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Festival season brings out York talent
York students, faculty and alumni were a strong presence at this year's Toronto International Film Festival and the Canadian Student Film Festival in Montreal About 3,000 films are previewed by the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) programming team each year, with roughly 10 per cent making it onto the big screen during the 10-day event. And each year, TIFF – which ranks alongside Cannes as one of the most important film fetes in the world – sweeps the city with Hollywood glamour. Taking their place on the celebrity list at this year's festival, which ran from Sept. 8-18, were several members, past and present, of York's Film Department. Newly-minted York alumna Tess Girard's award-winning short film Benediction (11 min.) blurs the boundaries between narrative, experimental and documentary film. "A meditation on loss and impermanence, it is a filmmaker's last attempt to pay homage to those things left and leaving," said Girard (BFA '05), who undertook all the creative and technical work for the entire production. 
Right: An image from Tess Girard's Benediction TIFF's Myrocia Watamaniuk wrote, "Director Tess Girard's camera acts as the heart's proxy, giving visual form to those memories one hopes will never fade." Girard won a special jury citation for Benediction at the national Student Film Showcase, hosted by the Toronto International Film Festival Group last May. Her award was a 2005 TIFF screening and industry pass. Last week, Benediction took the Norman McLaren Award, a $1,000 prize given by the National Film Board for best overall production, at the 36th Canadian Student Film Festival in Montreal. Also on the TIFF playbill was Day of John (16 min.), by fourth-year York film student Chris Nash. Classified as a horror/comedy/drama, Nash's genre-bending production "set in the small town of Desbarats, Ont., Day of John revolves around high-school teacher John Travis," said Nash. "The worst year of his life starts when his most promising student asked him to drive her to an abortion clinic in plain view of the parent of another student. From this point on, things only get worse as a broken family, a religious fanatic, a satanic letter carrier, a mob boss and other community members show John that sometimes the only way to see a way out is from the bottom." 
Right: A scene from Chris Nash's Day of John Nash grew up on a steady diet of horror films, and ever since he can remember, there has always been a dark undertone to everything he's written. "I started writing more dark comedies, always with some sort of underdog angle where the victim turns into the hero. I guess Day of John is a great example of both of those things coming together in one piece," explained Nash. Nash has found previous success with his productions. Last February, his short film Hawaii won first place in the open category at the Shadows of the Mind festival in Sault Ste. Marie. Hawaii also took the grand prize at Cinéfest Sudbury's MCTV Videomakers' competition, awarding Nash the funding he needed to take Day of John from script to screen. York film graduate Ryan Redford's (BFA ‘01) Lake (20 min.) is described by TIFF writer Angie Driscoll as "a languid, romantic tale of amnesia by baptism", Lake tells the story of a woman who turns up at a stranger's house and asks him to take her to the lake. Together they embark on a mysterious quest in search of renewal. 
Left: Ryan Redford's Lake Benediction, Day of John and Lake are part of the Short Cuts Canada series which boasts a selection of the very best short films from across the country, by both established directors and promising new filmmakers. "I am awestruck by some of the young filmmakers and some of the ones whose work I have followed since I was a film studies student," said TIFF managing director Michéle Maheu. York talent is also showcased in TIFF's feature film lineup. One of the productions creating a lot of buzz and "twang" is the Canadian premiere of The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico, an alt-country mockumentary starring a host of contemporary music legends, including York ethnomusicologist Rob Bowman. 
Right: A scene from The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico Also generating a lot of excitement is the world premiere of Whole New Thing, a captivating coming-of-age drama co-written and directed by York film Professor Amnon Buchbinder. Awarded four stars as a "must-see" in NOW magazine's Sept. 1 film festival previews, Whole New Thing is set in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, and revolves around 13-year-old Emerson Thorsen (played by Canadian actor Aaron Webber), who has been home-schooled by his eco-hippie parents (actors Rebecca Jenkins and Robert Joy) in a household of casual nudity and sexual openness. Emerson's lack of aptitude in math sees him sent off to the local school, where he meets English teacher Don Grant (Daniel MacIvor), who becomes the object of the boy's affections. "I felt from the first moment that there was the potential to take something that could be really creepy and inappropriate, and use it to look at one of life's most beautiful things – the purity of first love," said Buchbinder. "Something about the contrast seemed a good way to look at love and see some things about it that we don't often notice." 
Left: From left, actors Robert Joy, Aaron Webber and Rebecca Jenkins in a scene from Whole New Thing Whole New Thing is Buchbinder's second feature film. His critically-acclaimed, Genie Award-winning first feature, The Fishing Trip (1998), made in collaboration with his York students, was likewise launched at TIFF. Just two weeks earlier, forty-nine original films competed at the 36th annual Canadian Student Film Festival in Montreal. Among these coveted spots on the program are seven productions by York film students and alumni. These young filmmakers were vying for the Kodak Imaging Award for Best New Canadian Student Director. In addition to bragging rights, this top prize – worth $5,000 – included a 10-day trip to the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and screening of the winning film at the Kodak Emerging Filmmakers Showcase at Cannes. York film students have won the Kodak Imaging Award for two years in a row. In 2004, Suzana Dinevski (MFA '04) walked away with the prize for her thesis film The Children of 1948. Dinevski followed in the footsteps of Wendi Marchioni (BFA '04), who captured the award in 2003 for her third-year project Winter Days. Looking to maintain the winning streak with their graduation productions are newly-minted York alumni John Ibbitson (For My Father), Tess Girard (Benediction), Farhad Farazmand (Mandrake) and Brendon Foster-Algoo (Mantis), all of whom graduated in June with a BFA in film. Also in the running are master's student Shana MacDonald, with her film Self Seeking Frenzy, and fourth-year students Igor Drljaca (Rana) and Raha Esfahani (Misspelled Weather). Here's a glimpse of the York productions: For My Father (8 minutes) is an alternative process film that serves as an apology from Ibbitson to his father, Alan Ibbitson, for years of misunderstanding and miscommunication between the two. Girard's Benediction (11 min.) blurs the boundaries between narrative, experimental and documentary productions. In Mantis (35 min.), writer, director and producer Foster-Algoo explores the story of Adam Merritt and his children, who endure emotional, psychological and physical abuse at the hands of his wife. When Adam finally takes a stand against the abuse, he faces an even tougher battle against a biased legal system which threatens to destroy his life and his family completely. Shana MacDonald stars in her film Self Seeking Frenzy (7 minutes) which she also produced and directed. An experimental film, it is a self-portrait that deals with the complexities of female sexuality. "The film is inspired by the films of Carolee Schneemann and the American Avant Garde film movement of the 1960s," said MacDonald. Rana (13 min.), written, directed and co-designed by Drljaca, is set in the midst of the Bosnian war. It tells the tale of Mirza and his grandmother, who are left to fend for themselves until a stranger enters their lives. Written, directed and co-produced by Esfahani, Misspelled Weather (15 min.) tells the story of an eleven-year-old spelling bee winner who has qualified for the national championship, but is ensnared in the disquietude of her father forsaking the family. "The nature of family has always been an important issue for me," explained Esfahani. The oldest film festival in Canada, the Canadian Student Film Festival was founded in 1969 with the aim to discover and promote new talent. Passionate about the opportunity to offer student filmmakers well-deserved recognition for their work, the Montreal International World Film Festival incorporated the programming of the student film festival into its own in 1985. With articles from Y-File: York's daily online newsletter |
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