We were saddened to learn that John Frizzell passed away at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto on Sunday, April 3, 2016 at the age of 60.
John was a writer/story editor and producer on many seminal film and TV shows (A Winter Tan, Dance Me Outside, The Rez, Lucky Girl). He was a remarkable character and a consummate storyteller with razor sharp instincts. He was smart, outspoken and at times outrageous, and had a great nose for original voices.
John contributed greatly to the CFC in its earlier years and was a positive and important creative mentor for many alumni.
His raspy voice, his witty repartee, his keen insights, and his no-holds-barred and flamboyant style will be greatly missed.
At the end of this month, the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival begins its 2016 programme, with documentary filmmakers from all over the globe showcasing their latest works at various theatres throughout Toronto. In celebration of Hot Docs and the form of filmmaking it pays specific tribute to, we are going to spend the next several weeks spotlighting the participants of the 2015/16 NFB/CFC Creative Doc Lab with a series of Q&As. With each piece, the documentary filmmakers will explain, in their own words, the Who, What, Why and How of their process as non-fiction creators.
Josephine Anderson: I'm a documentary filmmaker who focuses on character-driven stories with edge.
My goal as a filmmaker is to tell stories that deepen our understanding of one another and enrich our lives with curiosity and wonder. I work across multiple formats including interactive, long form, and short film formats.
Pablo Alvarez-Mesa: I am one more participant in the cross-cultural exchange that takes place in the arts.
Noam Gonick: I’m an all-arounder who doesn't identity solely as a documentarian, but rather an artist who utilizes film in a variety of genres, as well as working in theatre, contemporary art, television and gaming platforms.
Nisha Pahuja: As a doc filmmaker, I'm someone who understands that every film I make is really about a question I'm trying to answer for myself. That question is what guides the process for me, though, of course, sometimes the question changes and very often it becomes deeper, or different facets are added to it. The question is different for every film, but, fundamentally, I'm exploring who we are as human beings and why we do what we do.
More and more, I see documentary filmmaking as a triumvirate—there's me and the crew; the people we're filming; and the audience watching. I try to use the film as a space for the subjects to reflect on their world and who they are. In the process, we—myself and the team, the person being filmed, and, if we're successful, the audience—all change
For more information about the NFB/CFC Creative Doc Lab, CLICK HERE. To learn more about Hot Docs, including what’s playing this year, CLICK HERE.
Look for the next part of the Who, What, Why & How series Wednesday, April 13, 2016.
Earlier this week, Ana Serrano (Managing Director, IDEABOOST and CFC’s CDO), welcomed both mentors and startups to IDEABOOST’s fourth Network Connect event. Aimed at “one-on-one” speedy strategy interaction, this event delivered insight and feedback in intense 15-minute sessions. Emerging companies were encouraged to test their theories, ask for advice, gain direction and validate their brand’s pitch.
The event was hosted at The Working Group’s newly acquired fourth floor studio. A startup business success themselves, the company, specializing in software, websites and app development, has deep roots as entrepreneurial creators, expressed Alison Gibbins, TWG Director (relationship facilitator and digital disruptor).
“We have an affinity towards supporting the technologist and artist community,” she said. Rob Kenedi, Entrepreneur-In-Residence of TWG, was also on hand to offer guidance to IDEABOOST Network Connect startups, “A targeted and direct approach, being clear and concise, and articulating product value is critical within time frame.”
IDEABOOST’s Founding Partner mentor, Paul Gardner of Corus Entertainment, was on hand for the evening, as high potential startups were matched with knowledgeable mentors, spanning industries and backgrounds. Mentors included:
Additionally, Program Partner KPMG’s Clare Hodge, Senior Consultant, Media Tax Incentives, spoke about the long-term value potential to initiate post-event. As a mentor, she thought of critical introductions she could extend, outside her industry, to fuel Network Connect members’ growth.
Vlad Dascalu, Co-Founder and CMO of PinchVR (a hardware and software Virtual Reality startup), felt his B2B speed session with Alison Philips was incredibly valuable based on her leadership foundations of user-centric industrial design. IDEABOOST’s fourth Network Connect event ended in “freestyle” mentoring – catalyzing conversations and de-structured socializing.
Photography was provided by Kristina Falcomer. Pictures from the event are available on CFC Media Lab’s Facebook Page. For those of you who would like to attend in the future, (founders, CEOs, entrepreneurs, and more), please apply to become a program participant. IDEABOOST Network Connect’s free community affiliates program provides peer collaboration and networking, specialized resources and perks, and investor review, in addition to Network Connect events. IDEABOOST is funded in part by the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario. www.ideaboost.ca
Thanks to our event partners, Flow Water and IDEABOOST alumni company Mediazoic/The Joy of Song, for their continued support helping us make events like these possible! Thank you to Jumpwire Media for live-tweeting the event. Read insights from the event on their Twitter feed.
ZEITDICE is a time-lapse camera no larger than a cue ball and shaped like a 26-sided dice that can capture up to three months on one charge (or infinitely with a small solar panel).
This portable, wireless and weather-resistant camera was featured on Discovery Channel's Daily Planet and described by host Dan Riskin as the “Go Pro for time lapse, that looks like a Rubix Cube.”
We spoke with Michael Schwanzer, IDEABOOST Network Connect member, CEO and co-founder of ZEITDICE, about the time-lapse camera and the history behind it. Read the full interview below.
What motivated you to become an entrepreneur?
At the age of 14, I realized that it’s very satisfying to create things that make life easier. I was one of the first kids in school who knew how to make websites, so others asked me to help them make websites. It was time-consuming so I built a web service that enabled people to make their own websites without needing my help. It was a service that grew to 50,000 clients. I later sold this first web startup to finance my studies abroad. I learned a lot from that experience - one of the best lessons being the value of solving other people’s problems and turning that solution into a scalable service.
How did you come up with the idea for ZEITDICE?
I just wanted to make an extended time lapse. There wasn't a solution out there, so I started hacking away and built my first prototype using a few electronics I had around - an old ice cream container and duct tape. From that point on, I became completely captivated by the potential of time-lapse photography. It is totally fascinating that this medium can be both artistic and scientific, revealing oddities and patterns that are usually hidden to the naked eye. It’s clear that if time lapse was more accessible, everyone would want to capture, preserve, study and better understand time. Watch the below ZEITDICE product update:
What is the one thing you want audiences to know about your product?
ZEITDICE’s ability to capture long periods of time allows you to document your environment and reveal the secrets of time passing. Change happens slowly, but we provide the perfect tool that compresses time and visualizes patterns very well. This is the first time you will be able to do this over months and years. We’re excited to see all the things people will learn using ZEITDICE, and how they will apply it to make their lives better.
What prompted you to apply for CFC Media Lab’s IDEABOOST Network Connect?
We were excited by the prospect of connecting with the leading storytellers from CFC Media Lab and IDEABOOST startups. We offer the entertainment community a new medium to work with. IDEABOOST mentors, faculty and advisors supported us, especially through the Design Thinking Workshop hosted by Suzanne Stein. The exposure from IDEABOOST Network Connect events and conferences helped us understand our audience better in the tech startup, film and photography market verticals.
What’s the biggest challenge you currently face or have faced in terms of development?
It’s been great getting back to the nuts and bolts of engineering and I love bringing a tangible product to market. As opposed to software, where you can fix bugs and re-deploy within minutes, we’re dealing with hardware challenges that take time to resolve. The development cycles in hardware are fairly long and complex. We’ve had a lot of advance international interest and orders for ZEITDICE. You can see all our product specs as well as our virtual reality application on our website.
What is the most important thing you’ve learned since starting your company?
The earlier you start talking to people about your product, the better it is for your business. In isolation, you might be able to construct a great solution to a problem, but you’ll also end up letting minute details get the best of you. The sooner you start talking to people, the faster you’ll get to the core of what your product needs to be. This approach led me to my co-founder Matt MacDonald. He previously worked in aerospace, innovating new processes and leading the analysis and testing of jet engine designs. I’m glad I started putting myself out there, joined IDEABOOST Network Connect, attended meetups and events early on. Everywhere I went, the ZEITDICE pitch evolved until it was a very easy buy-in for the target group we have.
What’s next for ZEITDICE?
In May 2016, we will ship the first 100 ZEITDICE cameras. After that, we’ll be launching a crowdfunding campaign for the next round of production -- stay tuned!!!
Media-focused tech-based startups: Is your product past the ideation stage? Do you have a working prototype or beta version? IDEABOOST empowers companies that will drive media and entertainment innovation in Canada and across the world! Apply to leverage IDEABOOST’s Network Connect program, and receive expert mentoring from Canada, Hollywood, Silicon Valley and beyond.
The Canadian Cinema Editors announced the nominees for the sixth annual CCE Awards this morning. We are pleased to share that 13 CFC alumni received nominations for their work on 14 different projects.
An image from 'The Messenger'
Congratulations to the following alumni on their nominations:
At the end of this month, the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival begins its 2016 programme, with documentary filmmakers from all over the globe showcasing their latest works at various theatres throughout Toronto. In celebration of Hot Docs and the form of filmmaking it pays specific tribute to, we are going to spend the next several weeks spotlighting the participants of the 2015/16 NFB/CFC Creative Doc Lab with a series of Q&As. With each piece, the documentary filmmakers will explain, in their own words, the Who, What, Why and How of their process as non-fiction creators.
Look for the next Who, What, Why & How piece Wednesday, April 20, 2016. To read the Who segment, CLICK HERE.
Photo Credit: Welcomia/123rf
Josephine Anderson: I'm inspired by a lot of things. I'm inspired by films that rattle and shake me (the list is long), digital projects that push the boundaries of our narrative experience, and by story sharing online and offline. One of the things that inspired me the most when I was first getting into documentary was Welcome to Pine Point, an amazing interactive project that still gets me right in the gut every time.
I'm also very inspired by other filmmakers who have built strong, sustainable careers making docs. It isn't easy to do and it takes a lot of stamina to stay in this game, so I look to those who have been on the road for longer than me for inspiration.
Pablo Alvarez-Mesa: I'm inspired by music, train stations and flea markets.
Noam Gonick: I like to see filmmakers pushing the medium forward: hybrid genres, challenging the sacred cows of objectivity, problematizing the journalistic separation between camera and subject.
Nisha Pahuja: As a documentary filmmaker, I'm inspired by big ideas and big social justice issues, but told through the very personal stories of a few people. The macro that is sometimes obvious (and sometimes subtle) within the micro.
I think big essay films done well are great and I do wish I had the ability to pull one of those off. The other key thing I'm inspired by is people who are complex, conflicted and surprise me. They tend to make great documentary subjects.
For more information about the NFB/CFC Creative Doc Lab, CLICK HERE. To learn more about Hot Docs, including what’s playing this year, CLICK HERE.
Earth Day 2016 (April 22) is dedicated to mobilizing the citizens of the world to take action for a healthy and sustainable environment for future generations.
To mark Earth Day, we’re celebrating Canada’s natural beauty by looking back at some times when our home and native land has played a major role in Hollywood blockbusters. Here are seven occasions when the Great White North has been cast as the leading lady:
1. The Revenant
Have you seen The Revenant? You know, the film that Leonardo DiCaprio (finally!) won an Oscar for, sending his fandom into a frenzy, declaring him, at last, the true “king of the world”? And who better to star opposite King Leo than our queens: Alberta and British Columbia.
A large part of the picturesque scenes in The Revenant were shot in the remote wilderness of Kananaskis Country in Calgary. Bow Valley, Spray Lakes Reservoir, Fortress Mountain, and the Badlands of Drumheller (also know as Dinosaur Valley) also feature prominently in the film. Remember that gruesome bear attack? That took place in the Squamish Valley in B.C.
Catch a glimpse of some of these beautiful landscapes in the trailer below:
Read more on The Revenant’s filming locations HERE.
2. Titanic
Moving from Canada’s west coast, to Canada’s east coast, it’s the first film that made Leo the “king of the world,” Titanic.
When Canadian director James Cameron began production on this 1997 epic, he brought his cast and crew to Halifax, the closest major seaport to the disaster shipwreck. Many of the film’s ocean scenes were shot in Halifax, as well as aboard the Canadian icebreaker CCGS Louis S. St-Laurent. While the scenes may be harrowing, they nevertheless showcase the beauty of the Atlantic Ocean via one of our Atlantic provinces.
Learn more about the Titanic’s Halifax Connection HERE. While you’re at it, check out Buzzfeed’s '33 Things You Didn’t Know About the Movie “Titanic”' HERE.
3. Brokeback Mountain
If you’ve been to the Canadian Rockies, you know that the views are breathtaking. So it’s no wonder they were the filming location of choice for another huge Hollywood hit, Brokeback Mountain.
This 2005 drama, starring Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Williams, is set in Wyoming, but was almost entirely filmed in the Rocky Mountains in Alberta, with a few scenes shot in Calgary as well. The gorgeous scenery is prominently featured in the movie trailer, so I think it’s safe to say it plays a leading role in the film:
CLICK HERE to see a nifty little map that breaks down the filming locations in Alberta.
4. One Week
Photo by Malcolm Byard, courtesy of Mongrel Media
One Week is a Canadian film directed by Canadian filmmaker Michael McGowan, starring Canadian actor Joshua Jackson. The Canadian cities and landscapes you see in this film are not, in a rare occurrence, masquerading as other locations. Instead, the film, a sort of “love letter to Canada,” features Ben Tyler (played by Jackson) taking a motorcycle trip across Canada from Toronto to Vancouver – the type of cross-country road trip most Canadians dream of doing.
Naturally, One Week showcases a huge range of Canada’s vast and varying landscapes – from the forests, lakes, and rivers that dominate Northern Ontario; to the mountainous terrain, glaciers, ice fields and forests of Banff National Park; to the Canadian Prairies and the lakes, inlets, ancient rainforests and sandy beaches of Tofino, B.C. (with many more beautiful landscapes in between). See how many Canadian landmarks you can spot in the One Week trailer:
For all of you diehard Canadian Twilight fans, you’ll be happy to know that three of the four movies in the series were filmed in various parts of B.C., making it a prominent character in the Bella-Edward saga. Keep your eyes peeled throughout the films for scenes shot in Vancouver, the Lower Mainland, and Squamish, which is featured in the clip below:
6. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Alberta seems to be a popular place for shooting films with gorgeous backdrops. Another example is the 2007 period western The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, starring Brad Pitt, where Alberta, stood in for Missouri, and played, at the very least, a supporting role.
7. Meatballs
Everett Collection
From drama to comedy, we’re looking pretty far back with our last pick: Meatballs, the 1979 iconic summer camp comedy starring then-unknown Bill Murray and directed by Canadian filmmaker Ivan Reitman.
The movie was filmed at an actual summer camp, Camp White Pine, in Haliburton, Ontario. The location sets the backdrop for head counsellor Tripper Harrison’s (Murray) antics with counsellors-in-training, the camp director and campers, and rivalry with the Camp Mohawk across the lake, all while showcasing the natural beauty of Ontario cottage country.
Wondering what the Meatballs folks are up to now? You can find out HERE.
So after you’ve watched or re-watched these films and marvelled at Canada’s beautiful landscapes, why not get out there and explore Canada? And whenever you’re reminded of Canada’s vast natural beauty, stop and think about how you can protect it. Earth Day is more than just a single day; you can take action to help build a sustainable, healthy environment (in Canada and abroad) all year round.
Want to know more and get involved in Earth Day programs and initiatives across Canada? CLICK HERE for information.
Wednesday, April 20, 2016 marks the third annual National Canadian Film Day, an initiative created by Reel Canada to celebrate Canada through Canadian film.
A variety of National Canadian Film Day events are set to take place in communities all across the country. CFC is proud to participate in National Canadian Film Day by offering Canadians the chance to stream SIBLINGS for free on cfcccreates.com throughout the day. SIBLINGS, directed by David Weaver and written by Jackie May, was developed and produced through CFC Features, and stars a young Sarah Gadon, Sarah Polley, Samantha Weinstein, Alex Campbell and Andrew Chalmers, alongside Paul Soles, Nicholas Campbell and Sonja Smits.
Celebrate National Canadian Film Day with us by watching SIBLINGS on our website at your leisure on April 20. For an even richer viewing experience, join our Twitter Live Watch of SIBLINGS at 9 p.m. ET on April 20, where we will share anecdotes, information and behind the scenes details from SIBLINGS. Visit our Twitter account for updates, and join in on the conversation using the hashtag #CFCSiblings.
In SIBLINGS, Joe and his siblings have a couple of problems. First off, their stepparents are despicably evil. Secondly, they seemed to have killed them. Now this mixed up mess of half-sisters and step-brothers have to figure out how to dispose of the bodies, cover up the murders, collect their grandfather’s inheritance and somehow stick together as a family – all without getting caught. Not to mention the eldest Joe’s incessant need to keep tabs on his promiscuous sister, an eye on the precocious little ones and a lustful watch on the girl next-door. Growing up has its complications. Murder’s just one of them.
So why not take a film break this Wednesday by watching this rollicking black comedy and help celebrate Canada by watching a great Canadian film.
Showcase announced today the start of production on the new Canadian original sci-fi series, Travelers. The drama was originally developed at the CFC in our 2014/15 Prime Time TV Program when Brad Wright (Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, Stargate Universe) was the Executive-Producer-in-Residence, along with with the nine residents of that year’s program (Tara Armstrong, Mika Collins, Seth Cooperman, Rebecca Hales, Gillian Muller, Ashley Park, Pat Smith, Amanda Smith-Kolic, and Jason Whiting).
Eric McCormack on 'Travelers'. Photo courtesy of Showcase.
Wright wrote and created the drama, which is a co-production between Netflix and Canada's Peacock Alley and Showcase, and will also showrun the series. Nick Hurran (Sherlock) will direct the pilot, with Canadians Andy Mikita (Lost Girl), Helen Shaver (Vikings), Martin Wood (Killjoys), Will Waring (Continuum) and Amanda Tapping (Continuum) set to direct future episodes. The series is shooting on location in Vancouver, and stars Eric McCormack (Will & Grace) as FBI special agent Grant MacLaren. The series will air on Showcase in Canada and will stream on Netflix outside of Canada.
“We're thrilled to be working with Showcase and Netflix and are so proud that Travelers was originally developed at the CFC Prime Time TV Program with Canadian writers,” said Brad Wright in a press release. “We're excited to work with this amazing cast led by Eric McCormack. It's all a dream come true for a Scarborough boy like me.”
Travelers takes place hundreds of years in the future and focuses on the last surviving humans who discover the means of sending consciousness back through time, directly into people in the 21st century. These "travelers" assume the lives of seemingly random people, while secretly working as teams to perform missions in order to save humanity from a terrible future.
We are currently accepting applications for the 2016/17 Prime Time TV Program; the deadline to apply is May 13, 2016. CLICK HERE for additional details and application information.
At the end of this month, the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival begins its 2016 programme, with documentary filmmakers from all over the globe showcasing their latest works at various theatres throughout Toronto. In celebration of Hot Docs and the form of filmmaking it pays specific tribute to, we are going to spend the next several weeks spotlighting the participants of the 2015/16 NFB/CFC Creative Doc Lab with a series of Q&As. With each piece, the documentary filmmakers will explain, in their own words, the Who, What, Why and How of their process as non-fiction creators.
Look for the last part of the Who, What, Why & How series Wednesday, April 27, 2016. To read the Who and What segments, CLICK HERE and CLICK HERE.
Josephine Anderson: I'm in documentary because I don't want a normal job. But more seriously, documentary gives me a way to explore the stories of others and observe how they navigate their worlds. I find this infinitely fascinating.
When I was younger, I wanted to be a writer, but as I went through university, I learned that I was most interested in pursuing non-fiction stories and I wanted the freedom to tell these stories collaboratively and across multiple mediums. This led me to documentary. Today I remain in documentary because I can't think of any better way to spend my time.
In my opinion, life is about two things: connecting with other humans and exploring the curiosities of this world. There is so much to feel and learn and experience! So, I'm in documentary because it seems to me to be the most intriguing way to do those two things.
Pablo Alvarez-Mesa: I am in documentary filmmaking to discover the world, with all its surprises and contradictions. I like the details of the unknown.
Noam Gonick: Some documentary films have contacted me from the other side, in an embryonic state, asking me to assist their emergence into reality. I am happy to provide my services for this task if the project in question is one in which I can provide a fresh perspective.
Nisha Pahuja: I fell in love with documentary filmmaking about 20 years ago and never looked back.
There are two key things about documentaries that made me feel I'd found what I was meant to do. The first is how collaborative it is as an art form. I love being part of a creative team where ideas flow and a small group of people build something together that has the potential to really move people and get them thinking. I also love being able to find interesting people to film. The fact that a person in one part of the world actually holds up a mirror to the rest of the world is fascinating to me and I never tire of searching for [subjects]. That kind of detective aspect is one of my favorite parts of making a film.
For more information about the NFB/CFC Creative Doc Lab, CLICK HERE. To learn more about Hot Docs, including what’s playing this year, CLICK HERE.
CFC is proud to participate in the third annual Cultural Hotspot initiative by hosting the CFC Onscreen Acting Bootcamp, a signature project of the Cultural Hotspot produced in partnership with the City of Toronto.
The Onscreen Acting Bootcamp runs on April 30, May 7, and May 14 in the Northern Dancer Pavilion on our Windfields Estate campus. The Bootcamp is a barrier-free opportunity for fifteen youth between the ages of 15 to 19, from underserved communities in North York, to explore the art and career opportunities of onscreen acting. The initiative offers these aspiring actors the opportunity to learn new skills through a hands-on peer mentorship/coaching experience. The Bootcamp will culminate in a showcase presentation of the participants’ produced work, presented in partnership with North York Arts, at the Toronto Centre for the Arts. Projects like the Onscreen Acting Bootcamp help enable the local community and visitors to discover Hotspot neighbourhoods like North York to experience arts, culture and heritage.
The overall Cultural Hotspot initiative includes a series of projects, which run from May through to October 2016, that shine a spotlight on arts, culture and community by celebrating, connecting and investing in diverse neighbourhoods outside of Toronto’s core.
CLICK HERE for more information on the Cultural Hotspot initiative.
This week, the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival begins its 2016 programme, with documentary filmmakers from all over the globe showcasing their latest works at various theatres throughout Toronto. In celebration of Hot Docs and the form of filmmaking it pays specific tribute to, we spent the last several weeks spotlighting the participants of the 2015/16 NFB/CFC Creative Doc Lab with a series of Q&As.
With each aforementioned Q&A, the documentary filmmakers explained in their own words, the Who, What and Why of their process as non-fiction creators. In this, the final in the series, Josephine Anderson, Pablo Alvarez-Mesa, Noam Gonick and Nisha Pahuja reveal their How answers.
Josephine Anderson: I think it's too easy for us to take our immediate surrounding reality for granted. Too often we develop rigid points of view and project our perspectives on the lives of others without really understanding them. But depending on the cards they've been dealt, people find themselves in drastically different circumstances and I think it's really, really important that we don't lose sight of the vastness of the human experience.
I see my work in documentary as a way to help keep our minds open and receptive to the experiences of others. Mainly, I want to give people an entry point into exploring the strange way that we are at incredibly different and yet, fundamentally similar to one another.
Pablo Alvarez-Mesa: With my films I hope to bridge seemingly distant ideas with their foreign landscapes and imperfect times.
Noam Gonick: My namesake, Noam Chomsky, popularized the phrase “Manufacturing Consent”. I’d hope my impact can be one of “Manufacturing Dissent”, [with me] making films that challenge the status quo and nourish the viewer’s inner rebel.
Nisha Pahuja: Without a doubt, I see that documentary films have the ability to change lives, laws and policies, and shift consciousness. The goal is definitely to further social justice, but it is equally important to get audiences to reflect on themselves.
More and more, I see that the deepest way to make change is to start from within. It's part of the reason I feel creating villains, or creating the "other", is both flawed and destructive.
For more information about the NFB/CFC Creative Doc Lab, CLICK HERE.
To learn more about Hot Docs, including what’s playing this year, CLICK HERE.
For more insights, check out this Wisdom Wednesday from Noam Gonick.
Anita Lee is one of documentary filmmaking’s biggest advocates. She believes in the importance of the documentary form as a medium for independent expression, to tell untold stories, and to highlight unique points of view. Lee will be the first person to point out that the art form of documentary filmmaking is changing; docs are evolving as a storytelling space. She suggests that documentary filmmakers are redefining the boundaries of docs, and new documentary forms are emerging, including linear docs, interactive docs, and doc VR, to name a few. There may be more opportunities now, than ever before, for doc filmmakers to experiment, express themselves and tell interesting and powerful stories through documentaries.
Lee, a CFC alumna, has nearly 20 years of experience in the industry and has a long history with docs and independent film. She is a multi-award-winning producer and currently serves as the Executive Producer, English Program (Ontario Centre) for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).
As NFB producer from 2005 to the present, Lee has produced some of the most acclaimed and inventive works in recent NFB history, including CFC alumna Sarah Polley’s genre-bending Stories We Tell (developed through the first iteration of the CFC-NFB documentary program), and she lead the NFB's first foray into interactive production as one of the creator/producers of North America's first interactive feature film Late Fragment, in co-production with CFC Media Lab. Some of her past productions include 3D film Let the Daylight Into the Swamp, which premiered at TIFF and was nominated for CSA; Road Movie, a film installation invited to TIFF and Berlin; Tiger Spirit, Donald Brittain Award for Best Social/Political Documentary; The Bodybuilder and I, Hot Docs Best Feature Documentary; and Flicker, Hot Docs Jury Prize for Best Canadian Feature Documentary.
We currently have the pleasure of working with Lee on our NFB/CFC Creative Doc Lab, where she acts as a strategic partner, creative mentor and member of the Lab’s international advisory. We spoke to Anita Lee in the lead up to Hot Docs (running from April 28 to May 8, 2016), about the importance of documentary filmmaking, the current and future doc landscape, and gained insights on what makes a great documentary. Read the full interview below.
CFC: Why do you think documentary filmmaking is important today?
Anita Lee: With the proliferation of reality and factual programming and all its offshoots, the relationship between reality and the notion of truth has become obscure. I like to believe that documentary is still a realm where filmmakers are guided by the principles of seeking and reflecting some kind of truth, as they understand it. We all know life can be stranger than fiction. I often think stories can be truer than facts.
As the world becomes increasingly networked with communication and entertainment industries growing increasingly monolithic, it becomes ever more important that we have access to independent expressions. The documentary form often provides counter storytelling to mainstream media, offering untold stories and unique points of view.
Why would you encourage filmmakers to make documentaries?
I think the documentary, especially what some refer to as the creative documentary, is one of the most exciting art forms in this decade. Doc filmmakers are exploding the genre and redefining the boundaries. Whether it’s linear doc, interactive doc and now doc VR, it’s evolving as a storytelling space and a great medium for filmmakers who want to experiment, not be boxed in by conventional production workflows, and develop a personal vision.
What do you think is the most important thing to consider prior to beginning a documentary?
Why do you want to tell this story? Why you? All documentaries have a POV, though some less or more, or less or more obvious than others. We know even science is not neutral, so documentary certainly isn’t. What is unique about your relationship to the story and what will your POV bring to the conversation?
How do you view the current climate for documentary filmmaking in Canada?
It could be much better. There is so much talent and experience here, and a legacy to be proud of. But we need more stakeholders taking risks and moving out of the industrial model. Outside of formatted TV docs, it’s very difficult for producers to finance feature and interactive docs in Canada. More and more, doc producers need to finance internationally. An interesting new development is Canadian feature docs being financed by American foundations.
What new opportunities are arising within the documentary form?
Doc theatre, doc dance, doc karaoke ...
Ok, I’m making a couple up, but I’m sure someone is creating one somewhere.
Doc VR is a new opportunity. Doc makers are being early adopters of this new platform, heralded to be the most significant media platform for the 21st century. Inclusiveness, access, and diversity are going to be challenges in this space. There are new opportunities for artists at large in VR and I think doc storytellers are essential to bring a critical approach.
What role does creativity play in documentary storytelling?
Every role. There isn’t a role in documentary creation that isn't creative – director, producer, editor, cinematographer, composer etc. Live capture is one component of doc creation and because we work with real subjects, there is this misconception of “documentation”.
No one asks what role creativity plays in dramatic storytelling, although in some instances, some would say, very little.
In your opinion, what makes a great documentary?
Like any great art, it’s an alchemy of so many things and, therefore, impossible to define. But the docs that have the greatest impact on me, whether it’s a powerful indictment of a global issue or an imaginative reflection of one life, offer up a vision of humanity that I haven’t seen quite in that way before and always make me cry. Either because they allow us to glimpse the human spirit in its highest and lowest moments and/or because they mean as a society we care, and that signals hope.
What is the most important piece of advice that you can give to aspiring documentary filmmakers?
Don’t underestimate your audience. Don’t over explain. Don’t be didactic. Leave some spaces where your audience can step in and make their own meaning. This is when the magic happens. Privilege story over message. The message spreads with deeper roots with a great story.
CFC Media Lab is keeping very busy this May with multiple activations across various conferences and festivals both here in Canada and abroad. Should you find yourselves at any of these events, please come by and check out our new VR productions, including new episodes in our CFC VR Sketches Series - a suite of prototypes that unpack and explore the VR medium, or hear from our host of startups currently in our IDEABOOST Network Connect program. Here's what's on tap for CFC Media Lab throughout the month of May (in chronological order):
DATES: Friday, April 29 to Saturday, May 7 DETAILS: FREE between 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. LOCATION: 610 Markham Street, Toronto
Interact with two of our VR installations in HotDocs' DocX program. Part of our CFC VR Sketches Series, these experiences present VR in ways not often seen in festivals. The CFC Media Lab co-productions are:
Qualia: Zen Eagle Mobio Interactive | CFC Media Lab coproduction Can brainwaves successfully drive VR Experiences?
Take flight as an eagle and regenerate through mindfulness as this experience connects your brainwaves to this immersive world.
TimeTraveller™ Guided Virtual Reality Tours
IIF | CFC Media Lab coproduction Testing how live performances in a metaverse like Second Life feel in VR
Artist Skawennati invites us to don a headset to explore the sets and meet the stars of her renowned machinima, TimeTraveller™. Experience an Aboriginally determined virtual world in Second Life on the Oculus Rift. With real live Indian Guides!
TimeTraveller™ TOUR GUIDE SCHEDULE DAILY (11 a.m. to 6 p.m.): Live guided tour of the sets of TimeTraveller™
FRIDAY, APRIL 29: Live guided tours by stars of TimeTraveller™
11:00 a.m.: Special Guest Karahkwenhawi Karahkwenhawi will start this tour at her home. You can check out her bedroom, then head over to the Musée du futur. The tour will end in her 22nd century dream home.
1:00 p.m.: Special Guest Hunter Starting at his storage-locker apartment, Hunter will take you to a few of his other haunts. If you ask nicely, he may even answer some of your questions.
3:00 p.m.: Special Guest Skawennati Meet the artist as she takes you all over AbTeC Island and talks about the making of TimeTraveller™.
Also, at HotDocs, don't miss what will be a heated debate between our Chief Digital Officer, Ana Serrano, and Principal Filmmaker at Google VR, Jessica Brillhart, as they perform VR on Trialwith judge and jury, Professor Richard Lachman, from Ryerson University.
DATE: Tuesday, May 3 DETAILS: 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. with HotDocs Conference Pass, Conference and Networking Pass, All-Access Pass LOCATION: Rogers Industry Centre, 2nd Floor, Toronto
DATES: Monday, May 9 to Tuesday, May 10
DETAILS:$650 per attendee between 7:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.
LOCATION:Metro Toronto Convention Centre (MTCC), 222 Bremner Boulevard, Toronto
The Ontario Centre of Excellence (OCE) Discovery Conference is an event we love attending. This year, with Tesla's Co-Founder and CTO, JB Straubel, doing the keynote address, it promises to be an even more exciting conference for startups and innovation junkies alike. Our activation will consist of showcasing the following companies and projects:
Zeitdice Timelapse Camera is no larger than a cue ball and shaped like a 26-sided dice that can capture up to three months on one charge (or infinitely with a small solar panel). This portable, wireless and weather-resistant camera was prototyped using a few old electronics, an ice cream container and duct tape. Discover Zeitdice’s virtual reality application beta. (Read our recent interview with Michael Schwanzer, CEO and co-founder of ZEITDICE, HERE).
Mobio Interactive is a tech startup that combines biofeedback, brain health, UX design, mobile, and gaming to deliver virtual reality wellness applications. Qualia: Zen Eagle explores flight as an eagle and regeneration through mindfulness using an EEG headband for biofeedback within the VR stimulated environment. Engage yourself with Mobio Interactive’s exhibit that connects your brainwaves to their immersive world.
Filmtyme develops filmmaking tools to enable real-time virtual reality collaborative movie making. The Filmtyme team consists of open-source REALCAMERA PROJECT contributors, creators of the “Soldier of Heaven QuickStart Oculus Jam,” and winners of “Best VR App” in the Google Tango contest. Meet the team and live film dinosaurs in VR using Filmtyme’s tools.
Pinch VR– Pinch is a mobile platform for the creation, collaboration, and distribution of VR content, allowing for a more immersive and intuitive way to share VR creations. Pinch VR develops both software and hardware and will be showcasing their interactive VR controller and mobile app. This attachment accessory, combined with a mobile phone, opens the possibilities within the virtual reality environment like never before.
Also join us to explore the BODY/MIND/CHANGE Redux Teaser, a CFC Media Lab Production in co-production with TIFF and in association with OccupiedVR, starring David Cronenberg. Immerse yourself in a “Cronenbergian” world inspired by the film Videodrome.
DATES: Wednesday, May 11 to Wednesday, May 18 DETAILS:Cannes NEXT Pavillion
LOCATION:Village International on the Pantiere side, Cannes
CFC Media Lab will have a series of VR installations at the Cannes Marché NEXT Pavilion, along with 15 other innovation companies including Creative Wallonia and HP. Beyond our presence in the NEXT Pavilion, CFC Media Lab is also presenting, in partnership with Fantasia International Film Festival, its co-production with market Frontiéres and Telefilm Canada, the Canadian Genre – VR Film Series on Saturday, May 14 as part of the VR Days programme at NEXT.
From award-winning cyberpunk adventures to homoerotic horror, the Canadian Genre-VR Film Series includes:
Body/Mind/Change Redux Teaser A CFC Media Lab Production in co-production with TIFF and in association with OccupiedVR Producer: Ana Serrano Directors: J.Lee Williams and Blair Renaud Body/Mind/Change Redux Teaser, starring David Cronenberg, immerses audiences in a “Cronenbergian” world inspired by the film Videodrome.
Technolust: the short film An OccupiedVR Production Producer: J. Lee Williams Director: Blair Renaud Technolust: the short film is a taste of the award-winning Virtual Reality Adventure set in a near-future Cyberpunk world, made for Oculus Rift.
The Closet A CFC Media Lab Production Producer: Ana Serrano Director: Ian Tuason A young man investigates strange, supernatural forces in his new home when he discovers an even stronger, insatiable force where he least expects it.
War of the Dead Executive Producers: David Brady, Kate harrison Producer: Kim Creelman Directors: Brian Rice, Tristan Cezair, Andrew MacDonald Mayhem surrounds Civil War soldiers when zombies overtake the battle trenches in a virtual reality onslaught of blood and guts.
DATES: Thursday, May 19 DETAILS:Tech-based companies can apply here
DEADLINE: Monday,May 9
LOCATION: MaRS Discovery District, 101 College St., Toronto
CFC Media Lab is a proud partner of The Fundica Roadshow, connecting entrepreneurs with funding resources across Canada. The Fundica Roadshow combines inspirational RoadTalks with pitches and prizes. Tech-based companies can apply here, Toronto applications are due Monday, May 9, 2016. Selected applicants have the opportunity to pitch funders in a private setting. Each city’s best pitch wins a trip to pitch in San Francisco. Good luck startups!
Sign-up for the CFC Media Lab newsletter to receive exclusive coverage and program developments. Become part of our social community on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for real-time coverage!
CFC Media Lab welcomes the 2016 graduating class of the Graduate Program in Digital Futures to our community of esteemed alumni. Since the inception of the graduate program in 2011, CFC Media Lab has partnered with OCAD University to accelerate the development of talented creators, academics, and entrepreneurs eager to lead Canada's digital future.
On Friday, April 15, 2016, 22 thesis projects from the master's program in Digital Futures were unveiled to a packed audience at OCAD U's OPEN GALLERY. The exhibition, entitled 'DESTINATION: TOMORROW', featured a variety of concepts ranging from VR installations, to hybrid live theatre, real-time video performance, mobile applications and more. Some of the works are featured below:
1. The Ipperwash Beach Walk
With a dedication to experiential design and locative/hybrid films, Monica Virtue’s thesis project brings voyageurs along a historic trail on Lake Huron’s edge among indigenous communities. Via smartphone, geo-locators and counter mapping, explore GPS points correlating to how settlers colonized Ipperwash Beach.
2. Microcosm
Hart Sturgeon-Read's thesis project combines play theory and cybernetics. His developed game, 'Microcosm,' is played not to be won, but to be played infinitely, keeping all participants engaged within a dynamic network.
3. Sitting Under A Highway
Hector Centeno Garcia developed his thesis project, 'Sitting under a Highway,' focusing on immersive sound, visuals and interactivity. 'Sitting under a Highway' incorporates virtual reality, hand tracking devices, headphones and an electroencephalography band to draw the audience into photorealistic 3D visuals and spatial audio.
From relevant and recently developed elective courses such as 'Dialogues in Feminism and Technology' to 'IP: Getting Value from YourCreativity,' OCAD U offers a diverse education for a variety of digitally forward careers. Core curriculum includes industry internships, residencies and independent study geared towards graduating professionals within the media, arts, and technology sectors.
Since launching the program in 2011, more than 70 creators have graduated. If you're interested in pursuing a graduate degree in Digital Futures, please email gradstudies@ocadu.ca for more information.
Like many independent filmmakers, Amy Seimetz was used to a certain way of working. Though familiar with bigger productions thanks to her acting roles on TV’s The Killingand other projects, she’s otherwise spent most of the last 15 years deep in the trenches of the American indie scene, working in every capacity on micro-budgeted movies with Joe Swanberg, Shane Carruth and other similarly intrepid filmmakers.
That changed in 2014, when Steven Soderbergh– a big fan of Seitmetz’s first feature,
Sun Don’t Shine – put her together with fellow director Lodge Kerrigan and handed them full creative control over a TV adaptation of Soderbergh’s film The Girlfriend Experience. Shot in Toronto last year, the series stars Riley Keough as an enterprising law student turned high-priced sex worker.
Seimetz realized at an early budget meeting how different the TV world could be for a seasoned DIY-er. As she explains, “We were looking at the camera department and I said, ‘I don’t think we need two dollies.’ And they were like, ‘Um … don’t worry about it.’ Then I thought, ‘Wow, we can have two dollies – and we don’t have to use wheelchairs or a skateboard!’”
Indeed, this is a very confusing time for indie filmmakers. Of course, it’s never been easy for anyone who’s more committed to making personal work than to attracting studio gigs on summer tentpoles. But the challenges continue to intensify as competition grows for festival slots and screens, and potential financiers and distributors become ever warier of risks. The number of theatrical releases in North America has risen precipitously in recent years – 707 were released in 2014, up more than 200 from ten years before – despite declining attendance numbers, making for an extremely complicated and crowded field.
“The market is oversaturated,” says Justine Whyte, the director and executive producer for CFC Features. “Since there’s so much noise, it’s hard to get heard and to get people to pay attention. It’s not as easy as it was in the ‘80s or the ‘90s or the 2000s – and I can’t imagine what it’ll be like in the 2020s.”
“It’s a hard time to be an independent filmmaker,” says Toronto filmmaker Matt Johnson. “A very hard time.” Yet it’s not impossible to get some traction, as Johnson did when his largely self-financed debut The Dirties– a caustic mock-doc about a high school shooting – earned big love at Slamdance in 2013 and won a distribution deal with Kevin Smith’s company. Johnson’s second feature, Operation Avalanche, debuted at Sundance in January and makes its Canadian premiere at Hot Docs this month.
Johnson’s friend Andrew Cividino broke through in 2015 after years of struggling to raise financing for his debut feature when Sleeping Giant– a sharply rendered coming-of-age story set in Northern Ontario’s cottage country – earned a spot at Cannes last May. But as he readies himself for the film’s theatrical release in Canada this month, he’s become aware of how much work it takes to even put a festival darling on most people’s radar. “There are just so many deserving films made every year,” he says. “When you’re done making your film, you think maybe that’s the end of it. But you’re suddenly in the position of jockeying to get attention for it."
“Even when you think you’ve done something big – like getting into Cannes for us – really that’s just the beginning. You have to keep fighting for it.”
Toronto producer and CFC Features alumnus Daniel Bekerman scored another success when The Witch– a period horror film he co-produced in Northern Ontario for American writer-director Robert Eggers – parlayed a rapturous reception at Sundance in 2015 into a wide release that grossed $30 million USD, roughly 30 times the project’s original budget. But he believes that kind of best-case-scenario for indie filmmakers – in which a bare-bones project lands a much-coveted slot at a major fest, garners a sale and breaks wide thanks to a savvy distributor – is more exceptional than it’s ever been.
“It’s become a constant improvisation,” Bekerman says of surviving in the indie film world. “That’s not just true for young filmmakers since we’re pretty much all in the same boat. Everyone has to deal with the fact that everything’s in flux.”
Whether aspiring or established, auteurs must be more adaptive than ever. Yet as resources have grown scarcer for makers of indie features, the boom in television production means that those same talents are finding opportunities they’d never expected to have only a few years ago. As big players like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon radically alter the business, TV has become a surprisingly welcoming home for filmmakers that have traditionally made do on scraps.
With The Girlfriend Experience, Seimetz and Kerrigan enter a realm that’s increasingly populated with indie-film peers like Joe Swanberg (Easy, an upcoming series for Netflix), Jim Mickle (Sundance’s Hap and Leonard), Mark and Jay Duplass (HBO’s Togetherness) and, of course, Lena Dunham, who’d surely still be making tiny movies like Tiny Furniture if HBO hadn’t come calling. Says Seimetz, “A lot of the friends I grew up with in independent film are turning to TV because it’s the new Wild West in media.”
“I’ve kind of gone full circle,” says Bekerman. “I was terrified of subscription VOD services like Netflix two or three years ago. I thought they were going to destroy essentially what was my livelihood. When they were starting, they didn’t seem as hungry for content – it was more about putting up old content and they were buying it very cheaply. Now they’re hungrier for new content and they’re actually injecting new life into the industry in a totally exciting way. So it’s been a full 180 from initially feeling like they were the death knell of independent content creation – now I feel like they’re pretty much the saviour.”
Matt Johnson – who first earned attention with the caustic web series
Nirvana the Band the Show– is also at work on a new series for Viceland.
“The model’s flipped,” he says. “It’s so risk-averse when it comes to the market forces behind feature filmmaking – nobody wants to lose money or make a mistake. Whereas because television’s kind of imploded and things have changed so much, people are willing to take crazy risks. VICE in particular is willing to put things on air that seem almost completely unmarketable. It’s like Weird Al Yankovic is controlling it circa 1981!”
MICRO-BUDGET OR BUST?
Any discussion of the state of independent cinema is inevitably complicated by conflicting definitions of “indie.” After all, even by the time Sundance was establishing Quentin Tarantino, Todd Haynes, Nicole Holofcener and other upstart auteurs of the 1990s, the word had come to connote an artistic sensibility rather than a mode of production. Confusingly, it was typically applied to a whole category of mid- and low-budget offerings that may have seemed slightly less commercial-minded than most multiplex fare but still often involved major stars and studio money (albeit filtered through boutique units like Focus, Fox Searchlight or Disney-era Miramax).
But the proliferation of micro-budgeted work through the 2000s fostered a return to the grittier tradition of American independent filmmaking minted by John Cassavetes’ Shadows back in 1959. Really, “indie” is a broad enough designation nowadays to cover a huge array of productions at various scales. After all, the number of studio releases by the big six studios dropped more than 40 percent between 2006 and 2014, slipping from 204 to 120. In 2015 there were only 103, though they claimed more than 80 per cent of the market.
The ‘90s boom also fostered the perception that the indie film world exists first and foremost as the farm system for Hollywood’s major league. Plenty of filmmakers share that notion. Fired up by the Cinderella stories of quasi-indie hits like Little Miss Sunshine, newbies continue to dream too that they’re just one hot festival screening away from their own breakthroughs. (Many would just settle for clearing the balance on the credit cards they used to finance their shorts and features, as Kevin Smith famously did for Clerks.)
The economic reality is very different – even though markets at festivals have begun to heat up again thanks to new players like Netflix, they’ve yet to fully shake off the effects of the economic meltdown and the disappearance of many of the boutique mini-studios that had been driving the indie boom. As Justine Whyte jokes, “In 2008, I wanted to take a five-year nap. Everything was shifting and I feel like that shift is still happening."
Meanwhile, film schools continue to churn out talents eager to move up the chain. Unfortunately, even those who think they’re making all the right moves may endure a rude awakening. Andrew Cividino found that to be the case when his success as a maker of shorts failed to translate into a shot at a feature. “When you’re coming out of film school, you think, ‘How can I go about achieving what I want?’” he says. “And I thought that the linear path would be to go and make a number of shorts and if they achieved success on the festival circuit and won awards, that would then position me to make my feature from a professional standpoint. That really didn’t turn out to be true.”
It was a conversation with Matt Johnson – who spent his summers on the same beach where Cividino’s family had a cottage and where he’d eventually shoot Sleeping Giant– that forced him to realize the DIY route was the only way to go. “He basically said, ‘You’ve done everything right and you’ve checked all the boxes and it still hasn’t clicked.’ That’s when I decided, ‘Well, maybe I just have to go out and make something – otherwise I’m gonna wait forever.’”
Already slim, the financing for Sleeping Giant fell through when he was first ready shoot it in 2013. Not wanting to lose the chance to work with actors who’d soon be too old for their roles, he shot a short version of Sleeping Giant before scrambling to make the feature the following year on a micro-budget largely derived from arts grants.
The ability to go bare-bones is essential for any filmmaker looking to survive in the current climate. As Bekerman says, “You definitely need to be flexible and willing enough to be able to throw out a model you thought was rock-solid five minutes ago.”
At the same time, Bekerman believes that the micro-budget model can’t be a strategy that works across the board. “The big elephant in the room for any conversation about micro-budgets is the question, ‘Are we professionals? Are we doing this for a living? And are the people who are helping us make these things all independently wealthy and don’t have to worry about money?’"
“At a certain point you have to address that if you’re talking about making micro-budgets forever. If you’re all independently wealthy, great, go for it. But you also have to respect this is people’s lives and their livelihood. Doing every movie for $10,000 isn’t enough to have a viable industry. It’s something I’ve done and I’ve got a lot out of doing but it’s something I’d only do again or advise anyone else to do if it was absolutely the right choice for that particular project.”
There are also the artistic limitations that come with working on a micro-budget scale. As Seimetz says, “It becomes very difficult to make certain things for certain amounts of money.” Another point she makes – and this is a common lament for filmmakers preparing to ask their friends to commit time to a third or fourth project for no compensation beyond the occasional case of beer – is “you can’t keep asking for favours.”
Yet knowing how to do something for nothing has considerable advantages besides maintaining artistic control over the work. “That was 100 per cent my path to success,” says Johnson. “After making a film on my own with my friends and using all our own money, we could then go to a studio and say, ‘Hey, I could do something bigger if I was making a movie with you guys.’”
Contrary to the prevailing wisdom that mid-budget movie prospects are rarer than hen’s teeth, Johnson insists that the studios are very much looking out for indie talents able to trade up into films in the sub-$5 million range. “In fact,” says Johnson, “I would say the development departments of every major studio are exclusively looking for those people.” (It’s telling that the makers of the Star Wars and Marvel franchises have sought to revitalize their respective universes with the help of former Sundance breakouts like Rian Johnson, Gareth Edwards and Taika Waititi.)
Seimetz believes her ilk are uniquely positioned to take advantage of the new possibilities offered by the likes of Amazon, FX and Hulu. “For the people who have done micro-budget stuff for years and years and are now making that shift to television, it’s a dream come true because they can already do things in a thrifty manner,” she says. “The budgets we’re getting offered for TV are … I don’t know, 10, 20, 30, 40 times the money. To the TV people they think some of these shows are relatively cheap and we’re like, ‘Well, I can make 10 movies for this kind of money!’”
Having assumed every possible role on a set already – from performing to line producing to operating cameras and mikes – she also knows the value of what she learned in those trenches. “I never wanted to be in a situation where someone was telling me yes and no and I just had to accept those reasons why we can or can’t do something,” she says.
“There are people that just want a paycheque and want to direct and are happy to do it in the industry format. But if you want to be self-sufficient and want to make the stories you want to make, you’ve gotta know all this other stuff. As it is in any field, knowledge is power and anyone who has the secret knowledge over your head, knows they have a little bit of power over you.”
BUILDING A FILMMAKER-FRIENDLY FUTURE
Whether it’s the icy cool of The Girlfriend Experience or the stylish paranoia of Mr. Robot, there are innumerable signs that TV has become a whole lot more welcoming to the kinds of risky moves that used to be solely the domain of indie cinema. The problem for filmmakers may now be surviving in the wilderness long enough to establish their voices and build the skills they need to thrive in the new paradigm (which, as it so happens, is likely to stay in flux).
No wonder Justine Whyte feels so worried about the sustainability of filmmakers’ careers. “When I support them, I’m trying to think about where they’re going next,” she says. “I have to ask myself, ‘Am I putting them out to get slaughtered?’” That’s why she wants new filmmakers to be ready to capitalize on the moment should their first features actually get some heat. “It’s your one time – hopefully, that is, since it’s not guaranteed – that you have people’s attention,” she says. “This is your opportunity to talk about what’s next so you need to have something ready.”
In that spirit, Cividino is hoping his Sleeping Giant momentum will aid his plans for We Ate the Children Last, a feature adaptation of a Yann Martel story that Cividino already fashioned into a post-apocalyptic sci-fi short in 2011.
Johnson emphasizes the need for filmmakers to be adaptive, too – after all, Canada boasts a far greater pool of funding for television shows and even web series than indie films. Nevertheless, he believes that a publicly financed system like Canada’s has a unique opportunity to support indie talent. Indeed, he says the smartest thing Telefilm Canada could do to foster newbie auteurs is to dramatically expand its existing program for micro-budget productions for emergent filmmakers. He calls the current one “one one-hundredth of the size it should be or could be,” his rationale being that “you need 100 failures to make one success and filmmaking is a failure-based enterprise.” Perhaps those failures will engender a hardier generation of newbie auteurs.
Dan Bekerman – whose slate of fresh projects include director Nadia Litz’s second feature The People Garden and 22 Chaser, a thriller developed and produced by CFC Features – also thinks filmmakers ought to be excited by TV’s embrace of riskier fare like The Girlfriend Experience and what that bodes for the state of cinema, too.
As he says, “My hope is that it will encourage people to be bolder with the kinds of things they’re making and be bolder in sticking to their guns and trying to tell stories with conviction rather than watering them down. Because it’s becoming pretty clear that the watered-down stuff is what’s dying out.”
The winners of the 2016 Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) Screenwriting Awards were announced yesterday evening (May 2, 2016) at Koerner Hall in Toronto. We are pleased to announce that two CFC alumni are among the 2016 award winners. Congratulations to Pascal Trottier and Clement Virgo on their 2016 WGC Screenwriting Awards in the following categories:
Mothers in Canadian films have rarely been the simple, two-dimensional, apple-pie-baking sort. Whether they’re selfless, selfish, strong or struggling, the “mom” characters in Canada’s movies are anything but dull. As Mother’s Day approaches, take some time to celebrate by checking out these unforgettable mothers in Canadian cinema.
Chantale in I Killed My Mother (J’ai Tué Ma Mère)
Made in 2009, Montreal director Xavier Dolan’s debut feature is considered a “semi-autobiographical” film about a homosexual teen’s stormy relationship with his mother Chantale (played by Anne Dorval). Dolan, only 20 years old when the film was released, also stars in the film as the lead, Hubert. The movie centres on Hubert’s love/hate relationship with his single mom, Chantale, who laments how her son, who used to tell her everything, now criticizes her for everything. The good news is that the turbulent teen doesn’t actually kill his mom, as much as he might feel like it at times.
Diane in Mommy
In 2014, five years after Xavier Dolan’s debut I Killed My Mother (J’ai Tué Ma Mère) hit theatres, Dolan came out with another mother-focused film called Mommy. This film again stars actress Anne Dorval as a single mom, but this time she plays a widow named Diane who is struggling to raise her highly troubled teenage son Steve (played by Antoine Olivier Pilon). The 2014 Cannes Festival Jury Prize-winning film was considered by many critics to be a more nuanced look at the mother-son relationship. As a review in Variety put it, “whereas Dolan’s debut was fuelled by pent-up resentment the director obviously needed to get out of his system, Mommy demonstrates a newfound appreciation for just how much his mother put up with.”
Catherine in Margaret’s Museum
Set in Glace Bay, N.S., in the 1940s, the 1995 Canada/UK co-production, Margaret’s Museum, is a quirky tale of tragedy, madness and resilience. While the story focuses on Margaret (played by Helena Bonham Carter) and her romance with Neil (Clive Russell), Margaret’s mother Catherine (Kate Nelligan) stands out as Margaret’s witty yet bitter mother whose dark outlook on life was shaped by the loss of her son and husband in coal mining accidents. While Catherine’s negativity clouds most of her interactions with Margaret, she has her occasional moments of goodness; as critic Roger Ebert pointed out in his review of the film, “Nelligan is astounding in the way she allows her humanity to peek out from behind the mother's harsh defenses.”
Mummy-ji in Bollywood/Hollywood
In the 2002 film Bollywood/Hollywood, directed by Deepa Mehta, the demands of the main character’s mother are what really get the plot rolling in this fun romantic comedy. After a young Indo-Canadian businessman Rahul (played by Rahul Khanna) loses his white girlfriend in a freak accident, his mother “Mummy-ji” (Moushumi Chatterjee) issues him an ultimatum: he needs to find a nice Indian girl to marry, or she won’t let Rahul’s sister’s upcoming wedding go ahead. Since Rahul knows his sister is secretly pregnant, there’s an added urgency in finding himself an Indian bride. Hijinks ensue, involving actress Lisa Ray as a call girl and a handful of fun Bollywood-inspired musical numbers.
Marion in The Year Dolly Parton was My Mom
In this 2011 film by Montreal writer/director Tara Johns, set in the 1970s-era Canadian Prairies, 11-year-old Elizabeth discovers she is adopted and somehow gets it into her head that Dolly Parton is her biological mom. Determined to track down the famous country singer, Elizabeth hops on her bike and tries to make the trek to Minneapolis where Dolly is scheduled to perform. Her adoptive mother Marion (played by Macha Grenon) – who is very overprotective, sort a of helicopter mom before it was the trend – heads out to find her, and slowly learns to become less neurotic and more truthful in the process.
Jacqueline in Café de Flore
Directed and written by Jean-Marc Vallée, 2011’s Café de Flore tells two separate but somehow ethereally intertwined love stories – one between a man and a woman in modern-day Montreal, and the other between a mother and her son in 1960s Paris. That mother is Jacqueline (played by Vanessa Paradis), and her young son, Laurent, has Down syndrome. As a single mother, she obsessively devotes herself to Laurent’s care and education, and has a difficult time when he forms a strong bond with a young girl in his class who also has Down syndrome.
Joy in Room
Actress Brie Larson took home the best actress Oscar for her role as Joy ("Ma") in Room, a 2015 Canada/Ireland co-production that illustrates the exceptional depth and power of a mother’s love as she shields her child from the reality of their horrific situation. Kidnapped and impregnated by the brutal “Old Nick,” Joy and her son Jack are held captive in a tiny room for years – and that room is all that five-year-old Jack has ever known. The nurturing mom does her best to create a whole lovely universe for Jack in that small room, and when they finally escape, they both struggle immensely to adapt to the “real world.”
If you have listened to Drake’s new album,
Views, over the past week, you have heard new music from Michael Peter Olsen as well. The CFC alumnus (Slaight Music Residency) played cello on seven Views tracks, including “Controlla”, “Feel No Ways” and “Child’s Play”.
Olsen became attached to Views through Drake’s guitarist Adrian X (the two went to university together alongside fellow Slaight Music Residency alumnus Todor Kobakov). While he previously did some arrangements for Drake’s live tour, Views marks his first time working on one of the rapper’s albums.
The CFC alumnus had a very rewarding experience working on Views (“Great guys to work with!”), especially given Drake and the album’s direct ties to Toronto both in terms of lyrics (there is a song called “Weston Road Flows” and numerous other nods to the city throughout the album) and production.
“Drake did not just say it’s about the 6. Ninety-five per cent of it was made in the 6,” Olsen explains.
Now that Views is out, Olsen is back to working on some screen-based projects, including scoring an indie horror film (Clean). And he is frequently collaborating with Ben Fox, another Slaight Music Residency alumnus. The duo are composing music for several new projects, including an animated series in the U.S. and an upcoming CBC miniseries.
For more updates on Olsen’s next steps, head to
his official website. You can listen to Views on iTunes and get more information on the album and Drake on his site.
We are accepting nominations for this year’s Slaight Music Residency through June 3, 2016. To apply, CLICK HERE.
Like many independent filmmakers, Amy Seimetz was used to a certain way of working. Though familiar with bigger productions thanks to her acting roles on TV’s The Killingand other projects, she’s otherwise spent most of the last 15 years deep in the trenches of the American indie scene, working in every capacity on micro-budgeted movies with Joe Swanberg, Shane Carruth and other similarly intrepid filmmakers.
That changed in 2014, when Steven Soderbergh– a big fan of Seitmetz’s first feature,
Sun Don’t Shine – put her together with fellow director Lodge Kerrigan and handed them full creative control over a TV adaptation of Soderbergh’s film The Girlfriend Experience. Shot in Toronto last year, the series stars Riley Keough as an enterprising law student turned high-priced sex worker (it debuted in April 2016 on Starz).
Seimetz realized at an early budget meeting how different the TV world could be for a seasoned DIY-er. As she explains, “We were looking at the camera department and I said, ‘I don’t think we need two dollies.’ And they were like, ‘Um … don’t worry about it.’ Then I thought, ‘Wow, we can have two dollies – and we don’t have to use wheelchairs or a skateboard!’”
Indeed, this is a very confusing time for indie filmmakers. Of course, it’s never been easy for anyone who’s more committed to making personal work than to attracting studio gigs on summer tentpoles. But the challenges continue to intensify as competition grows for festival slots and screens, and potential financiers and distributors become ever warier of risks.
The number of theatrical releases in North America has risen precipitously in recent years – 707 were released in 2014, up more than 200 from ten years before – despite declining attendance numbers, making for an extremely complicated and crowded field.
Photo: Jeff Vespa
“The market is oversaturated,” says Justine Whyte, the director and executive producer for CFC Features. “Since there’s so much noise, it’s hard to get heard and to get people to pay attention. It’s not as easy as it was in the ‘80s or the ‘90s or the 2000s – and I can’t imagine what it’ll be like in the 2020s.”
“It’s a hard time to be an independent filmmaker,” says Toronto filmmaker Matt Johnson. “A
very hard time.” Yet it’s not impossible to get some traction, as Johnson did when his largely self-financed debut The Dirties– a caustic mock-doc about a high school shooting – earned big love at Slamdance in 2013 and won a distribution deal with Kevin Smith’s company. Johnson’s second feature, Operation Avalanche, debuted at Sundance in January and makes its Canadian premiere at Hot Docs this month.
Johnson’s friend Andrew Cividino broke through in 2015 after years of struggling to raise financing for his debut feature when Sleeping Giant– a sharply rendered coming-of-age story set in Northern Ontario’s cottage country – earned a spot at Cannes last May. But as he readies himself for the film’s theatrical release in Canada this month, he’s become aware of how much work it takes to even put a festival darling on most people’s radar. “There are just so many deserving films made every year,” he says. “When you’re done making your film, you think maybe that’s the end of it. But you’re suddenly in the position of jockeying to get attention for it."
“Even when you think you’ve done something big – like getting into Cannes for us – really that’s just the beginning. You have to keep fighting for it.”
Toronto producer and CFC Features alumnus Daniel Bekerman scored another success when The Witch– a period horror film he co-produced in Northern Ontario for American writer-director Robert Eggers – parlayed a rapturous reception at Sundance in 2015 into a wide release that grossed $30 million USD, roughly 30 times the project’s original budget. But he believes that kind of best-case-scenario for indie filmmakers – in which a bare-bones project lands a much-coveted slot at a major fest, garners a sale and breaks wide thanks to a savvy distributor – is more exceptional than it’s ever been.
“It’s become a constant improvisation,” Bekerman says of surviving in the indie film world. “That’s not just true for young filmmakers since we’re pretty much all in the same boat. Everyone has to deal with the fact that everything’s in flux.”
Whether aspiring or established, auteurs must be more adaptive than ever. Yet as resources have grown scarcer for makers of indie features, the boom in television production means that those same talents are finding opportunities they’d never expected to have only a few years ago. As big players like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon radically alter the business, TV has become a surprisingly welcoming home for filmmakers that have traditionally made do on scraps.
With The Girlfriend Experience, Seimetz and Kerrigan enter a realm that’s increasingly populated with indie-film peers like Joe Swanberg (Easy, an upcoming series for Netflix), Jim Mickle (Sundance’s Hap and Leonard), Mark and Jay Duplass (HBO’s Togetherness) and, of course, Lena Dunham, who’d surely still be making tiny movies like Tiny Furniture if HBO hadn’t come calling. Says Seimetz, “A lot of the friends I grew up with in independent film are turning to TV because it’s the new Wild West in media.”
“I’ve kind of gone full circle,” says Bekerman. “I was terrified of subscription VOD services like Netflix two or three years ago. I thought they were going to destroy essentially what was my livelihood. When they were starting, they didn’t seem as hungry for content – it was more about putting up old content and they were buying it very cheaply. Now they’re hungrier for new content and they’re actually injecting new life into the industry in a totally exciting way. So it’s been a full 180 from initially feeling like they were the death knell of independent content creation – now I feel like they’re pretty much the saviour.”
Matt Johnson – who first earned attention with the caustic web series
Nirvana the Band the Show– is also at work on a new series for Viceland.
“The model’s flipped,” he says. “It’s so risk-averse when it comes to the market forces behind feature filmmaking – nobody wants to lose money or make a mistake. Whereas because television’s kind of imploded and things have changed so much, people are willing to take crazy risks. VICE in particular is willing to put things on air that seem almost completely unmarketable. It’s like Weird Al Yankovic is controlling it circa 1981!”
MICRO-BUDGET OR BUST?
Any discussion of the state of independent cinema is inevitably complicated by conflicting definitions of “indie.” After all, even by the time Sundance was establishing Quentin Tarantino, Todd Haynes, Nicole Holofcener and other upstart auteurs of the 1990s, the word had come to connote an artistic sensibility rather than a mode of production. Confusingly, it was typically applied to a whole category of mid- and low-budget offerings that may have seemed slightly less commercial-minded than most multiplex fare but still often involved major stars and studio money (albeit filtered through boutique units like Focus, Fox Searchlight or Disney-era Miramax).
But the proliferation of micro-budgeted work through the 2000s fostered a return to the grittier tradition of American independent filmmaking minted by John Cassavetes’
Shadows back in 1959. Really, “indie” is a broad enough designation nowadays to cover a huge array of productions at various scales. After all, the number of studio releases by the big six studios dropped more than 40 percent between 2006 and 2014, slipping from 204 to 120. In 2015 there were only 103, though they claimed more than 80 per cent of the market.
The ‘90s boom also fostered the perception that the indie film world exists first and foremost as the farm system for Hollywood’s major league. Plenty of filmmakers share that notion. Fired up by the Cinderella stories of quasi-indie hits like
Little Miss Sunshine, newbies continue to dream too that they’re just one hot festival screening away from their own breakthroughs. (Many would just settle for clearing the balance on the credit cards they used to finance their shorts and features, as Kevin Smith famously did for Clerks.)
The economic reality is very different – even though markets at festivals have begun to heat up again thanks to new players like Netflix, they’ve yet to fully shake off the effects of the economic meltdown and the disappearance of many of the boutique mini-studios that had been driving the indie boom. As Justine Whyte jokes, “In 2008, I wanted to take a five-year nap. Everything was shifting and I feel like that shift is still happening."
Meanwhile, film schools continue to churn out talents eager to move up the chain. Unfortunately, even those who think they’re making all the right moves may endure a rude awakening. Andrew Cividino found that to be the case when his success as a maker of shorts failed to translate into a shot at a feature. “When you’re coming out of film school, you think, ‘How can I go about achieving what I want?’” he says. “And I thought that the linear path would be to go and make a number of shorts and if they achieved success on the festival circuit and won awards, that would then position me to make my feature from a professional standpoint. That really didn’t turn out to be true.”
It was a conversation with Matt Johnson – who spent his summers on the same beach where Cividino’s family had a cottage and where he’d eventually shoot
Sleeping Giant– that forced him to realize the DIY route was the only way to go. “He basically said, ‘You’ve done everything right and you’ve checked all the boxes and it still hasn’t clicked.’ That’s when I decided, ‘Well, maybe I just have to go out and make something – otherwise I’m gonna wait forever.’”
Already slim, the financing for Sleeping Giant fell through when he was first ready shoot it in 2013. Not wanting to lose the chance to work with actors who’d soon be too old for their roles, he shot a short version of Sleeping Giant before scrambling to make the feature the following year on a micro-budget largely derived from arts grants.
The ability to go bare-bones is essential for any filmmaker looking to survive in the current climate. As Bekerman says, “You definitely need to be flexible and willing enough to be able to throw out a model you thought was rock-solid five minutes ago.”
At the same time, Bekerman believes that the micro-budget model can’t be a strategy that works across the board. “The big elephant in the room for any conversation about micro-budgets is the question, ‘Are we professionals? Are we doing this for a living? And are the people who are helping us make these things all independently wealthy and don’t have to worry about money?’"
“At a certain point you have to address that if you’re talking about making micro-budgets forever. If you’re all independently wealthy, great, go for it. But you also have to respect this is people’s lives and their livelihood. Doing every movie for $10,000 isn’t enough to have a viable industry. It’s something I’ve done and I’ve got a lot out of doing but it’s something I’d only do again or advise anyone else to do if it was absolutely the right choice for that particular project.”
There are also the artistic limitations that come with working on a micro-budget scale. As Seimetz says, “It becomes very difficult to make certain things for certain amounts of money.” Another point she makes – and this is a common lament for filmmakers preparing to ask their friends to commit time to a third or fourth project for no compensation beyond the occasional case of beer – is “you can’t keep asking for favours.”
Yet knowing how to do something for nothing has considerable advantages besides maintaining artistic control over the work. “That was 100 per cent my path to success,” says Johnson. “After making a film on my own with my friends and using all our own money, we could then go to a studio and say, ‘Hey, I could do something bigger if I was making a movie with you guys.’”
Photo: Matthew Miller
Contrary to the prevailing wisdom that mid-budget movie prospects are rarer than hen’s teeth, Johnson insists that the studios are very much looking out for indie talents able to trade up into films in the sub-$5 million range. “In fact,” says Johnson, “I would say the development departments of every major studio are exclusively looking for those people.” (It’s telling that the makers of the
Star Wars and Marvel franchises have sought to revitalize their respective universes with the help of former Sundance breakouts like Rian Johnson, Gareth Edwards and Taika Waititi.)
Seimetz believes her ilk are uniquely positioned to take advantage of the new possibilities offered by the likes of Amazon, FX and Hulu. “For the people who have done micro-budget stuff for years and years and are now making that shift to television, it’s a dream come true because they can already do things in a thrifty manner,” she says. “The budgets we’re getting offered for TV are … I don’t know, 10, 20, 30, 40 times the money. To the TV people they think some of these shows are relatively cheap and we’re like, ‘Well, I can make 10 movies for this kind of money!’”
Having assumed every possible role on a set already – from performing to line producing to operating cameras and mikes – she also knows the value of what she learned in those trenches. “I never wanted to be in a situation where someone was telling me yes and no and I just had to accept those reasons why we can or can’t do something,” she says.
“There are people that just want a paycheque and want to direct and are happy to do it in the industry format. But if you want to be self-sufficient and want to make the stories you want to make, you’ve gotta know all this other stuff. As it is in any field, knowledge is power and anyone who has the secret knowledge over your head, knows they have a little bit of power over you.”
BUILDING A FILMMAKER-FRIENDLY FUTURE
Whether it’s the icy cool of The Girlfriend Experience or the stylish paranoia of Mr. Robot, there are innumerable signs that TV has become a whole lot more welcoming to the kinds of risky moves that used to be solely the domain of indie cinema. The problem for filmmakers may now be surviving in the wilderness long enough to establish their voices and build the skills they need to thrive in the new paradigm (which, as it so happens, is likely to stay in flux).
No wonder Justine Whyte feels so worried about the sustainability of filmmakers’ careers. “When I support them, I’m trying to think about where they’re going next,” she says. “I have to ask myself, ‘Am I putting them out to get slaughtered?’” That’s why she wants new filmmakers to be ready to capitalize on the moment should their first features actually get some heat. “It’s your one time – hopefully, that is, since it’s not guaranteed – that you have people’s attention,” she says. “This is your opportunity to talk about what’s next so you need to have something ready.”
In that spirit, Cividino is hoping his Sleeping Giant momentum will aid his plans for We Ate the Children Last, a feature adaptation of a Yann Martel story that Cividino already fashioned into a post-apocalyptic sci-fi short in 2011.
Johnson emphasizes the need for filmmakers to be adaptive, too – after all, Canada boasts a far greater pool of funding for television shows and even web series than indie films. Nevertheless, he believes that a publicly financed system like Canada’s has a unique opportunity to support indie talent. Indeed, he says the smartest thing Telefilm Canada could do to foster newbie auteurs is to dramatically expand its existing program for micro-budget productions for emergent filmmakers. He calls the current one “one one-hundredth of the size it should be or could be,” his rationale being that “you need 100 failures to make one success and filmmaking is a failure-based enterprise.” Perhaps those failures will engender a hardier generation of newbie auteurs.
Dan Bekerman – whose slate of fresh projects include director Nadia Litz’s second feature
The People Garden and 22 Chaser, a thriller developed and produced by CFC Features – also thinks filmmakers ought to be excited by TV’s embrace of riskier fare like The Girlfriend Experience and what that bodes for the state of cinema, too.
As he says, “My hope is that it will encourage people to be bolder with the kinds of things they’re making and be bolder in sticking to their guns and trying to tell stories with conviction rather than watering them down. Because it’s becoming pretty clear that the watered-down stuff is what’s dying out.”
