakers that inspired you?

KATHLEEN: There are so many. Especially in the last couple of years, as you get more into film, you just get more and more inspired by people in your direct community. But to name a few, Jasmin Mozaffari is one. She did the film program at TMU, but I discovered her as we were developing Dandelion Green. I watched her feature, Firecrackers, and something about it, how it felt so raw and real and emotional. It's like when you watch a film, you're like, damn, I wish I made that. That’s the kind of reaction I had to it. Another director that I'm inspired by, who's from the States, is Olivia Peace who directed Tahara. They really have this experimental approach to filmmaking where they incorporate mixed media, animation, and they're not afraid to break the boundaries of it.

MARIA: Before I started university, I was very inspired by coming of age films, which I think is partly why we ended up making one for the thesis, to pay tribute to those big coming of age films that left such an impact on us.

In high school, I was a huge fan of Almost Famous. Submarine, which I rewatched last week for the first time since I was 15, expecting to feel differently about it but, this is still a really good film. Electric Children, directed by Rebecca Thomas. Coming of age films in general that have moments that feel big because they're teenagers. Definitely Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird was a big one for me. In terms of screenwriting, I'm a big fan of Emma Seligman, her dialogue. 

Do you have any advice for emerging filmmakers who are just starting out, both from a director's perspective and from a writer's perspective?

MARIA: Watch as many movies as you possibly can of all different genres, even stuff that you don't think you're going to like. Building that reference library in your mind is really important as you're trying to establish your voice. For writing, getting your hands on actual scripts is nice. Learning technical standards, figuring out how to write a script. And also connecting with your community, It cannot be understated that the indie film scene in Toronto is such a small world. It's really important to know who you're going to be working with and to have a good reputation, be a nice person and support your peers. That's really, really, really important is to be there for your community to show up and go to film screenings and stay for the Q&A and talk to the director after. Make stuff with your friends, in your backyard with like, on your phone, just make as much stuff as you can and make friends with people.

KATHLEEN: We are definitely still emerging, but from the process of making Dandelion Green, like Maria was saying, amazing friendships just came out of that film. We put that intention into it. From a directing perspective, really don't be afraid to lean into your style, even if you feel like it's not what's cool or trendy or unique. It's one of those things, you're most in-tune with yourself so you may not think it's original because you're always thinking of it, but people haven't seen it before. So make iterations of it. Even if it's something really small and it's not even like a short film. It could be a scene. Because once you bring that thing to life, it helps build your confidence. If you gatekeep your own ideas, it can get very frustrating.

I think a lot of times young people can think this is THE short film, and put it up on a big pedestal. But you have to remember that all the projects you make add up. That's something I'm trying to listen to.

Still from Dandelion Green

Dandelion Green was like a little delicate flower, but like, holy shit, what am I watching? What drew you to tell this story about a 17 year old who's on the cusp of aging out of the foster system? What initially inspired you to explore Kay's experience in particular?

MARIA: The idea for Dandelion Green came from a lot of different places. Originally, we wanted to tell a queer friendship story. We wanted to tell a friendship  love story, and explore themes like platonic intimacy and chosen family through the lens of coming of age. We also were drawing on some of our own experience and growing up in tumultuous family situations, although neither of us were in the foster care system. When I started looking into the foster care system, what I found really interesting and really heartbreaking about the system is that when you age out of the system, you have no choice. It's a very harsh line of you're 17, you're a child and you have no control over your life, less than even the average kid who's not in the system. Then you turn 18 and you're basically on your own, the support for kids who have recently aged out of the foster care system in Ontario are pretty minimal. So you're forced to go from being a child to an adult in a moment. That was really interesting to me. 

We watched a film, called Princess Cyd, about a teenage girl that has a tough family situation and goes to live with her aunt. And I thought it was interesting to explore the idea of staying in someone's house that is not your own. Who could you be if you were in a space that is not familiar to yourself, to what you're used to? We did a lot of research into the foster care system, watched a lot of documentaries, listened to a lot of podcasts, and we got in touch with StepStones for Youth, an organization in Toronto that helps foster kids. We talked to them and they worked as a consultant on the film. We also interviewed some people who were in the system and different foster parents to really try and get the perspective of different aspects of the people that engage with the foster care system. So that I think is where the idea mainly came from.

We were really trying to find moments of levity in a really tough situation. Trying to imagine two kids that were in the situation of being in the system, and one of them was about to age out. But by chance or by fate, they end up meeting each other at the perfect moment for what each of them needs and create a beautiful friendship.

KATHLEEN: My aunt was a foster parent for a while, so I remember when Maria brought up the idea, I knew we should talk to her. That was a really long interview and it really echoed with us. And even though I didn't grow up in foster care, I definitely grew up moving around a lot and always like packing all my stuff, going to like my different parents' houses. That sentiment when you're younger, of having to rush and go really quickly was something I related to. 

The other root of it was this queer friendship that we really wanted to explore, that was somewhere between romantic and platonic. Around the time that we started talking, I was coming into my queerness and being more open with it – I was very closeted before. I feel like a lot of queer kids growing up experience that relationship and then didn't really know how to describe it, like that didn't happen, that didn't exist. Even though the issue that we wanted to go head on was this foster care experience and aging out, we also wanted that relationship of joy and happiness to drive the story and have that hopeful ending to really be a big part of it.

One of the moments that really stood out for me was like this sudden responsibility.  I thought it was really fascinating when she turned 18 by the end of the film. I was so hurt by that idea that this child, who has never experienced stability, has to take on this like sense of stability. There was a moment where the social worker was said best of luck. I felt it was such a harsh farewell. What did you want to convey in that particular moment? What are the things that we don't know about children aging out of the system of foster care?

MARIA: Because neither Kat nor I have ever been in the system, we did want to make it as authentic as possible, which is why we had a sensitivity reader and did interviews. Something that we found really striking is that the support for foster kids who have aged out are not what you think they might be. They typically get an apartment and a monthly allowance, which I don't remember the exact time frame, but it doesn't last super long. And these kids are 18, they could still be in high school. Like I mentioned before, when you're a foster kid, you have much less control over your life than maybe the average kid would. The stark difference is even more visible. We really wanted to show this, the harsh reality of the foster care system with the ending. But we also wanted to have the hopeful silver lining of Olivia leaving all of these drawings that she had done, of the two of them together and the memories that they shared as a reminder that you're not alone, you'll find your community again. We wanted to keep it open ended. 

A lot of people maybe don't know that in the foster care system indigenous kids are massively overrepresented. I wanted to make note of that as something really important to recognize. There's a lot of issues with the foster care system, which is why StepStones for Youth is a really great organization that I would encourage people to check out.

KATHLEEN: When we were writing Kay’s social worker, we wanted her to represent the very tough part of the foster care system in Ontario versus Amir, who was Olivia’s social worker. We gave him a kinder side. He's almost worn out by the system because he came into it really trying to make a difference. But then you get stuck because it's so flawed from the beginning. There's only so much you can do in it as well. We really want people to think, what are we doing to these kids?

Still from Dandelion Green

In the first scene with K, we're going over the rules and regulations of this new house. And Olivia, you're seeing her packing her bag and just walking out. Was that the contrast of these two worlds? 

MARIA: We really wanted to show a contrast in two different experiences navigating the system with Kay and Olivia. They come from different backgrounds, Kay is supposed to be coming from a group home, and Olivia is coming from her mother's house. We wanted to show two different social workers, with different levels of empathy towards the kids. And we wanted to show different aspects in a short amount of time. In the first scene with Kay, that's a real thing that happens with foster kids, they have to be read their rights before they're moved to a new home. It’s there to protect them, but there's something really carceral about it. It's like a mantra that these kids learn because they've heard it so many times for those who are moved around a lot. So we wanted to show a contrast throughout the film between Kay and Olivia. In some ways, Olivia still has hope to be reunited with her mom, whereas Kay is just waiting until the day that they age out.

Yeah. So the question was that, at the beginning of, so I'm just following a when Maria said, she said that, you know, these two people, these two, Olivia and K, have sort of different lives in a sense that K being in foster care, she is her life is really controlled and it's contrary to kids who are coming from just regular home.

KATHLEEN: Later in the film, they’re about to collide. Showing that visually by cutting back and forth and overlapping their audio was a stylistic decision to tell the audience that they're about to meet.

I have noticed that you often are drawn to stories about women and femmes navigating the margins of society. What do you personally connect with characters like Kay and Olivia, and are there shared experiences and perspectives that you feel align with your own?

KATHLEEN: When Maria was writing this film, even though we came up with the story together, it felt like I could see a part of myself in it. Firstly, for Olivia's character, she's always keeping it all in and then using her drawings to let it out, almost like therapy. That's kind of what I relate to, a creative outlet. Growing up I would just let it all bubble in, and there were all these chaotic things happening in my family, and finding skating at the time or a drama was the way I learned to express myself. For Kay, their need to feel in control by being so independent is something that I think lots of women and femme people can relate to because they've been hurt so many times before, and it becomes very hard to trust. Showing how it hurts and you try to hide away and be like, “I can do this all by myself. I can be really tough.” 

Our actors really brought their unique perspectives to their characters. I was so happy to be a part of this film because we had so many conversations on set and it would totally change my intentions. It was a very collaborative process.

MARIA: Similarly, I see myself in so many different aspects of this film. I particularly see myself when I was writing it because, at this point, we started working on this film in late 2020. So we were younger, we were still in university, in the midst of a pandemic, sometimes it feels like a lifetime ago. I was thinking a lot about connection and longing for connection and loneliness was a big thing in my life that year, as it was for a lot of people.

In terms of like the specifics of each character, I'm definitely more like Olivia, finding the silver lining. Finding an outlet to keep going is something that I feel like a lot of teenagers relate to. I don't necessarily relate all that much to Kay, but I feel that maybe that’s the part of me that I push down, like the part that feels untrustworthy and rundown sometimes.

Do you have anything coming up?
MARIA: We're working on a film currently. We were participants in a soft pitch competition back in June. So we have a film in development called Eleanor that is about an elderly lesbian who is, in her own way, aging out of being able to ride her motorcycle and be a part of the motorcycling community in small town Ontario. We’ve been calling it a little bit of a twist on the coming of age, the coming of age of an elderly lesbian who has been through some stuff and is super tough, but also is like going through all these new experiences that come with getting older. We’re hoping we will be able to make it next year.

Interview by Breakthroughs Board Member Sunita Miya-Muganzar

*This article has been edited for clarity

Filmmaker Spotlight: Halima Ouardiri, The Skates

HALIMA OUARDIRI is a Swiss-Moroccan writer and director is a graduate of the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema in Montreal, Canada. Her first short film, MOKHTAR, screened in the top festivals around the world. CLEBS won the Crystal bear in Generation at the 2020 Berlinale. She is currently developing her debut feature film, THE CAMEL DRIVING SCHOOL.

What filmmakers inspired you to be a filmmaker?

To be honest, I came into cinema quite late, and also I was not really a cinephile before. I came to cinema through documentaries, in fact. So I started discovering filmmakers who directed amazing documentaries. I remember one, from Nicola Philibert, To Be And To Have, that I was completely amazed by the camerawork, the protagonists and all these real people. I was curious about how they did this, how they worked with the real people to achieve such intimacy. The film happens in a classroom with different children from different ages. So more and more, I started watching different documentaries, mostly auteur documentaries. 

I was studying political science, while on the side, I was watching more and more cinema. And then I decided, this is what I really want to do, I want to tell stories and I want to tell stories that are not very much told yet. I think I can do this. I started doing it with my own camera, filming my family, filming around me, trying to put those images together with the editing. Then I applied to a cinema school in Montreal.

So lots of filmmakers inspired me, but I have many. I'm watching a lot of different filmmakers, a lot of different cinema. And I'm still really being inspired by the younger ones. 

What advice would you give to an emerging filmmaker, if they were in your shoes at the beginning?

I would tell them to tell stories that are close to them. Because it takes time to make a film, and it's a lot of effort. Having a subject that is very personal or at least that you know well, would be easier, I think, to get close to it and to be able to also give it to the public. You know exactly what you're talking about. It’s easier to start with than some other subject that is exciting and might be very modern or interesting to an audience, but it's not so close to you.

Still from The Skates

I want to lean into this idea of telling stories from your own memories and stuff. And I know The Skates in particular was coming from your own memories. The acting in this film is chef’s kiss. What are your essential tools in terms of casting and what are some things that you do that you have seen other directors not do in terms of getting the right actor? 

Follow your instinct. When you're writing a piece, you have initial ideas of actors that come to mind. Stick to those ideas. Ask around what people think, but always go back to what you really have inside of you as the first instinct. And for the little girl in this film, I knew exactly what I wanted. So perhaps my description to an agent was clear, age, what she looked like, her overall emotion. I was very lucky also to have a person that understood me very well and gave me a name, Ines Feghouli. And that was it. It was her. She understood the role perfectly. It took a while before the film was financed, but I stuck with her the whole way through. I didn't do any auditions with other actors because it was the obvious choice. 

Sometimes you can doubt yourself and be like, oh, should I do auditions and try to find this actor that no one knows yet? Inez has already acted in numerous other films and TV series, but for me, it didn't matter. I didn't need to find a new actor, I needed her.

And for the father, I had seen his performance in cinema, and I had seen him in theater. Then people reminded me, you know, there is this actor, Mani Soleymanlou, I think you guys, we should work together. It came at the right time. I also recognized in him the ability to play both the charming dad and the reverse.

His wife is Sophie Cadieux. So I said if they didn’t mind playing in the same movie, then she’s a wonderful actress. I needed someone really expressive with no words. I thought it was just simpler that way to keep it in the microcosm of their own.

So the mom was played by his actual wife?

Yeah. They’re a very happy couple. They usually never accept acting together because they want to separate private life and work. But in that case, because they didn't really share the screen, she said yes.

That's what I was saying. I'm coming from documentaries. So sometimes I'm thinking in that way like, oh he's married to this wonderful actress.

To finish, 90% of the directing is in the casting. Because they are amazing actors, my directing was really in small details or discussions in prep. On set, it was very minimal because they were cast appropriately for the script.

Still from The Skates

I wanted to go to the moment when the mom comes in. Nina looks at mom. Mom is like, “where's your skates?” And Nina repeats what her father says: It's like it's not even a good sport, spinning on ice like idiots. That stuck out so much because it was such a powerful echo of internalized memory. Looking back, is there any aspect of your own experiences that felt similar to this particular scene, and did that influence the way you approach putting this film together?

It's something I've experienced, unfortunately. That's what I mean by know your subject intimately, then those subtleties come into place in the script.

I did not base this script just on my own experience. I also researched around me and this film came back to me, this story, this anecdote that I made into a fiction film. It's not my life at all. It's an episode of it that I translated into a fiction. It came back to memory when a friend of mine was going through a very difficult divorce, with a child curled up in the middle and everything she was telling me about it woke up this memory of my childhood with this same kind of mechanism. 

It's a phenomenon that happens, widely, but that is very difficult to see when people are a victim of it, those are such minor events. It's hard for them to say, this is what happened yesterday in my family because it's not much. It's almost irrelevant. But when you add up all those little, mean events, they become huge.

There was something so spectacular about the relationship between the daughter and the father, but there was something so mean about it too, because he's not over this divorce and he's taking it out on this kid who adores him. There's something about parents who take these little mean acts of, I would say, violence towards the children.

Yeah, it is violence. The father is not just mean, it's more complicated than that, and that's the problem in this situation. Love is in there, and also cruelty and violence.

Still from The Skates

How much did your memory or the conversations that you had with your friends going through these difficult periods really inspire you to decide on shot compositions? How did you think about every detail to put this film together?

I didn’t want to stylize it too much. I wanted the film to be very clear and straightforward in a way that those little, very subtle things are coming through, and that the style was not coming in the way of the story I was telling. I thought it was the story that had to be the star of this film. The form was just there to make it happen, and to make the story really clear and efficient. I didn't want it to be less accessible to a wide audience and a young audience as well.

Interview by Breakthroughs Board Member Sunita Miya-Muganzar

*This article has been edited for clarity

Filmmaker Spotlight: Vanessa Sandre, The Pleasure Is All Mine

VANESSA SANDRE is a Brazilian filmmaker based in Toronto, Canada. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Film and a Master's degree in Literature focused on Women and Gender Studies. Vanessa has cultivated a diverse career as a screenwriter, producer, director, and performer for the last 14 years.  As a Latina immigrant and artist, she finds inspiration in crafting narratives that amplify underrepresented voices through a decolonial and intersectional feminist lens.

‘The Pleasure is All Mine’ (O Prazer é Todo Meu, 2023) is her latest fictional short film and addresses the taboo subject of female sexuality in old age. Filmed in Brazil, it has been selected for over 40 film festivals worldwide, including the 32nd MixBrasil, Inside Out Toronto 2SLGBTQ+, and the 35th St. John's International Women's Film Festival. The short also received 22 awards, including ‘Best of the Showcase’ and ‘Audience Award’ at the 2024 WIFT + Toronto Showcase. 

Vanessa has been selected for the Creators of Colour Incubator 2024 - CCI (by Caribbean Tales Media Group) and the Career Advancement Module of WIDC—Women in Director’s Chair. 

For Vanessa, movies are a catalyst for connection and social change, influencing how we see and engage with the world.

Why film? Why did you decide on this of all the things you could do with your life?

That's my question. Every therapy session actually. I don't really have the answer. But I can tell you a little bit about my journey. 

I started with theater and dance when I was a teenager and I fell in love with the arts, but I was not that good in theater. I was not a good actor. I started dancing kind of late, so I was not really good at those practices. I said, oh, maybe I can do something else in the arts, then maybe I can be great. Then I started research. I always loved films and you had the DVD and you watched the extras, but that was something so far from my reality, and I think that's why it attracted me that much. I didn't have any relatives or friends in the industry. Nobody filmed in my city. I got the gut feeling that I should try something really bold. It was funny that I think this year was the first year that I, in therapy, said, okay, I think I made the right decision. 14 years later.

What was happening that led you to make that connection, “I made the right decision.”

It was this film. Throughout my career, I had some moments, but with The Pleasure Is All Mine I feel that I was able to touch so many people and open this big discussion about female sexuality through another point of view. It's so powerful.

I had such a great experience sharing these with people, really true connections, people crying after the session, coming to talk with me, telling them stories. So I think I went into film because I wanted to connect with people. I want to make people feel things. I want to talk with them about those things. So I think this year I had this realization, okay, I'm in the right pathway, I did good with this. And I want to keep doing good. I want to keep connecting with people.

Still from The Pleasure Is All Mine

If you were to advise an emerging filmmaker as to how they get to this place in their career where they're like, I made a good decision, I didn't go to law school, I didn't go to medical school…What would you tell an emerging filmmaker if you were to give them advice about just where you are now?

I consider myself an emerging filmmaker. Right? First of all, it's finding your voice – why are you doing this? If you could do anything else… There are so many pathways you connect and you can be good and do meaningful things. But why this and why are you good at this? And for me, it was really hard as a woman director, screenwriter, creator, to assume this position in my life. It took me more than ten years to say “I'm this and I and I'm good at this.” 

I experimented a lot to understand that I wanted to be in this position. Experiment as much as you can. Second, find your voice. Why do you want this? Why do we want to say this? Not just saying something for the sake of saying something. What do you have to say that is unique? 

You said it took you a while to take position and take space as a woman. I'm always curious because we say this as women, and I think there's something deeper behind that statement. We create human beings. We’re creators of cultures and language and food. So I'm curious as to how you didn't feel comfortable in a space that is so natural to your existence, which is being creative.

I love what you said. It's beautiful. We are so creative, right? We bring life, we make life. And there's nothing more creative than that, right? So I think maybe there's many layers in that. First of all, you don't have role models. I think I didn't know any great female directors when I got into film school. I couldn't see myself in that position because I didn't have something to look at. Second, that we are very hard on ourselves, we don't have the same right to make mistakes as men have. When you are making films, there are a lot of mistakes. We should give ourselves more grace, sometimes you make a bad movie and it's fine because men make bad movies all the time.

I think we have this idea of what a creative, writer, or a director should be.

My first film I filmed at the end of my film school. And then there's The Pleasure Is All Mine, which is just my second film. As a director, writer, director, it took me nine years between each of the films. So I have a different creative process than what you’d think when you think of a writer director. I had to understand this about myself. 

It's interesting that when you accept yourself, you become more creative. Now, I am able to have more projects, but when I was not confident about myself, I could just work really hard on one project at a time.

Still from The Pleasure Is All Mine

You talked about how one of the obstacles was not knowing artists growing up. And so now, let's say, 14 years later, who are the filmmakers that have inspired you?

So many. From Agnes Varda, to my favorite, it's Catherine Breillat – she talks a lot about sexuality now, like almost porn. At this point of my life, I'm trying to research as much as I can, like, decolonial, and black, non-binary, female. I'm really interested in Latin American filmmakers. So I try to watch as much as I can in Latin America, because I also feel that we have a really interesting history, interesting films, and people don't know that.

So let's talk about The Pleasure Is All Mine because it is a spectacular film. You make two two statements that I thought were really interesting. One is the title Pleasure Is All Mine because you're owning pleasure, which is something that women don't do. The other is your casting. Casting a 76 year-old woman who has never experienced orgasm, who goes out of her way to ensure that she does. Those two statements were so powerful, and I wanted to know how you got here.

I was really interested in expanding my vision about women in film. At that point, I was 25, 26, and I never had thought about women in film. I never realized that I didn’t know any female directors, or the ways that women are portrayed. So I enrolled in a master’s program and decided to study this. 

In the process, I wanted to do something different, an antithesis of the male gaze. It’s a big question – what is the female gaze? How do you achieve that? I thought,  I'm going to show this body, but I'm not going to sexualize this, but I'm going to let this body be sexual.

The script changed a lot. At the start, it was more about the failure of the marriage. These long term relationships that people do not even talk to one another anymore. I was sharing it with other women filmmakers, and I realized maybe I should show her seeking for pleasure for real. I never saw another woman trying to have an orgasm on film.

I think people are afraid of the movie. But do you know where I found space? In the LGBTQ+ community. Those festivals were the open space for this film. This is not a LGBTQ+ film per se, but that was the only space where people are allowed to openly talk about elderly women, talk about female sexuality.

Still from The Pleasure Is All Mine

If you could change one thing about Canadian or Brazilian cinema, what would it be?

I have some problems with Canadian film because it lacks some deeper meaning, generally speaking. I'm not a specialist, but I feel that the young filmmakers are so stuck with the idea that they have to do Hollywood types of things. So I see very well filmed films with good cameras. Technically speaking, good, but with no content. What is their statement? Why are you telling this story? You have to be very assertive. 

We were talking before about the why. At some point I said to myself, I can be a director because I do like those things. You have people in the project that love other things. They can bring their skills and you can work on what your statement is, what your strength is like.

My strength is working with actors, and that's why I do films. I love working with actors. The other people can bring in the rest so you don't have to know everything. You don't have to.

Interview by Breakthroughs Board Member Sunita Miya-Muganzar

*This article has been edited for clarity

Filmmaker Spotlight: Emma Zuck, Adagio

EMMA ZUCK is a filmmaker and writer. She is wrapped up in the sentimental— unraveling themes of identity, home, queerness, and growing pains. Her thesis film Adagio premiered at Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, taking home the Air Canada Short Film Award. She has had the pleasure of working with CBC, Bell Media, PostMedia, and Angel Entertainment. As well as recent endeavors into programming, hosting Homegrown, a community screening featuring Saskatchewan filmmakers with proceeds going to local charities. 

She sees poetry all around her, focusing on life’s subtleties in her work. Her favourite part of filmmaking is the many hands it takes, she hopes to nurture community both on set and in theaters. And to make every project a labor of love.

How did you go about writing for and directing something as visually technical as ballet?

I actually grew up doing ballet, so a lot of it was pulling from memory and choosing a choreographer we could lean on. But honestly, it was really scary and definitely the most daunting part of the film. So if any ballerinas watch this, go easy. Our lead, Selina, was a champ and did a lot of extra prep on her own time, and ultimately it was being very flexible with expectations and making sure first and foremost that Selina was safe and wouldn't injure herself.

Because dancing on point is no joke.

Still from Adagio

I found that sound (or lack thereof) seemed to be a very deliberate storytelling device for your film - can you speak more to that?

Silence became very deliberate in the desire to speak to the things left unsaid, or things that we cannot say, but also because breath was an important part of the film. I thought a lot about how tension is held in the body. In ballet, you're holding a certain posture, isolating different muscle groups. It's physically very difficult. And when you're coming into your queerness, I feel like your body is speaking to you and you're noticing.

When does my heart rate speed up? When do I relax? In both of these scenarios, you are uncomfortable. You're tense, but you have to hide it. And breath reveals a lot. So I wanted the audience to breathe with faith, to feel in their own body. And that requires a lot of silence.

Still from Adagio

What filmmakers have inspired you?

Some filmmakers that inspire me, Fawzia Mirza, Greg Araki, Isaac Chung, of course, Wong Kar wai, Celine Sciamma, Barry Jenkins, to name a few.

What advice would you give to an emerging filmmaker just starting out?

My advice to emerging filmmakers would just be to write all the time. It doesn't even need to be scripts. It could be short stories or poetry or stream of consciousness. But the more you stretch that muscle, the less daunting the practice becomes. And for me at least, the less fear you have of writing something bad because you've written so much. It's all just stuff. Some that you'll keep and use and some that needed to come out to further distill your idea.

Still from Adagio

What is next for you?

I'm currently home in Saskatoon working on a new film called stubble for an art exhibit, and that's an experimental documentary about gender that asks people, when do you wish to be soft? When do you long to be rough, and when are you both at the same time?

Interview by Breakthroughs Board Member Asya Twahir

*This article has been edited for clarity

Filmmaker Spotlight: Sara Rangooni, Leveled

Founder of Dalphinium Media, SARA RANGOONI is a Director and Writer dedicated to changing the narrative for equity deserving communities through powerful storytelling. Born and raised in Toronto, her award-winning proof of concept, short film, Leveled still continues to make the festival circuit worldwide and has catapulted her to new heights. She believes in the power of changing perspective through four-dimensional storytelling.

As one of four selected for Rising Voices with Hillman Grad, Bipoc TV& Film and Indeed for Leveled, she is in the development stages of her coming-of-age feature. With a slate of projects in film and series, Sara is dedicated to telling powerful stories that centre on themes of belonging, love and loss layered with a distinct dramatic and comedic tone which is both entertaining and relatable.

Sara is committed to changing the narrative by pushing boundaries and challenging cultural norms. She continues to charter a path in the industry through various recognized programs and creating content on screen as a proficient writer and director.

What is your film about? What were the intentions behind it?

This film is about a young girl named Sapphire. She is trying to pursue her dreams, and she's confronted with all these challenges on this particular day. One of them is a very matriarchal grandmother and a mom who is sick with cancer. So we follow her on this day where anything and everything could possibly happen to her. The questions that I really wanted the audience to start thinking about is, how do we suffer managing so many different levels of challenges in life, and will she be able or will she want to, be still motivated to, after all the challenges, pursue this dream that she's had since she was little?

That's the film. I'm so vague about it because I really don't want to give it away, because there is this kind of magical moment towards the end, where you can start realizing what her dreams are. I think what's really great about this film, in that way and that story, is that I really wanted to create a story where it doesn't matter what you look like, it doesn't matter where you come from, it doesn't matter.

You know what the expectations are. Conventionally, Sapphire really defies all that. She is pursuing a dream that perhaps a lot of people wouldn't even think is a possibility. And that was really what the point of the story was, creating this possibility. Especially with young girls who struggle with just doing the things they love the most.

Maybe it's family, maybe it's societal expectations. I think it's South Asians, too. And as Muslims, we're expected to be a doctor or a lawyer or something. And it's not often that we are able to be like, oh, I want to be a filmmaker. And even if we want to be that, we have to really keep it a secret.

That's something that lives inside our hearts. So I wanted that to really manifest and kind of show the ups and the downs of what happens when you're really, really, really, serious about pursuing your dreams.

Still from Leveled

It’s one of those things that sparks for me as well, coming from a very Muslim background, like as you said, being South Asian, being a woman. As we grow up, we're only shown that there's only one way of doing things. How did this eventually help you to craft your own film? What was that experience like for you?

So when I was writing the screenplay, my grandma—who I was really close to—she's a lovely lady. She was a lovely lady. She was taking her last breaths. And she lived with us growing up. I had this moment where I was thinking about how resilient she was. She was for such a long time. And I thought, what if she was given a different set of parameters? She came from a very underprivileged background, and my grandfather, marrying him gave her a privileged life, but it wasn't privileged enough because she was still this female living in Karachi, Pakistan, having to deal with all these different levels of bias against women.

So I always wondered, what would she have been? What would she have done? As I was writing, I thought all of us have generational trauma, regardless of where we come from, we all have to deal with. But on the other hand, what if we created a world that defied all that trauma and made it possible for this young girl to actually do what she wanted to do? And what would that work look like? And what would her family look like and what would her parents look like? And that's basically how I came up with Leveled.

Still from Leveled

You did talk briefly about the inspiration behind making the film, but I also wanted to know, apart from that, what was it like when you were starting to write it down? Were there any specific visual elements that inspired you into the making?

I love Greta Gerwig's Little Women screenplay. It is one of my favorite screenplays. I read it very often. I think it's really brilliantly written, but also because I love the story of Little Women, and it's just about all these young women, who are just going through their own challenges during this period in our history.

I thought, okay, that is something that as a South Asian female Muslim I've gone through. I've had family living with us for years. I've had like 3 to 4 generations of women living under the same home. And it was pretty cool growing up with that experience. So that really played into Leveled.

On the other hand, writing it in terms of tone, on how I wanted to portray Safa, who's the protagonist… I really wanted to create a protagonist that was relatable, that could defy gender, culture, religion. Yes, she wears a hijab. Yes, she comes from this  almost traditional family in some ways, and modern family in some ways. But how can I make that relatable to someone who isn’t the same gender and doesn't come from the same cultural background or religious background? That was really important to me. That to me, it was about creating this nuanced character that is very much like myself in a lot of ways. I've had people watch the film and be like, oh my God, like, I can totally relate to her. And they haven't had the same background as her. 

In terms of like, visually, I am, I am obsessed with Spike Lee. He's someone I've really looked up to. From a director's standpoint. I really, really wanted to incorporate these really urban, raw moments in the film. So there are these like, exterior shots that take us, like someone who's from the wrong side of the tracks to the right side of the tracks, whatever that means, to moments where there's certain shots that I took a chance with that I wanted to have in the film, that I was inspired by a lot of his films. Do the Right Thing was one of them. 

Color was very important to me in this film. And if you really take a closer look, there's a lot of pink tones, a lot of blush. I love that's one of my favorite colors, but that's just such a calming and peaceful color too. I really wanted Safa to be associated with that color.

When you were thinking of the visual aspects of this film, did you already had the color palette in your mind?

As a writer, because I feel like I'm a writer first, I really just go to the script and I write these characters for what they are. These visions come to me, and I'll take note of them. When it came time for pre-production and I had a long time to prepare, I was very specific with the color and the tone. That's kind of how I approach all of my projects. It was something that I worked with my DP on before we went to camera. We worked with the lighting department before we went to camera, and they were able to create that perfect moment in each scene for me.

Post is a very different process. It's almost like you're redoing the film on another level. Working with my colorist and just exploring how those pink tones could, at times, affect certain shots was something that I didn't expect. That was a learning moment. But I had such a great team that they were able to help me see my vision to life.

Still from Leveled

My next question has two parts. The first part of it is how was pre-production? And then the second part, what kind of advice would you give out to emerging filmmakers who are just starting out?

In terms of pre-development, when I created or wrote Leveled, I did want to figure out if this was something that I could take to screen. I knew in my heart I could, but it was my first real big production with this budget. I submitted it to various screenplay competitions. And, when I started getting some of the accolades, that was a confirmation to me that what I was feeling inside is true and I want to take this to screen. It just so happened that it was around Covid and it was challenging to figure out how I was going to navigate this landscape because I was quite new to the industry, so I didn't know as many people.

So connecting with people online, learning about the process. What was really great is I had a background in digital media, so I brought a lot of that business sense to the project management part, of creating in terms of pre-development. And, that is kind of how I worked on Leveled, just kind of learning and understanding and figuring out. 

I learned that it's okay to ask questions. It's okay to not know exactly how things work. It can be really intimidating. A lot of my friends in film school really helped me understand, okay, this is what you need to do. Another element to making this film was to create your tribe, rely on people who you can trust. I'm all about feedback. I'm all about making sure that every step that I'm working on is headed in the right direction. For me, preparation and planning was so important. So that was a key element.

My advice to emerging filmmakers is to just not stop. If you feel stuck, that's okay. That's almost like a good sign. That means that you are on the right track. You just have to find a solution. And I think that's kind of the complications or challenges that we have in this industry, is that there's no one way of making a film. If you surround yourself with the right people and you know what your goal is and you set those goals and you align those in the intention that you have, as a storyteller with those goals, I think you're going to be okay. 
For me, my goal was to create a story that could change the narrative for young Muslim girls. The way that they see themselves is normalized on screen, because that's just something I never had. That was something that just kept me going. I'm not going to say it was easy. It was definitely challenging. And it was a learning experience. But I think every project you work on  there will be something new that you learn about yourself. 

Which filmmakers have really inspired you when it comes to your own work or when it comes to telling stories, the ones that you really want to tell.

I mentioned Greta Gerwig, I just think she's a brilliant writer. I'm such a nerd writer. So I love,  love reading scripts that really speak to me like her. I love Spike Lee like he has been. He's just so OG to me. He just knows how to make a film happen, and he is not about all the hoopla and making it Uber big. It's just about the story. And that's really important to me. As a storyteller, I also really love, just last year at TIFF, Zaheer Khan, I love his work. I love Saim Sadiq, Joyland. It was just perfection to me. I think there's just certain creators that are just doing things that are just so inspiring to me.I love Mindy Kaling. I think there's just so many people, I don't want to name just one. For me, I think what's important is, staying true to the story and really looking at people who are doing it differently and out of the box, but still being able to get to the meat of the story.

I really believe, if you don't have a good script, if your story has holes in it, if your story doesn't have a beginning, middle and end – yes, I am definitely a Save the Cat girl. A lot of filmmakers that I've been name dropping here, they all know what story telling is for me and so many more.

Queen of My Dreams is another example. Fawzia, who just took this concept and put it on screen and it was just so beautifully made. John Hughes, I love his storytelling.

What do you have next for you?

I am working on the development of my feature for Leveled right now. Packaging that, trying to look for funds, trying to take that to camera. I just got out of the Rising Voices program, and I learned so much from that program and was able to bring this feature script to life.

I'm also working on a short film called Lavenders in Bloom that is a very different story. A little bit more magical realism in it. So those are the two films that I'm working on, and I have a series in development as well. And a book that I'm actually hoping to have published very soon that I have been working on for the last four years.

That’s amazing stuff, excited to see them. My last question. What was the best advice that you received while you were on this journey of filmmaking?

The best advice I received is going to be complicated to understand. But if you know, you know, it's on one hand, it's okay to not be okay and not know. Sometimes what it is that is next. But at the same time, prepare and plan and set goals for yourself. I think that's really, really important because you can get really lost in this industry and really caught up with things that might not align with what you originally intended to do when you came, and entered this, this, amazing, crazy, wild industry.

But when you have goals and you prepare and you plan and you set these milestones for yourself, you're constantly working towards something.

Another advice that I got from my mentor, Tricia Fish. She is a screenplay writer. She told me to write the stories that I want to see and not be afraid to do that. I always hold that close to my heart, because every time I'm about to work on a new script I can get lost in my head trying to figure out which direction at times you want to go with. Then I center myself. I have it literally on my board in front of my desk, “what story do you want to see?” That's how simple it is. So those were some of the best advices I got.

I knew that I needed to tell that story. I didn't wait for someone to give me the green light. I just greenlit it myself. That's the beauty of being a filmmaker or being a storyteller. And once you prepare and you have everything planned out, when that fund comes, it's almost like you manifested that.

Interview by Breakthroughs Board Member Daraksha Rehman

*This article has been edited for clarity

Filmmaker Spotlight: Christina Ienna, Gemma

CHRISTINA IENNA is an award-winning cinematographer and filmmaker based in Toronto. She has an extensive background in commercial, documentary and narrative production. She also sits on the Board of the Canadian Society of Cinematographers.

In her fifteen years of industry experience, Christina has filmed all over North America with companies like TOURISM CANADA, AMAZON, LIFETIME, PIXAR, CBC, THE GLOBE & MAIL, VICE and UNIVERSAL MUSIC. She spent the early part of her career working in Alberta and British Columbia before moving to Toronto. Christina leads with great curiosity, finding stories in the small moments and details that make up the human experience.

Gemma's beautiful. There's something very evocative about it and really effervescent and, and of course, it's stunning to look at. When I first watched it, I was struck by the thematic similarities with your first film, which I didn't expect, because Handmade is a doc and Gemma is narrative. Can you speak a little bit about the connection between the two stories, and what draws you to these themes?

Well, I didn't notice that, but thank you. Is it because it's just like the actual creativity of being an auteur and creating everything from scratch?

It's the pursuit of excellence in that task. What is ambition? What is success? What is satisfying to oneself? Pushing oneself in that way?

I find that magnetic because I relate to it. I pursued a very male dominant career myself as a cinematographer. It was very difficult to do that type of craft, and you had to go at it alone, hoping that some people would mentor you along the way.

At the end of the day, it's really up to you to learn your craft and get good at it. I knew really early on that this is what I wanted, but I still had to take like a big windy loop to get there. And that's how I started directing, too. Because I had to produce my own content to show that I could shoot, and be as good a cinematographer as anybody else because no one was hiring me to do it.

Thematically, I explored the idea that we often pressure ourselves to be good at hobbies, but they don't need to be something that you're amazing at. They're just something that should bring you joy. A lot of people have this idea that their hobbies have to serve them in some kind of way. I think it's just supposed to be a cathartic thing, that you find comfort and creativity in, and without the pressure of everyday life, like making a paycheck from it.

There's a little undertone of ADHD, too, as I'm recently discovering my place on the spectrum. Many of us are trying a lot of things, discovering new hobbies, and never sticking with them because of distractions in our lives.

It's a little play on the commentary on mental health. If you want to be good at something, you have to stick with it a little bit. And sometimes people struggle with that as well.

I also liked the challenge of talking about [Gemma] as a person solely moving throughout the world, trying to figure out who she is without outer influence.

Still from Gemma

How has your extensive experience as a DP informed your approach as a director?

I think it's important, in whatever role you choose, to try a few roles, because you’ll have a deeper understanding of how your crew is functioning and telling the story from their point of view. That really helps me understand their creative process and their thinking.

As a DP, I'm editing in my head – I have editing experience too – I can visually see how a script is going to lay out when I'm reading it, [but I'm also getting different perspectives from different directors, too. A lot of directors don't get to see other directors at work the same way. 

It's really interesting to do that flip in my brain when I'm doing both at the same time. I didn't have to go and have a conversation, I felt a little crazy. But it was quite funny. Because I was like, “oh, no, I have to do this shot, then I have to pick up this, and then this has to transition here.” I was able to move through things quicker, but at the same time, it is nice to have that partner to creatively split duties. 

[Working with actors] was a challenge for me because I don't get to talk to the actors much as a cinematographer. That was a cool experience to have more one-on-one time and work through the process with my amazing actress, Talia, who just, oh my gosh, if we did not have her, I don't think the film would have happened because she was just ready to do whatever I told her to do. We literally threw tennis balls at her! But she wanted to go again, even though I already felt bad throwing tennis balls at her the first time. She brought so much energy throughout.

And my team was amazing, working with your friends is awesome. And the fun fact is, I had the crew bring in their own hobbies. So the set is littered with everyone's hobbies, as well.

What filmmakers have inspired you?

I have a laundry list. I'll list a few names in a minute, but for me, I like when, either as a cinematographer or director, the camera is truly part of telling the story, it's not a distraction, it's an asset. 

Some of my favourites are Sarah Polley, Jordan Peele, Wes Anderson, Bong Joon Ho, Darren Aronofsky, Spike Lee, Coen brothers for directors, Roger Deakins, as you know, he is a god among us, a person of photographers. Him and his partner, James. A lot of people don't know this: James’ wife has a huge impact on his career because she takes care of a lot of his admin, and she goes to all his lens tests. I love that partnership between the two of them. And I'm kind of envious. I wish I had someone like that in my corner. Helping my career as a cinematographer so that I could just be a cinematographer and create.

Emmanuel Lubezki, Neville Kid who is really cool. He's shot a lot of projects that I love. Rachel Morrison, Susan Lavelle, Reed Morano, Hoyte van Hoytema, like, all these are incredible cinematographers that have shot epic films.

The partnership there in the storytelling is awesome. That's what I'm looking for as both a director and cinematographer is finding my own DP or my own director, to have a beautiful little courtship with and creating a film. It's a lot like dating.

Still from Gemma

What advice would you give to an emerging filmmaker just starting out?

If you're just starting out, the best thing you can do is be present and be observant and just absorb as much as you possibly can whenever you're able to get on a film set. 

The biggest thing that's going to get you your next job is showing initiative and proactiveness. You don't need to know everything, but your attitude and your approach is what people are looking for when you're starting out.

Create your own opportunities and collaborate with other people that are also seeking to do the same. Find those people and make something, investing in people before gear is super important because those relationships are going to grow. As you grow and their success and their knowledge now becomes part of your success and knowledge and vice-versa. 

And because you're new, this is the time to actually make mistakes and really learn from them, because the stakes are lower and you don't have a huge client or millions of dollars on the line. So you can mess around. You have that luxury that a lot of us that are working for a paycheck don't.

What is next for you?

I shot a few short narrative projects over the summer, so I'm waiting for those to be done so I can go into a color grade session with those. I'm [also] waiting to have a couple documentaries get greenlit. I’m really excited for some of those because there's a bit of travel involved and the topics are really cool, and a lot of them are very women centric. I can't talk about them, but I'm hoping to be able to share them in a few months once I start shooting. 

Still from Gemma

Interview by Breakthroughs Board Member Michelle D'Alessandro Hatt

*This article has been edited for clarity

Filmmaker Spotlight: Nelie Diverlus, Ninth Step

NELIE DIVERLUS is an emerging writer and director. Born in Florida, her love of art blossomed amongst a large family of many artists. Most recently, her work has been featured in Breakthroughs Film Festival and St. John’s International Women’s Festival, in addition to working for recognized production networks as Telefilm and the Canadian Film Centre. With her thick Haitian roots, Nelie wishes to revolutionize cinema in ways that spark creativity and hope within the artist in all of us.

Can you tell us a bit about the inspiration behind the film? Why this story right now? 

Well, Ninth Step was born from my own personal experience with an extended family member who, just because of his life experiences and his life choices, I was unable to meet. There was a point in time in which he was vying to meet us, but my family had cut him off.

I wasn't able to meet him because of that. And this inspired me to think about what it must be like for those that are incarcerated to be cut off from their own family members, and to not have access to their loved ones and still trying to regain control of that, even post incarceration.

It also just made me think of just like what rehabilitation truly looks like, for those that were incarcerated, and that's who Andre was for me, somebody who is trying to navigate it on his own but is having trouble, both connecting with loved ones, but is also just trying to find his footing from a long life that he endured in prison.

So. Yeah, it's born out of a personal anecdote, but, on a social level as a whole, it made me think of how hard it must be for those that were previously incarcerated to rebuild a life for themselves.

Still from Ninth Step

Building on that, can you speak a bit about how this film deals with gender and masculinity? 

It's a bit of a loose take on the whole notion that men can't cry, men can't feel, you know, and the level of vulnerability that has been kind of stolen from a lot of men in society. But it also shows the intergenerational, like the strifes that we deal with, kind of trying to relate to different generations, but also like knowing how things are very cyclical.

The struggles that Darnell is feeling right now in his final year of high school, Andre being an ex-convict, can relate to. And so it explores age as well, like generations and generational patterns, within that as well. I think it just explores vulnerability in a way that masculinity doesn't, is more new to exploring.

The cinematography of the film is so beautiful and textured, and I was really moved by your use of colour. How did you approach the look of the film?

I wanted to have his loneliest moments be blue. I think those were blue and whites and the cool tones were what captured I think loneliness best. So especially the moment where he's at the bus stop. I knew that that was, I wanted that to feel the coldest. I wanted him to feel all his emotions, even him rubbing his hands, you know, blowing air into his hands.

I know that's the moment that he feels the most blue. And I wanted to capture that most at that point.

But I also wanted to, in the scene with him and Yassir, you see some some golds and some yellows as well to spark hope. In that moment, Andre does feel very hopeful about connecting with his former friend. I want it to reflect that there. But then we also still have some blues to remind him that this is still a very lonely journey that he's embarking on. I wanted the contrast of warmth and cool, to kind of reflect how they mirror each other in different ways.

They contrast to each other in varying ways as well. Specific shot wise, I also wanted it to feel, very slow to reflect his reintegration to society. It's going to be a very long journey. And I wanted some very still moments. You know, just along moments of pausing.

Can you tell us a bit about which filmmakers and/or films have inspired you as a director, and whether there were any specific influences for Ninth Step?

Three filmmakers come to mind: Raoul Peck, Agnès Varda and Kelly Fyffe Marshall.

Raoul Peck, from a stance of just being such a strong Haitian filmmaker. I'm Haitian myself. And seeing somebody who has such a staunch, Haitian background paving ways for the rest of us is always something that’s just so beautiful to see. I remember watching I Am Not Your Negro for the first time and just being like, “I cannot believe one of me is making a film that,” remarkable.

And Agnès Varda, I remember watching Cléo de Cinq à Sept for the first time, in class a few years ago, and just being amazed at her level of… it was her that coined using your cinematography to write, like using it as a pen, sort of. I think I got the slowness and the stillness through her filmography as well.

Kelly Fyffe Marshall, I think is incredible in so many regards. But, I remember watching Black Bodies and just seeing how significantly portrays Black masculinity as well, and just Black identity in general and seeing it portrayed so beautifully on screen, knowing how Blackness has been portrayed on screen. Seeing the ways that she does it so, so, so effectively is something that's just so nice to see. Seeing just a Black female director paving the way for us is always so incredible, especially as a Black Canadian filmmaker, too.

Those are the three directors that come to mind in general that have shaped the ways that I think about film, the ways that I write for film, the ways very direct for film.

When thinking about when writing this film originally, I thought, specifically this episode of Euphoria with Rue and Ali, when she was dealing with her addictions and she was struggling to mend her own personal relationships. She had such insightful conversation in a diner booth with Ali. And Ali was also dealing with trying to mend his own personal relationship with his child. That sparked such inspiration for Ninth Step, seeing the ways and somebody who has kind of left, or is trying to leave a life of turmoil and trying to mend their own personal relationships with their family members, and how difficult that is, and how much of life you miss out on when you are just dealt really bad cards. Just a scene in the TV show that just like, opened my mind up to a whole world of topics that we can discuss within film. That's the one, I think, honestly, that inspired it so much. Any other example I can think of pales in comparison to how much I got inspired from that one scene.

Still from Ninth Step

What advice would you give to an emerging filmmaker just starting out?

You'll hear this a million times, but it's a marathon, not a race. You never have to fear getting started right away after graduating. Or even if you're not in school, just like when you're just starting in the film industry, you don't have to have it all together in your first year. It's going to take some time. You should just be really patient with yourself, because sometimes you take two steps forward and three steps back. And that's just kind of the way that it's built. Try as best as you can to not get trapped in comparing yourself to others. This is kind of a message to myself as well. If it means genuinely taking a step away and just focus on yourself and not looking at who's behind or ahead of you, whoever they are, will help you to correct your own path and correct your own craft and do whatever you have to do to make sure that your your path is secure for yourself.

It's also about, like Issa Rae said, networking across networking, not networking above. It is really helped by community as well. So understanding that kind of we're all in this together, we're all trying to navigate together. And even if that means sometimes somebody might be two steps out of you, that doesn't mean that you'll never advance further. They often times will help you advance further, as well. So it's all about understanding that everybody has their own path but it's always best navigated together.

What is next for you?

I've been working a bit in unscripted. I've found a niche in crafting stories that literally make something out of nothing, I think is really, really cool. But on a scripted format, I am writing some scripts in the meantime. Right now, I'm focused on assisting others on projects, I'm taking a step back and making sure that I'm gaining more knowledge on other areas of production as well. A lot of learning in this phase of my life. But I do see myself definitely in the near future getting back into the short form landscape.

Still from Ninth Step

Interview by Breakthroughs Board Member Hayley Rivier-Gatt

*This article has been edited for clarity

Filmmaker Spotlight: Emily Ryder, Alfie

Emily Ryder is a Toronto-based writer and director who is passionate about telling stories that explore the complexity of intergenerational relationships through the lens of queer becoming and womanhood. In 2022 they were awarded the Emerging Filmmaker Award by the UN Women USA GCC and were selected as one of ArtworxTO’s 52 Emerging Artists. Their work has been recognized by institutions like the Canadian Society of Cinematographers, Cinema Audio Society, & the Canadian Cinema Editors Association, and their short films have screened internationally at festivals like Edinburgh International Film Festival, St John’s International Women’s Film Festival, & Toronto’s Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival. Emily is currently in development on a number of short form projects, including her next short film, Mothering, which is being generously supported by The Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto, Charles Street Video, & Mississauga Arts Council. Looking ahead, Emily hopes to continue to develop her creative voice within the landscape of contemporary Canadian film, television, and media, & when it’s not her turn to speak, she hopes to use her diverse skillset to amplify the voices of her peers. Emily’s film Alfie was part of Breakthroughs’ 2022 Reflections program, and won the Audience Choice Award.

Could you talk a bit about your own background as a filmmaker/artist?

Growing up, I lived in a household that was very supportive of the arts, which eventually led to my path of becoming a filmmaker. I had no idea as a kid or as a teenager that that could even be a job, but my parents were very encouraging of things – they signed me up for piano lessons, they let me get involved in community theatre, I took visual art classes at the local community centre. I feel like I was really blessed in that way, just very, very lucky to have grown up in a family that wanted to support the arts. Eventually when it came time to pick a path after secondary school, after high school, I initially decided to study Math and I very quickly realized that that was a horrible decision. I had always been involved in theatre in high school, that had become my favourite thing, and I loved English class. I just loved storytelling so much and I guess, even though I did like Math – and I still think Math is a very beautiful field – I quickly realized it wasn’t the right path for me because I realized that storytelling was what I needed to dedicate my life towards. I also wasn’t sure what that meant, but I had a friend who was in film school and who spoke really highly of it. She was one of the people that knew since she was like 12 that she wanted to be a filmmaker. I guess I dealt with a little bit of imposter syndrome before jumping into it because there were these people who had always known, so how do I know that this is for me? But that was kind of my path as an artist. I went to film school and I graduated a year ago.

Still from Alfie

Where did the inspiration come from for Alfie? What inspired you to tell that story in particular?

I’m really inspired by my family’s own history and the kind of quieter stories that come from my parents’ generation and my own as well. With Alfie, it was in part based on my uncle’s childhood, growing up gay during the Quiet Revolution in Montréal, as well as my own experience coming to terms with my own queer identity and navigating a world that isn’t necessarily very kind to people who are different. I grew up in Catholicism, I went to church every Sunday, I went to Catholic school and there wasn’t this openness to people who were different. With Alfie I really wanted to tell a story about hope and about perseverance and accepting who you are, and a bit of maybe the mourning that comes with that. When you grow up in a world and you’re told that this is going to be what your life is going to be, and you figure out quite young that that isn’t going to work out, that you aren’t going to become that person, there’s a level of, I think, mourning that you feel for that life that you’re never going to have. But there’s also, of course, the joy and the wonder of the life you will have. So I wanted to just explore a story that balanced those things – family expectations and being your own individual.

What is the message you wanted to get across through Alfie?

From the beginning, the thing that was our guiding light with all of the decisions we were making as a film crew was that we wanted to tell a story that showed that young queer children had the agency and the power to write their own narratives and control their own futures. Dealing with kids – and they were so young, both of them, and the characters were so young – it was also important to really embody the childlike wonder that comes with self-discovery at that age and show the joy of it, as well. Never forget that there is joy, it’s not all scary.

Who are some of your favourite filmmakers and what work have you been watching recently that resonated with you or that you would recommend?

I’m a huge fan of Céline Sciamma – practically everything that she’s put out. I saw her latest film, Petite Maman, at TIFF last year and generally, I think all of her feature films deal with queer identity, but this one didn’t. It was just posing this question, like, what would it be like if you were to meet your parents when they were your age? Or to meet your mom when she was your age? That’s a question I’ve always wondered, myself, and it just felt so insane to watch onscreen without even knowing that the film was going to be about that and to see that concept explored. Some of her work also directly inspired Alfie – her feature film, Tomboy, was a major influence, especially for the way that it captured its lead character, who’s a young trans boy, very empathetically. I find a lot of queer and trans cinema is very othering with the cinematography, and the gaze coming from behind the camera is very cis, very heteronormative and it just gives this othering experience. It really separates you from the people that you’re supposed to be empathizing with, whereas [Céline’s] work in Tomboy, I felt, there are just these quiet scenes where [Mickaël, the main character] is standing in the bathroom and just looking at himself in the mirror. There’s no cut to close-up or hyper-, hyper-close-up of the face or anything; you’re kind of allowed to just look at Mickaël the way that Mickaël looks at himself, and I love that. 

I’m also a huge fan of Emma Seligman. Her debut feature, Shiva Baby, is so brilliant and hilarious. I’d definitely recommend everyone to watch it. I think she’s also working on a new feature now, her second, I think it’s called Bottoms. But yeah, the way she explores bisexuality in film I really love because I don’t think that there is much bisexual representation in film. And she infuses humor with these really great existential questions about womanhood, and what our relationship to sex is, where we belong in this big patriarchal equation.

TIFF had a Nordic women filmmaker series on in the last few months, so I saw a bunch of movies there and I came across work by Iram Haq, who’s a Norwegian-Pakistani screenwriter and director. I loved everything she did, too – I Am Yours and What Will People Say. Just kind of capturing flawed women, women who make terrible choices and humanizing them. At the end of the day they’re still people and still deserving of our empathy and our compassion. I feel like a lot of times, women onscreen have to live up to perfect archetypes and so I’m just a fan of any filmmaker that tries to subvert that, and tries to show you women who aren’t making the best choices.

Still from Alfie

What has been the best piece of advice you’ve received so far in your filmmaking journey?

I think the best advice I’ve gotten is to watch as many films, especially short films, as I possibly can, without overburdening myself. You need to also have a life in order to write things that are interesting. So I guess it’s kind of two fold. One, really take time to consume film and films that are by directors that maybe you haven’t ever heard of or from countries whose national cinema you aren’t familiar with. Just expand your own palate because it’ll just make you a better filmmaker and a more literate filmmaker. And on the other side of that is, have a life outside of film. Maintain your relationships and just make sure that you’re taking care of yourself in that way, because it can be so easy to just be so absorbed in any career. But if your goal is to write something that speaks truth to humanity, you need to be out there living your life and be experiencing humanity. You can’t just be holed up and watching movies and writing all the time, you need to go out and live too.

What is next for you?

I’m working on a new short film – it’ll be my first short film outside of film school. It’s currently titled, Mothering, and it’s being supported by a few great local organizations like Charles Street Video, LIFT (the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto), and the Mississauga Arts Council. So that’s really exciting to know that [these organizations] have some faith in the story I want to tell, and want to see it happen. It's a short film, like I said, and it explores my own experience with compulsory heterosexuality and how that was compounded growing up as a teenager in a Catholic school setting. It’s also a meditation on the imperfect ways that we carry the weight of trauma while also having to take care of those who are responsible for our trauma. So it’s heavy but I’m really excited to dig more into it in the coming months.

Still from Alfie

Interview by Emily Ferguson

*This article has been edited for clarity

FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT: ZINNIA NAQVI, Seaview

Zinnia Naqvi is a visual artist based in Toronto and Montreal whose work is based in documentary practice and uses a combination of photography, video, archival footage and installation. Born and raised in Pickering, Toronto, Naqvi’s interest in photography and storytelling led her to pursue a BFA with Honours in Photography from Ryerson University and an MFA in Studio Arts from Concordia University. Naqvi’s work has been shown in Toronto at the Ryerson Image Centre, Gallery 44, the Koffler Gallery and Regent Park Film Festival. It has also been shown internationally at Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Buenos Aires, Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Uppsala International Short Film Festival and the International Institute of Contemporary Art and Theory in Mangalia, Romania. Naqvi’s practice often questions the relationship between authenticity and narrative, while dealing with larger themes of post-colonialism, cultural translation, language, and gender. Her film Seaview was part of Breakthroughs’ Best of BFF shorts program in 2021. 

Tell me about your background and early life and how it influences you today

I grew up in Pickering, Toronto. I had an interest in photography and completed my first film during my undergrad at Ryerson. I had an interest in photojournalism at first, which is synonymous to documentary filmmaking.  So when I started studying image-based practices I learned that I like to work slowly and take my time to create projects. I also like to work with personal family archives, which have led to a lot of my projects so far.  I started working with family archives really early in my practice. This really got the ball rolling and I started to think about different themes like migration, citizenship and nationalism and additionally growing up in the suburbs has found its way in the work that I do. 

Still from Seaview

What made you drift towards filmmaking from photography? 

I see filmmaking and photography as adjacent to one another. I see myself as an artist first and foremost and not particularly a filmmaker. When deciding to attempt the project Seaview I intended to take a lot of photographs and it was going to be a photography project but the whole experience encouraged me to think about the complexity of going back to “home” - Karachi Pakistan. A place that I should be able to call home but felt like I could not relate to. I started to photograph and also watched a lot of experimental films while I was there. This made me realize that I could use a lot of components of filmmaking to enhance storytelling through images, sound, text, movement and this allowed me to capture a lot more of the experience. While I thought I would go into filmmaking completely, I ended up doing masters in photography as well and continued to make films of my liking on the side. So I still like to work in both.

What is the core message you want to tell people through your films?  It is a documentary style, but also very poetic and you accentuate stillness. What are you trying to tell people through stillness, particularly in Seaview?

I like to leave room to make the audience come to their own conclusions and decisions and impressions. Giving space to the audience can be a visual break and allow you to gather your thoughts. I don’t think there are any singular core messages through my films. For me, it’s about talking about the nuances and complexities of these kinds of experiences. Handling these many issues at once that encompass one experience is difficult and film is an excellent medium to do that with so many elements to it. It gives it layers to talk about aspects of one experience all together. So there is no core message but I do tackle a lot of similar themes. Each project is a stand-alone thesis. 

Still from Seaview

What films inspired you?

With Seaview one of the biggest inspirations came from The Exception and The Rule by Karen Mirza and Brad Butler. They had a lot of experimental videos that were made in Karachi where they talk about all the things that they wish they shot when they were there. This is very common with documentary filmmaking. You need to get coverage of everything but also be able to document something different about the same subject and this is something that I am very interested in. Films like Close Up by Abbas Kiarostami, which was a big influence on my new film, and filmmakers like Onyeka Igwe and Sanaz Sohrabi - a lot of people who work with archives and gestures basically. 

Who are some of your favourite filmmakers? 

More than filmmaking it was image-based practices that inspired me growing up. Growing up, I mostly thought I would be a writer more than anything, because it was always about telling the story in whatever medium. I knew that I had a lot to say but I was also a shy kid which made saying things with words very intimidating, so artwork really helped me express myself. It allowed me to be direct but still allowed me to be experimental or visual. 

What is next for you?

A narrative short is in the making and this is the first of its kind for me so far. I just wrapped up on it and it was made for gallery representation.  I plan on submitting it to the festival circuit. I am also teaching part time at Ryerson and University of Toronto.  

Any advice for filmmakers starting out? 

Don’t be afraid to stick to your vision. I just wrapped up a photography mentorship at BIPOC Film & TV and I am collaborating with my mentee on a new project. So reach out to community-based opportunities near you. I didn’t attend film school; I preferred working by myself so even when I started out making documentary films I worked on different aspects of my projects by myself, like editing and so on. Don’t be afraid of things you don’t know and get your hands into everything, especially at the beginning. Later, when I received a grant I was able to hire people to help me with aspects like sound and other professional expertise. 

How do you keep creative and artistic integrity in your projects? 

Keep the integrity of the piece alive through the different aspects of filming, whether it’s through sound, editing or lighting. And more importantly, keep believing in your stories.

Still from Seaview

Interview by Caroline Manjaly

*This article has been edited for clarity

FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT: TERRIL CALDER, REPERCUSSIONS

Terril Calder is a Métis artist, born in Fort Frances, Ontario, Canada currently residing in Toronto. She attended The University of Manitoba's Fine Art Program as a Drawing major with a focus on Performance Art (with Sharen Alward) & Film Studies (with George Toles). Her work has strongly influenced many Indigenous filmmakers and a new generation film; Spotted Fawn aka Amanda Strong and Michelle Latimer were both mentored and/or assisted by Terril in their animated work. Compelled by the love of Hybrid Media and Fusion Art she currently experiments with the amalgamation in her Stop Frame Animated films that she writes, directs, crafts and animates. The films screen Nationally and Internationally and have received attention, most notably an Honorable Mention at The Sundance Film Festival and at Berlinale a Canadian Genie Award Nomination as well as TIFF’s top ten list in 2011 for “Choke” a short she animated and co-created with Michelle Latimer. In 2016 she was awarded the Ontario Arts Council's K.M Hunter award for her work in Media Arts.

Terril is the writer, animator and director of Repercussions, a touching animated film that examines the link aboriginal people have to the Canadian lands history. Join us on September 30 at 7pm EST for an online screening and livestream talkback with Terril, part of BFF’s Behind the Lens Online Series.

What inspired you to tell this story?

There were three things. #1 I was fascinated with the idea that all of our current cities in Canada were once the sites of Indigenous cities. Beautiful places on the land were always that way and attracted people to gather there. We had our own marketplaces and trading posts that were replaced and we were displaced. I knew this. I just never really visualized it before.  #2 I was curious about our physical connection to the earth. When life is overwhelming, planting yourself down on the ground physically tends to ground you emotionally. #3 How grounding yourself in the dirt is seen as degradation by colonial systems and how those systems fail to truly understand people outside of those systems. I imagined trying to change those systems from the inside by learning their ways and making "change" that way. I've lately come around to thinking that we just need to dismantle those systems all together.

Still from Repercussions

What’s the core message that you wanted to convey to your audience through this film?

That it is not us that needs to change, it is those systems that do not understand us.

What is the best advice you received when you were just starting out?

It was in art school and it holds true to this day. It was that everyone has a story to tell. It is your job as an artist not to sympathize and tell a story...Empathy is a greater tool in art. We are experts at our own experience so spend a lifetime trying to unpack that and run your own race. The art that comes out of you is yours and if you try to make art that you admire it's a cheap representation of the original. Don't emulate ideas...incubate, ruminate and create stories that only you can tell and know they have value.

Terril Calder in studio

What are some of the most important ways people can support your work as well as other work by IBPOC women and non-binary artists?

Listen. Lol I want to stop there but I'll expand. I find colonial thinking always lends itself to people wanting to be experts in understanding marginalized groups. They want to drop in and become educated through a film, book, talk with the sheer purpose to somehow be cleansed of their shame of privilege. Therefore they are allies and they can shame others. It’s hierarchical thinking. It's ok to sit in that shame and acknowledge it and to confess that you don't know once in a while. As a person who had to learn their colonial systems I feel it's fair that they sit back and feel uncomfortable and have to learn mine. They can support me by being honest and they can support all of us just by listening. 

Who are some of your favourite filmmakers both emerging and established and/or some work you've been watching recently that you strongly recommend?

I've put my mind to watching every Studio Ghibli film on Netflix during Covid. There is something there for me beyond the beautiful award-winning work. I'm drawn to how the culture is integrated into the story without there being a manufactured set agenda. Lately, I find there is a real push from the non-Indigenous film industry for our films to be educational and to unpack our sacred stories and traditions. This request fortifies the need for Indigenous stories to live in a box....that Cowboys and Indians box..they just want us to write the Westerns to fortify the stereotypes. However, our films like the ones from Studio Ghibli can have themes about what it means to be a human from an Indigenous perspective without falling into racist tropes. I am transported into a different culture and worlds filled with magic and awe. I feel a little altered after watching some of my faves: Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle.

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Catch REPERCUSSIONS as part of BFF’s Behind the Lens Online Screening & Talkback series, screening September 28-30. Join us on Tuesday, September 29th at 7pm EST for a livestream talkback with Terril. Register FREE here.

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FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT: NADINE VALCIN, WHITEWASH

Nadine Valcin is a filmmaker and media artist. She is currently an MFA candidate in the Digital Futures program at OCAD University as well as the Archive/Counter Archive artist-in-residence at Library and Archives Canada. 

Nadine is the writer, producer and director of Whitewash, an experimental film that examines slavery in Canada and its omission from the national narrative. Join us on September 15 at 7pm EST for an online screening and livestream talkback with Nadine and DOP Chris Romeike, part of BFF’s Behind the Lens Online Series.

What inspired you to tell this story?

I became interested in the topic of slavery in Canada through the documentary Tropic North (Tropique Nord) featuring our former Governor General, Michaëlle Jean and directed by Jean-Daniel Lafond. In the film about being Black in Montreal, late historian Paul Femiuh Brown mentioned Angélique, an enslaved African who was accused of setting the great 1734 fire that destroyed half the city. 

I was shocked since I was born and grew up mainly in Montreal and had never known that slavery existed there. I knew about the Underground Railroad and the Black Loyalists, but not about the Africans who had been enslaved on Canadian soil along with many First Nations’ people. I did some research which led to the making of a short drama about Angélique entitled Fire and Fury. It always stayed in the back of my mind to revisit the topic to make a feature film or a documentary. 

Years later, there was a call for an artist’s residency at Osgoode Hall Law School. Since little was written about the enslaved, legal records and court documents are the most telling archives. By that point, I had read The Black Islanders by Jim Hornby about enslaved Africans and their descendants in Prince Edward Island. I proposed to build on his exploration by digging further into the archive and that’s what led to the creation of Whitewash.  

Still from Whitewash

What’s the core message that you wanted to convey to your audience through this film?

People still ignore or deny that slavery existed in this country. The descendants of the enslaved are often invisible as they have, for the most part, assimilated by intermarriage with the white population through generations. We look to America for images of what slavery looked like and can’t imagine how it was articulated in a northern context away from plantations. We tend to forget that there were enslaved Africans in the Northern states whose labour created Manhattan and other big cities. I remember the uproar when Michelle Obama mentioned that the White House was built by slaves. In Canada, they were mainly house servants and would cook, clean, build, repair, toil the land and do other types of labour. 

The first recorded enslaved African on what is now Canadian soil was Olivier Lejeune who arrived in 1628. It’s time to lay to rest the myth that Black people are recent immigrants to this country. Slavery seems far away, but it is at the root of the systemic racism we experience today and the racial capitalism it grew out of.

Still from Whitewash

What is the best advice you received when you were just starting out?

In the documentary world, people tend to be secretive about their projects because they are afraid that someone will steal their idea, which does, at times, happen. Someone can do a project on the same topic, but it doesn’t mean they will approach or tell the story in the same way. This is also true for narrative films. A few years back, two siblings in Quebec each wrote a book about their childhood and both books were made into two totally different films that came out almost at the same time: It’s Not Me, I Swear (C’est pas moi, je le jure) directed by Philippe Falardeau and Mommy Is at the Hairdresser’s (Maman est chez le coiffeur) by Lea Pool. If you look at both of these films, there is no way you would even see the connection. It’s the same family at the same period seen through totally different viewpoints out of which very different narratives emerge. 

All that to say that you shouldn’t be afraid of talking about your projects. It’s important if you’re looking for funding or for crew. You never know who may help you find what you need. It also, ironically, helps protect your idea. The more people know about your project, the more it gets associated with you. Your voice, vision and your perspective are your most important assets as a filmmaker and are what makes any project truly your own. Cultivate and protect them, find allies who align with them, know when to compromise, but also when to stand your ground and fight for them. 

What are some of the most important ways people can support your work as well as other work by IBPOC women and non-binary artists?

It’s difficult to get noticed these days as there is so much content available everywhere. I think festivals and public screenings are important, but often cater to the same small audience. Reach out to your friends that aren’t filmmakers, your family and your broader community and get them to attend a screening with you or an event that relates to a topic they would be interested in. People get used to seeing a lot of big Hollywood films. Canadian films can’t compete in terms of marketing budgets, especially not films by IBPOC women and non-binary artists. Word-of-mouth is crucial for those films to find their audience. Share that social media post about an upcoming screening or the link to a film you think other people should see. 

Who are some of your favourite filmmakers both emerging and established and/or some work you've been watching recently that you strongly recommend?

Daughters of the Dust by Julie Dash and Moonlight by Barry Jenkins are two of my favourite films of all time. They tell stories about the Black experience in ways that differ from the main Hollywood narrative and push the cinematic language to do so. Daughters of the Dust is a period drama set in the Gullah Island off the coast of Georgia where generations of a Black family discuss an upcoming move to the mainland. Its stunning cinematography by Arthur Jafa was an inspiration for Beyoncé’s Lemonade. Moonlight is also beautiful in the way it lights and captures dark skin as well as its unusual portrayal of Black male vulnerability and queerness. I never get tired of watching them. Another film I cherish is Wings of Desire by Wim Wenders for its poetry, its humanity, and its stunning black and white images of Berlin.

On the documentary side, Hale County This Morning, This Evening by RaMell Ros examines Black lives in Hale County Alabama. It’s a very intimate and nuanced portrait that offers very human insights into the experience of two young men over the course of 5 years.

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Catch WHITEWASH as part of BFF’s Behind the Lens Online Screening & Talkback series, screening September 14-16. Join us on Tuesday, September 15th at 7pm EST for a livestream talkback with Nadine and DOP Chris Romeike. Register FREE here.

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BFF 2020 SPOTLIGHT: ALICIA K. HARRIS, PICK

In advance of BFF’s 2020 Online Festival, we will be sharing exclusive interviews with this year’s filmmakers. Get to know their films, their inspirations, and their advice to fellow emerging filmmakers. Check out our interview with Alicia K. Harris, director of PICK.

Alicia K. Harris is CSA-winning filmmaker from Scarborough. She graduated from Ryerson University’s School of Image Arts, where her thesis film won Best Director and Best Production. Her films have been broadcast on CBC, TVO, and at numerous festivals. Alicia is dedicated to sharing the unique stories of Black women.

Congratulations on your 2020 BFF film selection! Can you tell us a bit about your film?

PICK is a short film about a young girl who has to deal with microaggressions on picture day, after wearing her natural hair. It explores the effects of microagressions and systemic racism on youth, and exposes the discrimination Black women face when we wear our natural hair. It’s inspired by my own experiences, growing up with an afro, and being made to feel like I had to have straight hair to be considered beautiful.

Could you tell us more about the visual style of the film, and share some of your inspirations?

The film has a very deliberate visual style -- not showing the lead character’s face until the final moment of the film. I wanted to do this to force the audience to empathize with her, and figure out how she feels, since they will not see her facial expressions and reactions. When we experience microaggressions, even though they seem “small,” they have a huge impact. That impact is not always written on our face, but that doesn't mean that it didn't hurt us.

Still from PICK

What’s the core message that you wanted to convey to your audience through this film?

More now than ever, with the current news cycle being about Black Lives Matter, I want people to understand that Black people face racism every day (and none of what is in the news now, is new). I want the aggressors to understand that what they think is an innocent comment, or question, is ignorant. I want people to be outraged at all levels of racism, not just when Black people get murdered. I want people to understand that what’s even more valuable than sharing on social media, is standing up for Black people in these uncomfortable moments. When a “small” racist action happens, this is where we need our allies to use their voice. Because most of us are pretty tired of fighting this fight on our own. Racism is not a Black issue, and it’s not up to us to fix it.

Still from PICK

What’s next for you? 

I’m making a trilogy about Black hair & identity, and I’m currently working part 2, which is called on a Sunday at Eleven. It’s a blatant celebration of Blackness, our hair as art, and the sisterhood between Black women which transcends the physical world.

What advice would you give to an emerging filmmaker just starting out?

Be yourself. Tell the stories that only you can tell. And especially for marginalized creators -- it’s ok if there’s another film that’s about {insert marginalized experience here}. Yours will be different and from your point of view. Don’t tie your success up in any festival acceptance or rejection. If you are proud of your film, then you did it and will continue to do IT. Every film is a learning experience, and you will grow and improve with every film. Take time to enjoy your rise -- yes dream about the next big thing you will do, but appreciate where you are!

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Catch PICK as part of BFF’s 2020 Online Festival, screening in the Shorts Program In The Family, with a special live-streamed Q&A with Alicia on Friday June 26th at 8pm EST. Join us June 25 - 28, 2020 for screenings, virtual Q&As, panel discussions and more! Get Tickets Today.

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BFF 2020 SPOTLIGHT: ARLEN AGUAYO STEWART & MARGARITA VALDERRAMA, DATE NIGHT

In advance of BFF’s 2020 Online Festival, we will be sharing exclusive interviews with this year’s filmmakers. Get to know their films, their inspirations, and their advice to fellow emerging filmmakers. Check out our interview with Arlen Aguayo Stewart and Margarita Valderrama, director and producer of DATE NIGHT.

Arlen Aguayo-Stewart is a Montreal-born and Toronto-based actor and creator. Date Night is her first stab at directing film. She has an eclectic background in film, theatre, dance, circus, and is fluent in five languages. Some of her acting credits include TAKEN (NBC), In Contempt (BET), On the Basis of Sex, and most notably her starring role in Roads in February that not only won Best First Feature at TIFF but also landed her a Vancouver Film Critics Circle award for Best Actress.

Margarita Valderrama is a Colombian-Canadian actor, writer and filmmaker. She was born in Buenos Aires, raised in Bogotá and Mexico City, and has called Toronto home for over a decade. As an actor, she works in voice over, on-camera and theatre. Her first short film script Date Night won the ACTRA Toronto Shorts Competition last summer and since has been part of film festivals in Canada and the U.S. and most recently the Breakthroughs Film Festival. Currently, she’s part of the 2020 Netflix-BANFF Diversity of Voices Initiative, working on her bilingual limited series Eyes Open | Ojos Abiertos with her co-creator Arlen Aguayo Stewart.

Congratulations on your 2020 BFF film selection! Can you tell us a bit about your film?

Arlen Aguayo Stewart: Date Night revolves around three women: two daughters and their mother, who are separated for a few years of their lives and then later  live together again in adulthood. The mom has actually been diagnosed with a serious cancer and has decided to die with dignity and now her two adult daughters are trying to grapple with that in their own way. But we still get to see the reality of what it's like to move in with your parents again and still encounter the idea of death with the happiness, the sadness, the grossness, the silliness and all the humanity we don't always get to discuss on the regular. This little film is a microcosm of that world, when the mom decides to go on a date. 

What inspired you to tell this story?

Margarita Valderrama: This film and story is inspired by my grandmother and my aunt, both of whom died on their own terms. My aunt had a terminal cancer that she refused treatment for, and my grandmother suffered a stroke at 91. She did have everything in place so that she could die on her own terms surrounded by family. I was very impacted by both of their stories and not just their deaths but their lives. I wanted to explore that and Arlen has also had very similar experiences, so when I approached her to be my co-creator for a larger project we started creating these characters together. We wanted to really look at how to deal with death and it's a conversation that, unless you have a family member or a loved one going through it, it's perhaps not an everyday question. Unfortunately, I think these days it might be a more common question and conversation, which is really sad.  The women in my family inspired this story, and that's why I wanted to write it.

Still from Date Night

The acting in this film is really incredible. Although the entire film takes place in one evening, we are able to learn so much about these characters in a short span of time. Can you tell us a little bit about your own background in acting and how that might have influenced your direction of your characters?

AAS: I think having been on sets from a very young age and then in my other acting life now as an adult, you kind of get to see things that work really well and you also see the things that don't.. As well as having acted, I had PA'd on a set, already been a first AD, and after this project I started to produce other stuff as well. Gaining that perspective from the bottom and from the other side of the lense gave me so much insight into how to structure this story in a way that we get the best work out of everything and that everyone on set feels respected. We really wanted to create a great space on set where people felt comfortable and where they felt comfortable to tell us if stuff wasn't going right for them. 

I really love actors, I love to work with them, I am an actor and so I love to be able to provide everything so that they can do the best work. Getting them to work together and to connect and to get all the awkwardness- because it's always awkward when you have to say your lines and it's like, OK we're shooting right now! And I also love cinema a ton! I had some very specific ideas of maybe not following a super hollywood-ish aesthetic. Taking different angles and if we had more time, more money, there would have been some other kinds of shots in there. But we did what we could with what we had, and I'm really happy with how it turned out.

What advice would you give to an emerging filmmaker just starting out?

MV: Jill Golick gave us some great advice when Arlen and I started embarking on working together and figuring out how to be filmmakers. I had said, “I don't know what to do, I can't apply for all these things, I haven't done anything yet,” and she told me to apply for everything. Just apply for everything, even if you don't think you have all the qualifications. Write a great application and put your heart into it. Don't censor yourself. That was great advice and truly catapulted us because we just started applying for everything. It was because of that that we're here and we're talking to you. We're so excited to show our film and I definitely stand for that advice- just apply for everything!

AAS: There's not just one route to get to where you want to go. Just because something worked for someone else doesn't mean it's going to work for you. Your journey is your own journey and it's going to be hard sometimes and don't let that discourage you. Just keep going. 

Care to share any films you’re inspired by, that our community should check out during this quarantine?

MV: I recommend Mañana a esta hora by Lina Rodriguez who is a Colombian-Canadian filmmaker. It's a really beautiful film. There's also this wonderful documentary called There's Something in the Water that Ellen Page did and I think it's on Netflix now so definitely very informative. It’s a film that reminds us about the communities that the Canadian government continues to ignore.

AAS: Films I recommend are Alles ist gut (All is Well), La Camarista (The Chambermaid), Yomeddine and Quién te cantará. There's also a film I was in called Roads in February which is actually streaming on Vimeo for free right now.

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Catch DATE NIGHT as part of BFF’s 2020 Online Festival, with a special live-streamed Q&A with Arlen on Saturday June 27th. Join us June 25 - 28, 2020 for screenings, virtual Q&As, panel discussions and more! Get Tickets Today.

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BFF 2020 SPOTLIGHT: SONYA CHWYL & ANIK DESMARAIS-SPENCER, BABY TEETH

In advance of BFF’s 2020 Online Festival, we will be sharing exclusive interviews with this year’s filmmakers. Get to know their films, their inspirations, and their advice to fellow emerging filmmakers. Check out our interview with Sonya Chwyl and Anik Desmarais-Spencer, directors of BABY TEETH.

Based out of Victoria, BC, Anik Desmarais-Spencer and Sonya Chwyl have been writing together since 2018. They have worked on numerous film sets as ADs, ACs, PAs, MUAs, and DITs, often as a creative team. Baby Teeth is their first film.

Congratulations on your 2020 BFF film selection! Can you tell us a bit about your film?

Sonya Chwyl: Thank you! We’re really honoured to be part of the festival this year. Baby Teeth follows a woman as she tries to fulfill her mother’s wishes after she passes away.

Anik Desmarais-Spencer: The film is about relationships, specifically navigating complex emotions in familial bonds.

What inspired you to tell this story?

ADS: It stemmed from a conversation I had with a friend about what to do with a body after death. I thought it could be an idea for a film, and I told Sonya about it. She was onboard to make something together. 

SC: We started writing because we both found that idea really interesting - like, what would it look like if someone asked you to carry out their wishes after death yourself, especially if those wishes were unorthodox? And what headspace would you be in during that process?

Still from Baby Teeth

BABY TEETH addresses grief in its many forms - can you tell us more about what you wanted to explore with grief?

ADS: I’d just lost somebody when we started writing the script, so I was really into exploring the idea of reconciling who you knew, and your experiences with them versus who everyone else knew and their final wishes. I remember being very irritated with the arrangements that our family was making for the funeral because it felt really pointless since they were dead, and I realized later on that honouring that person’s wishes brought me a sense of peace. So I liked exploring that in an absurd way. 

SC: I think the story was also a way to explore the sense of grief that comes with growing up and leaving parts of yourself behind, whether intentionally or not. And struggling to figure out how much to cut yourself off from the people and places that made you who you are if they don’t fit in to that new identity. 

What’s the core message that you wanted to convey to your audience through this film?

ADS: Well funnily enough, when we wrote this we thought it would be a dark comedy. We kept laughing and thinking that these scenes would be hilarious, and when we shot them we realized that they were actually pretty somber. So I think as that shifted, we decided to lean into that, and focus on that feeling of resolving the complex emotions our characters were holding. 

SC: That shift was also a testament to our leads, and how seriously they took these characters and their relationships. They did a really great job making it feel real, and because of that the situation has more weight than it did when we thought about it in an abstract way. 

As far as the message, I would second Anik’s answer. Finding peace and being okay with yourself is not a black and white thing. When relationships end or change you don’t always get the resolution you want, but that’s not a bad thing.

Still from Baby Teeth

What’s next for you? 

SC: We’ve been mainly been writing right now, since we can’t film because of the pandemic. We were working on a short that was supposed to go to production in late March… but that obviously didn’t happen. We’re hoping to pick that back up as soon as we can! 

What advice would you give to an emerging filmmaker just starting out?

ADS: Volunteer! You learn by doing, and the film community here is so supportive. I also think having a partner really helps, as I know I can be quite lazy when it comes to pushing myself to meet deadlines, and by working with Sonya, I’m held accountable to meet those goals, since our team can’t move forward if I’m dragging my feet. 

SC: Yes! Put yourself outside of your comfort zone and try to get to know people. There are lots of talented people out there who want to make things, and if you find folks you can vibe with you’ll be set. Focus on small goals, and learn what you don’t know by doing it. Try to channel the blind self-confidence of a straight white cis man. 

Care to share any films you’re inspired by, that our community should check out during this quarantine?

SC: Honestly I have been watching shorter stuff in quarantine… I binged all of BoJack Horseman the other week, and that surprised me by how good it was in terms of storytelling and characterization. I generally like smaller films that explore relationships between one or two people - Swiss Army Man is one of my favourites because of that, and also just how batshit crazy the premise is. I recently watched Honey Boy, which blew me away. And we’ve been working on a sci-fi script and I keep referencing High Life, so I’d have to add that too. Claire Denis and Robert Pattinson are both wild. 

ADS: I’ve also been binging a lot of shorts from festivals while in quarantine. I recently saw The Peanut Butter Falcon and loved everything about it, especially the cinematography. The Fall by director Tarsem Singh is also one of my all time favourites. It’s such a beautiful, well told story, and the graphics are gorgeous. Weirdly enough, The Making of ‘The Labyrinth’ on Youtube always brings me to tears, because it’s such a testament to human creativity.

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Catch BABY TEETH as part of BFF’s 2020 Online Festival, with a special live-streamed Q&A with Sonya and Anik on Sunday June 28th. Join us June 25 - 28 for screenings, virtual Q&As, panel discussions and more! Get Tickets Today.

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BFF 2020 SPOTLIGHT: ALEXA TREMBLAY-FRANCOEUR, AFFANNATO

In advance of BFF’s 2020 Online Festival, we will be sharing exclusive interviews with this year’s filmmakers. Get to know their films, their inspirations, and their advice to fellow emerging filmmakers. Check out our interview with Alexa Tremblay-Francoeur, director of AFFANNATO. 

Alexa Tremblay-Francoeur is native from the city of Québec, now residing in Saguenay. It is only near the end of her studies that she starts experimenting with hand-drawn animation, at first with Crayon Rose, Cheveux vert then with Déconstruction and finally with The Passage an official part of the selection of the festival Regard sur le Court-Métrage in 2016. In the same year she completed her baccalaureate in art at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi.

Congratulations on your 2020 BFF film selection! Can you tell us a bit about your film?

First of all, I must explain the title of the film because I get that question a lot. The word Affannato is part of the Italian musical vocabulary, and it means a tone that brings unease or fright to its listeners.

I think it is the best word to describe my short film.

What inspired you to tell this story?

This film was inspired by my childhood experiences when I was learning the violin. I was fascinated by the sound of children having just started to learn this instrument but still playing together. It had its own cacophonous sound, and it was so out of tune.

Still from Affannato

Your film speaks to the very real experience of pressure on artists to perfect their craft.Can you tell us why you decided to portray this experience through a musician attending a music school?

I think in all creative spheres, there is a pressure to perform. It's sometimes an external pressure, but sometimes it's also a pressure that we put on ourselves. I wanted to explore that feeling that all artists feel at least one time in their lives.

Still from Affannato

What’s the core message that you wanted to convey to your audience through this film?

The core message of the film is the experience of pressure on artists, but also, I wanted the audience to feel scared or uneasy watching my movie. It may be weird to say, but I wanted my short film to be a not-so-pleasant experience to watch.

What’s next for you? 

I'm presently working on another short film project, that will discuss the destruction of ancestral houses, that I consider a real problem in my province.

What advice would you give to an emerging filmmaker just starting out?

It's hard sometimes to start a first movie, mostly because of all the excellent short films that already exist.

We, as filmmakers and artists, tend to compare our work to others' all the time. The real advice I must give is, just do it. It's normal to fail, especially for a first movie.

Care to share any films you’re inspired by, that our community should check out during this quarantine?

A great source of inspiration that I have comes mostly for the animated movies made by Studio Ghibli (Hayao Miyazaki).

I also love the work of Laika Studio and Cartoon Saloon. If you like animation, you must check out their work.

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Catch AFFANNATO as part of BFF’s 2020 Online Festival, screening in Shorts Program: What We Make For Us. Join us June 25 - 28, 2020 for screenings, virtual Q&As, panel discussions and more! Get Tickets Today.

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BFF 2020 SPOTLIGHT: CHANELLE LAJOIE, MÉTIS FEMME BODIES

In advance of BFF’s 2020 Online Festival, we will be sharing exclusive interviews with this year’s filmmakers. Get to know their films, their inspirations, and their advice to fellow emerging filmmakers. Check out our interview with Chanelle Lajoie, director of MÉTIS FEMME BODIES. 

A dyslexic 7w6 who does not know her sun sign from her moon sign, Chanelle Lajoie is continuously striving to align her ethics, principals, and goals better than she does her posture. As a Queer Métis Femme living on Treaty 1 Territory, community building is Chanelle's medicine. Rooting and weaving her academic studies, work, and creative passions closely alongside her personal politics aids in merging the communities that reside in each.

Congratulations on your 2020 BFF film selection! Can you tell us a bit about your film?

Big Miigwetch/Thank you! Métis Femme Bodies is a collective narrative amongst those who exist within liminal spaces both as Indigenous and Queer people. The film speaks to individual experiences which weave themselves into a communal voice. We, as Métis Femmes, each disclose our private experiences regarding the ways in which our bodies move through colonial structures, and how these structures perceive us, accept us or don’t, use us or don’t, and the expectations set on us. Métis Femme Bodies is a story that continues to grow beyond the screen and in many other bodies. This story is just one.

What inspired you to tell this story?

This story was one that I have carried with me my entire life. Being born and raised in the heart of the Métis Nation, as a Métis person, has invited me to be witness to the adversaries and triumphs of Indigenous Peoples. This led me to want to better understand how my role, my place, my impact fit into this community, and I found that difficult when feeling isolated as an Indigenous person who was also queer. I refused to believe that I could truly be grappling with these thoughts alone, and from there felt it was necessary to gather with those who shared these sentiments and experiences. The opportunity to create these conversations and transcribe them onto film began with a class project. The course was “Conflict in the Arts” and our professor asked us to create a project that would build and sustain community long after the project had been completed. It was all meant to happen this way.

Still from Métis Femme Bodies

MÉTIS FEMME BODIES is shot in a beautifully intimate way. Can you tell us about how you got your characters to open up on camera? 

Firstly, I would like to give thanks for appreciating the work and the participation of these beautiful people! The individuals who witnessed in the film each responded to a call out made via social media. With Winnipeg being the small city it is, I knew many of these folks in varying degrees. Before meeting I had asked each person three questions: What is it like to exist in your body? How has being Métis influenced your experience in your body? Has being Femme changed this experience at all? I think sharing identities, even with all their variances, our experiences allow for a sense of comfortability and trust. I trusted everyone to share their truth and express boundaries, and they trusted me to honour both. No two sessions were alike, but each began with sharing tea, snacks, and a conversation with promise to share the message our bodies have archived for others who may feel similarly.

What’s the core message that you wanted to convey to your audience through this film?

At the core, this film is meant to showcase the variances in how Métis Femmes appear, and how, with our vast shapes and shades, we can hold paralleled experiences. I also believe it is important to underscore the realization that much of what we may feel isolates us can be the basis of what brings a community together.

Still from Métis Femme Bodies

What’s next for you? 

I was recently accepted into Winnipeg’s MAWA Mentorship Program. With the Help of Jennifer Smith, I will be looking for ways to build on my existing knowledge and skill set with regards to film. I am hoping to develop my voice in directions that are more experimental. I am thrilled to turn new ideas into a visual experience for others to enjoy!

What advice would you give to an emerging filmmaker just starting out?

To anyone with an interest in exploring the medium of film, like myself, please do not let fear stand between you and your project! Trust that your idea, whether it be to amplify your political voice in a visually accessible manner or to expand your creative toolkit, is a brilliant one. Trust your community to share resources, but also trust in your voice to ask questions when you do not know where to start. I often need to remind myself that as a new member of the film community I am not supposed to know everything, and to appreciate every learning opportunity. Remember that rules are meant to be experimented with, and your project can push creative boundaries. I hope it does, and I look forward to seeing where our work goes!

Care to share any films you’re inspired by, that our community should check out during this quarantine?

I would highly encourage folks to take time to watch films centering Black voices and Black experiences. A handful that I have found profoundly moving are The Life and Death of Marsha P Johnson, Get Out, Sorry to Bother You, When They See Us, and 12 Years a Slave.

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Catch MÉTIS FEMME BODIES as part of BFF’s 2020 Online Festival, screening in the Shorts Program: I Am My Home. Join us June 25 - 28 for screenings, virtual Q&As, panel discussions and more! Get Tickets Today.

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BFF 2020 SPOTLIGHT: ISABELLA CARRERA, TIGHT, NO PAIN

In advance of BFF’s 2020 Online Festival, we will be sharing exclusive interviews with this year’s filmmakers. Get to know their films, their inspirations, and their advice to fellow emerging filmmakers. Check out our interview with Isabella Carrera, director of TIGHT, NO PAIN.

Isabella Carrera is an emerging producer based in Toronto. Originally from Brazil, she has a background in Assistant Location Management for film and television. Since arriving in Canada, Isabella has focused on writing, directing and producing student short films, as well as working as a Production Assistant.

Congratulations on your 2020 BFF film selection! Can you tell us a bit about your film?

Tight, No Pain is a short documentary about vaginismus, a condition that makes vaginal penetration extremely painful and, in some cases, even impossible. Through interviews and reenactments, three women at different stages of dealing with the sexual condition share their experience and the impact it had on relationships, self-esteem and body image. The film was entirely developed and filmed in Toronto by a crew consisting mostly of women of colour. 

What inspired you to tell this story?

I experienced vaginismus myself for many years, and it took me a long time to discover what was happening to my body. Doctors disregarded my symptoms as just a high intolerance to pain. I also had difficulty finding information about vaginismus in Portuguese (my first language), and was too embarrassed to discuss the matter with my partner, friends and family. After finally receiving a diagnosis and getting cured, I learned just how common vaginismus is worldwide, and that there are still many members of the medical community who do not believe the condition to be true. As a filmmaker, I felt the responsibility to promote awareness, spark a shame-free conversation around female sexuality and provide support to other women with vaginismus so they can feel less alone during their journey towards treatment.

Still from Tight, No Pain

What drew you to the mixed-media that draws  attention to certain words in your characters’ personal accounts? 

I wanted the audience to feel like they were diving into the women's minds as they recounted their intimate battle with vaginismus. Intercutting interviews with archival material, bold lettering, animation and reenactments makes it easier for viewers to connect with the raw emotions that the women explain onscreen.

Still from Tight, No Pain

What’s the core message that you wanted to convey to your audience through this film?

My intention when making the film was to subvert the idea that women who suffer from sexual conditions like vaginismus are hysterical, weak or too sensitive. I wanted to show that they are strong, intelligent, complex individuals who lead deep relationships and meaningful lives. That their voices should be heard, believed and validated by the medical community like men's are. That they are worthy of love and respect just as much as anyone else. I also hope that viewers leave the film inspired to engage in conversations around sexuality and gender expectations with their partners, children and women in general.

What advice would you give to an emerging filmmaker just starting out?

Learn as much as you can about all areas of filmmaking. Attend networking events, as they are a great way to meet potential mentors and other aspiring filmmakers like you. Read books, watch movies, listen to music and consume news that expands your perspective of society and allows you to grow as a person. And if you are struggling to find your creative voice, look for untold stories in events, themes or social causes that spark your curiosity, ignite your passion and compel you to make the world a better place.

Care to share any films you’re inspired by, that our community should check out during this quarantine?

Softie, St. Louis Superman, Paris Is Burning and Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project are all beautiful documentaries driven by the perspectives of BIPOC protagonists. 

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Catch TIGHT, NO PAIN as part of BFF’s 2020 Online Festival, with a special live-streamed Q&A with Isabella on Thursday June 25th. Join us June 25 - 28 for screenings, virtual Q&As, panel discussions and more! Get Tickets Today.

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BFF 2020 SPOTLIGHT: KOURTNEY JACKSON, WASH DAY

In advance of BFF’s 2020 Online Festival, we will be sharing exclusive interviews with this year’s filmmakers. Get to know their films, their inspirations, and their advice to fellow emerging filmmakers. Check out our interview with Kourtney Jackson, director of WASH DAY. 

Kourtney Jackson is a filmmaker from Toronto. She was the 2018 Emerging Director’s Spotlight winner at the Regent Park Film Festival, where she premiered her experimental short 1 vers[us] 1. Through film, she continues to explore the histories, nuances, and intersections in her ethnic, cultural, and spiritual identity. Wash Day is her second project.

Congratulations on your 2020 BFF film selection! Can you tell us a bit about your film?

Thank you! Wash Day is an expressionistic, experimental documentary that follows three young Black women as they get ready for the day whilst discussing the public perception of their blackness and bodies.

What inspired you to tell this story?

I wrote a poem eons ago that started with the line “If you asked me where to meet me when I felt my strongest / I’d tell you the shower / on Wash Day”. I thought it would be cool to make a film with visuals that catered to the concept of strength and vulnerability and just half-heartedly wrote what that could look like in a notebook I definitely don’t have anymore. When I got an opportunity to pitch a project at the Regent Park Film Festival in 2018, I decided to transform the idea into a documentary that included other voices and perspectives. I’m glad that that’s how the film came to be.

Still from Wash Day

You clearly took a lot of care in the art direction of WASH DAY - can you tell us about how you came up with the looks for each scene?

I wanted the film to be colourful and reminiscent of the bright and colourful hair tools that are sold at beauty supply stores, and so I kept an eye out for objects that could be in frame while shooting. I also bought flowers to accent the frame when I saw fit and used them as a motif for the final sequence of the film. In terms of actual shooting, I didn’t know what my subjects’ homes looked like until I arrived, and so when we were about to shoot, I kind of frantically moved around their rooms with my camera until I was satisfied with a shot. And finally, shooting something on Super 8mm film was something that I'd always wanted to try, and I thought it'd be perfect in capturing the striking image of soap suds on brown skin.

Still from Wash Day

What’s the core message that you wanted to convey to your audience through this film?

I wanted to showcase the differences in the complex relationships black women have with their hair, and bodies in general, and how these evolving relationships are impacted by daily confrontations with racism and misogynoir. I think mainstream conversations around body-positivity and self acceptance have previously failed to consider the pervasiveness of racism, sexism, ableism (the intersections of these -ism’s), and the difficulties that arise when one starts to unlearn the societal messaging they’ve internalized for so long.

What advice would you give to an emerging filmmaker just starting out?

Remember that your unique and authentic voice is your greatest power. Allow yourself to write ‘badly’, and to make ‘bad’ films. Give yourself the space to make mistakes and don’t be hard on yourself when you do (still learning this myself!).

Care to share any films you’re inspired by, that our community should check out during this quarantine?

Mahalia Melts in the Rain is a stunning film directed by Carmine Du Four and Emilie Mannering. Fast Color is also a film I saw recently. It’s about three generations of black women who have the magical ability to disintegrate objects to its granular parts, as well as the familial tensions around how these abilities are used in a dystopian world with little water. The film has been described as a superhero movie, which I disagree with, but still recommend everybody check it out. Both films are on Crave!

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Catch WASH DAY as part of BFF’s 2020 Online Festival, with a special live-streamed Q&A with Kourtney on Sunday June 28th. Join us June 25 - 28 for screenings, virtual Q&As, panel discussions and more! Get Tickets Today.

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BFF 2020 SPOTLIGHT: EMILY GAGNE & JOSH KORNGUT, BEST FRIENDS FOREVER

In advance of BFF’s 2020 Online Festival, we will be sharing exclusive interviews with this year’s filmmakers. Get to know their films, their inspirations, and their advice to fellow emerging filmmakers. Check out our interview with Emily Gagne and Josh Korngut, directors of BEST FRIENDS FOREVER.

Emily Gagne and Joshua Korngut are filmmakers and the co-founders of Spooky B Films, a Toronto-based production company which aims to tells horror stories through a fun, feminist lens. 

Congratulations on your 2020 BFF film selection! Can you tell us a bit about your film?

We are thrilled to have our BFF be part of BFF this year! 

Best Friends Forever is a short about the horrors of social exclusion filtered through a hot pink lens. Set at a slumber party in 1996, the film tells the urban legend of Nancy, a girl who suffered the deadly consequences of bullying and is doomed to keep knocking on doors until she finds a suitable, well, best friend to join her hell.

What inspired you to tell this story?

Emily Gagne: I experienced a lot of girl-on-girl hate in my younger years and I have seen the long-term effect it can have on both the bully and bullied. And while I do think we need more positive portrayals of friendships between women on film (and more portrayals of women on film in general, to be honest), I think it’s neglectful to not talk about some of the issues that can arise between us as well.

Also, there just aren’t enough all-girl horror stories out there! We made the film we wanted to see, one where girls are the heroes, victims and villains.

Josh Korngut: I think there’s something really personal about urban legends in particular. At their best, they’re intimate stories that could easily be set in your childhood bedroom. At their scariest, they’re stories that really were.

Still from Best Friends Forever

BEST FRIENDS FOREVER gives us major 90s nostalgia vibes. Can you tell us why you decided to set the film in the past?

JK: Emily and grew up together in the Toronto suburbs in the mid-90s. It’s a part of our shared unconscious now. We know that place inside and out. 

 EG: A lot of our inspiration comes from the slasher films we saw in my basement back then - Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Urban Legend. Fun horror films that also, sometimes subtly, also had something to say.

Still from Best Friends Forever

What’s the core message that you wanted to convey to your audience through this film?

EG: I think girls and women are often told there are “limited spaces” for them (and even less for women of colour). This can, unfortunately, create a subconscious urge to compete and assert power over one another through words and actions. We hope that our film shines a light on how toxic this dynamic can be.

What’s next for you? 

JK: Emily and I are on the second draft of a horror screenplay that’s starting to look real cute. I’m really excited about it. 

EG: Josh is working on a very cool solo horror concept that I am excited about as well, one that I think will bring the nuance I was missing from Hereditary. And I am developing a script loosely based on my relationship with my mom.

What advice would you give to an emerging filmmaker just starting out?

JK: If you’re a writer, then write about what excites you the most. Everything else is just background noise. 

EG: At 30, I am still an emerging filmmaker. I wasted a lot of years thinking that I wasn’t good enough, creative enough, or experienced enough to make films as a writer or director. Surely, a lot of this stemmed from the lack of support for women and other marginalized creators in mainstream film spaces. So if you feel the urge to create, please give into it. We need new stories and storytellers!

Care to share any films you’re inspired by, that our community should check out during this quarantine?

JK: I recently watched To Die For with Nicole Kidman, and honestly, it’s a perfect film. Emily wrote an article about the film’s fashion for A Nightmare On Film Street that’s a real must-read. 

EG: When BFF screened at the Indie Memphis Film Festival last year, I got to see Numa Perrier’s Jezebel and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. Currently on Netflix Canada, it is one of the most unique takes on sex work I have encountered. It confronts the intersection of racism and sexism within the industry, while also showcasing ways women also can find power (not to mention capital) from their work in it.

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Catch BEST FRIENDS FOREVER as part of BFF’s 2020 Online Festival, with a special live-streamed Q&A with Emily and Josh on Saturday June 27th. Join us June 25 - 28 for screenings, virtual Q&As, panel discussions and more! Get Tickets Today.

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