Latest posts from National Screen Institute - Canada (NSI)

Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has made several screening and talent development announcements for this year’s fest and a number of NSI grads are featured in the programming.

Film screenings

Falls Around Her from director Darlene Naponse (NSI Features First)

Giant Little Ones from writer/director Keith Behrman and exec producer Daniel Bekerman (both NSI Features First)

Biidaaban (The Dawn Comes) (pictured) from writer/director/producer Amanda Strong (NSI IndigiDocs)

TIFF Filmmaker Lab

David I. Strasser (TELUS STORYHIVE)

Tracey Deer (NSI Storytellers, Featuring Aboriginal Stories Program)

Telefilm Canada’s Pitch This! competition

Josh Epstein (NSI Drama Prize, NSI Features First, NSI Totally Television) with Saint Joan’s Seven

• • •

We’ll post further NSI alumni updates as TIFF unveils more of their programming over the next month.

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NarcoLeap, a STORYHIVE 100K-funded web series from director/exec producer Kate Green (NSI Totally Television, NSI Lifestyle & Reality Series Producer), is now streaming on the CBC TV app.

The series follows a young narcoleptic woman who discovers that, during her lucid dreams, she’s commandeering the bodies of real people across the world.

All eight episodes, which range from eight to 15 minutes, are available to stream on the app now.

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The community of Nain in northern Labrador is rich with breathtaking landscapes and people with a strong storytelling history.

Created through the St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival’s FRAMED film educations series, in partnership with the Nunatsiavut Government, this film explores throat singing – a special talent and traditional game for both fun and public entertainment, which was nearly destroyed but has since been revived.

Creative team

Directors: Caroline Nochasak, Heather Angnatok, Jason Dicker, Jennifer Semigak, Joshua Jararuse, Matmatil Angnatok, Maxwell Saksagiak, Nancy Nochasak, Sarah Semigak Lidd, Jenn Brown, Troy Maher
Producer: Jenn Brown

Filmmakers’ statement

On behalf of the FRAMED Nain team, we’d like to thank everyone involved with the project and to acknowledge the St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival and their film mentor crew, along with the Nunatsiavut Government, for the opportunity to make our film.

About the filmmakers

In July 2015, the St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival partnered with the Nunatsiavut Government to bring their FRAMED film education series to northern Labrador, creating short films with youth participants in Nain and Hopedale.

Led by professional filmmakers, the five-day film camp started with the basics of filmmaking and trained participants to use the gear, followed by two shoot days, two editing days, and wrapped by watching a rough cut of their film.

FRAMED has been empowering and training youth to share their stories for 18 years.

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Everyone has ‘that’ friend – the one who shows up uninvited, drinks all your booze and hits on your girlfriend – who we all secretly hate.

One night, a group of friends decide enough is enough and there’s only one way to get rid of him for good: they MUST KILL KARL.

Creative team

Writer: Karen Moore
Director: Joe Kicak
Producers: Karen Moore, Ryan West, Robin Crumley, Joe Kicak

Filmmakers’ statement

We wanted our first project together to be a comedy – we’re an IRL couple, so it seemed like we’d have better odds of not destroying our relationship if we were at least working on something fun.

From there, we started talking about how we all have that one person in our lives that we despise, but can’t seem to get rid of – the ‘Karl.’

In real life, you’re low on options – breaking up with a friend isn’t really something people do, is it? Hence the dark fantasy version of eliminating someone from your life that became the film.

The short is a proof-of-concept for a feature film, which is currently in development with Broken Compass Films and part of the 2018 NSI Features First program.

Must Kill Karl was shot in Toronto, Ontario over two nights in June 2016 during the summer solstice … perhaps not the best time to shoot an entirely exterior night-dependent film in hindsight.

Our incredible art department, led by Rosalie Mackintosh, built the rotting deck on top of the existing beautiful one on the fourth floor walk-up. Bless their hearts.

The film was financed with a grant from Bravo!FACT and produced as part of the Toronto Indie Production (TIP) program with ACTRA Toronto and the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA).

Since its inception, and especially while on our festival run, we’ve been consistently approached by friends and strangers alike, eager to tell us who their ‘Karl’ is and how they’ve wanted to get rid of them. After all this, there’s one thing we know for sure: if you don’t think you have a ‘Karl’ in your life … you are the ‘Karl.’ – Joe Kicak and Karen Moore

About Joe Kicak

Joe Kicak is a Toronto-based director and creator. He’s currently directing the entire first season of the youth series Detention Adventure (10×11 min)for CBC, which he also co-created and wrote multiple episodes.

Joe’s proof-of-concept short film, Must Kill Karl, has screened at over 25 international film festivals (including Austin Film Festival, Cinequest Film Festival, and HollyShorts) and won numerous awards including the Golden Sheaf award for Best Comedy (Yorkton Film Festival 2018) and Best Direction (LA Comedy Fest 2017). The feature version of the film is currently in development with the 2018 NSI Features First program.

His previous directing credits include the award-winning short film Frigid created with the generous participation of the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Arts Council, and the award-winning short film Distilled Love, which received the National Screen Institute’s Drama Prize.

His feature film, Two Days Till Tomorrow, screened at festivals across North America and won a limited Canadian theatrical release with AMC theatres.

About Karen Moore

Karen Moore is an award-winning Toronto-based writer and producer of narrative television and films. She is currently a supervising producer/writer on Mary Kills People for Lifetime/Global and an executive producer/writer on Detention Adventure for CBC.

Karen is part of the 2018 NSI Features First program with her feature film, Must Kill Karl, based on the award-winning proof-of-concept BravoFACT short film of the same name.

Other television writing and story editing credits include the CBC comedy series Workin’ Moms (Seasons 1 and 2), Rookie Blue for ABC/Global, and What Would Sal Do? for Crave.

She wrote and produced the BravoFACT drama, Your Place or Mine, and the award-winning short, Frozen Marbles. She is a graduate of Ryerson University’s Radio and Television Arts program (BA).

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In a desperate attempt to connect with her ghostly schizophrenic father, a young woman tampers with his medication.

Creative team

Writer/director/producer: Jacinthe Dessureault

Filmmaker’s statement

Fog (Brumes) was shot on a microbudget over two weekends with a barebones (and very generous) cast and crew.

The film illustrates the cruel catch-22 that schizophrenia can be for some people.

On the one hand, taking medication can dull the senses and imprison the sufferer inside a debilitating mental fog. On the other hand, not taking medication is an even worse option, as the person is still unable to function and can also become a danger to himself/herself and to others.

In other words, for some sufferers, there is no right solution. Only bad options. I find this heartbreaking.

With Fog, I wanted to walk a mile in the shoes of such a sufferer, as well as in the shoes of a close family member, a caregiver, on whom the illness also has an impact. Two people living together, but in parallel, separated by an invisible wall.

Fog first started as a feature screenplay (now titled Twilight State). Initially, the short film was meant to be a proof of concept to introduce Twilight State and two of its main characters. However, I didn’t want the short to simply be an extract from the feature version. I wanted it to be autonomous, with its own storyline. Which is what it became.

Now that I have made Fog and seen the characters come to life thanks to its wonderful actors, I look at the feature screenplay in a different light. The short film is influencing the rewrite. An interesting twist!

About Jacinthe Dessureault

Jacinthe Dessureault holds an MA in French (creative writing) from McGill University.

Her screenplays have placed in top US screenwriting competitions including the AMPAS-sponsored Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting competition (screenplay: Beyond, 2004 semifinalist).

Her short film screenplay Borrowed Life won the CBC/Writers Guild of Canada prize for best English language screenplay at the 2008 Court écrire ton cours workshop. Two of her feature film projects (Dark Antoine and Jusqu’à ce que la chance nous sépare) were awarded a development grant from SODEC and a comedic horror screenplay she co-wrote with Craig A. Schwartz (Friendly) received great reactions and has been through countless false starts (may the next one be the right one!).

Jacinthe has directed short films, TV commercials and videos for the web. She looks forward to tackling her first low-budget feature, and her first novel – a young adult comedy titled Igloo High – is released in fall 2018.

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