Latest posts from National Screen Institute - Canada (NSI)

INK

Posted: 08 May 2018 12:18 PM PDT

A traumatized woman seeks penance and personal transformation through tattooing after surviving a devastating pregnancy.

One night, drenched in booze and ink, her deepest fears threaten to consume her.

Creative team

Writer/director: Ashlea Wessel
Producers: Alex Lawrence, Ashlea Wessel

Filmmaker’s statement

At its inception, INK wasn’t a film but a visual image. Being a photographer, my life is based on just that: one visual image at a time. I see a vignette in my head and the rest of the world blooms around it.

When it came time to create a story around my image, I knew immediately what kind of character I wanted to create because I wanted to see someone like me up there: who’s neither the typical ‘leading lady’ nor the stereotype of the oddball, goth-y, tattooed, punk, what have you. She’s a real woman whose proclivities become a crutch amid her psychological turmoil. It’s something that could happen to anyone. Just with a bit more ink.

The pain and guilt that she’s dealing with are raw and real, and I think can speak to fears that most women in the world must face at some point whether child rearing is a part of their life or not. It’s the fear and mistrust of one’s own body and, in relation to that, what it means to have the ability to create new life.

Aside from the dark and psychological, I can never resist a creature, and especially not one with plenty of ingrained metaphor attached. It’s important to me to have a little bit of fantasy/make-believe in my art because, well, it’s super fun to create and, even in its darkest moments, I want it to be fun to experience.

I think INK is a film that can be enjoyed by all kinds of weirdos. It’s dark, creepy, psychological, sad, strange, stylish and sometimes gross. Pretty much everything I was aiming for in my first film.

About Ashlea Wessel

Ashlea Wessel is a first time filmmaker and award-winning photographer, hailing from Toronto, Canada.

Ashlea’s still photography work has been described as cinematic and her unique aesthetic translates seamlessly into the medium of narrative film. She is inspired by the weird and wonderful; the things only unearthed from the darkest corners of the imagination.

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Dinette

Posted: 08 May 2018 12:08 PM PDT

In 1948, two women meet at a diner. One of them has a secret. The other one knows it.

Creative team

Writer: Gwynne Phillips
Directors: Gwynne Phillips, Christopher Lazar
Producers: Gwynne Phillips, Briana Templeton

Filmmakers’ statement

This film is the fourth collaboration between historically-inspired sketch duo The Templeton Philharmonic (Gwynne Phillips and Briana Templeton) and director Christopher Lazar.

Having produced mostly comedic short films, Gwynne wrote Dinette as an experiment to see what would happen if two femme fatales confronted each other in a dramatic 1940’s tête-à-tête. Dinette had its premiere at the Canadian Film Festival in Toronto.

About Gwynne Phillips

Gwynne Phillips is a Toronto-based actor, writer and director best known for her work with sketch duo The Templeton Philharmonic who have won numerous awards across Canada and the US. including best comedy duo at the LA Comedy Festival.

She has appeared in multiple national commercials and several television shows including HBO’s Sensitive Skin starring Kim Cattrall, The Comedy Network’s The Beaverton and PBS’s Emmy-winning series Odd Squad.

Her original short film, The Break In, was shortlisted for the Jameson First Shot screenwriting competition in 2015. Gwynne was a contributing writer for CBC’s The Irrelevant Show and is the co-creator of Womanish on CBC Comedy.

About Christopher Lazar

Chris has cultivated a diverse body of work that explores mediums and genres of all forms including commercials, music videos, web series, short films and documentaries. His work has been broadcast on CBC, Much Music, CMT, Bravo, Funny or Die, YouTube, Vimeo and iTunes.

In January 2014, Chris released his first feature-length documentary Urbnet Live, featuring Canadian hip-hop artists Moka Only, D-Sisive, DL Incognito, Kae Sun, Wordburglar, Elaquent and Animal Nation.

Later that year, Chris began production on Rude Canadians, a documentary about stand-up comedy and the legal borders imposed on free speech in Canada. As a result, Chris’s approach to storytelling has been shaped by the drama and excitement that reality-based content has to offer.

Not to be confined by any genre, Chris’s goal is to engage audiences with real emotional experiences in every market from web-based media, advertising and music videos, to documentaries, television and feature films.

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