Latest posts from National Screen Institute - Canada (NSI)

Creative Futures

Posted: 11 Jul 2019 09:52 AM PDT

People think trans kids have no future. But by immersing us in their VR art, we see that another world is possible.

Creative Futures brings together three transgender youth to design their futures using Google’s Tilt Brush, a virtual reality painting application.

Creative team

Directors/producers: Scout Windsor, Dylan Paré

Filmmakers’ statement

Foremost, we wanted to create media that spoke to pressing issues in our community and we were excited about the potential of virtual reality (VR) to change the way we tell and experience stories. Bringing together new VR storytelling capabilities with new narratives about trans youth made by trans youth was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up.

When we came up with the concept for this film, we wanted to change the mainstream media narrative about transgender youth which depicts the harsh realities of a world that excludes those who do not fit gender norms. By working with trans youth to design creative representations of their ideal futures in VR, these youth show us another world is possible.

VR creative tools can open up storytelling to new creators, such as the youth in our documentary who had never before used VR. We were blown away by the impactful stories and art the youth created in just one weekend. We hope audiences will be inspired by the youth’s stories and will want to support trans youth to tell their own stories and make positive changes in the world.

Our documentary captures the youth designing their worlds and voicing their visions, and combines shots of real life and virtual environments to blend the boundaries in between. The project also has a complementary 360º immersive story (link is available at the end of the documentary) that transports viewers inside the virtual art to experience the youth’s visions for their futures.

About Scout Windsor and Dylan Paré

Scout Windsor is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist whose work focuses on character and creature design. Her current focus on digital sculpting is informed by previous work in costume construction, traditional clay sculpting and resin casting.

Scout’s designs are influenced by a fascination with speculative fiction, talking animals and surreal worlds. Her previous clients include Oculus, Microsoft and Masterpiece VR.

Dylan Paré is a PhD student in learning sciences at the University of Calgary Werklund School of Education. They research and design for public science engagement with a primary focus on gender and sexuality, using the affordances of new technologies to enable individual meaning-making and socio-scientific exploration.

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Dreams of the Dead

Posted: 11 Jul 2019 09:44 AM PDT

A first-person journey propelled by memory and dreams.

When the filmmaker’s grandmother dies a sudden and traumatic death, the house and small farm that had been the emotional hub of the family becomes a portal to the past. But suburban development is encroaching and the house is sold.

With its demolition looming, the filmmaker takes us on a compelling journey through grief and transformation.

Creative team

Writer: Marlene Rodgers
Directors/producers: Marlene Rodgers, Franco Pante

Filmmakers’ statement

In Dreams of the Dead, we are seeking to capture some magic – magic that reveals the meaning hidden within the objects and places that surround us, making us feel that every moment of our own histories is simultaneously present, that nothing that we love can ever really be lost.

The film began with a box of negatives found in the house that Marlene’s grandparents, Baka and Dido, had lived in since immigrating from Croatia in 1938. The photos, taken on a Brownie camera, documented the family’s life on their two-acre farm in a Vancouver suburb. It was a place that, for Marlene, seemed to exist outside of time. Baka and Dido kept sheep, they had a wine press and a smoke shack. Laundry was done on a ringer washer.

When Baka died suddenly and traumatically from a fall, her death presaged another loss: the loss of the farm.

Suburban development had been circling the property for years; when the farm was sold and the house slated for demolition, the prospect of this loss was daunting for the family. We decided to film the demolition, and years later, we have put together this personal essay about how grief binds us to places and material objects that embody all we have loved and lost.

Dreams of the Dead has allowed us to think deeply about the experience of loss. The tension between our instinct to hold on to the past and the need to embrace life’s transience is a fundamental part of our experience as humans. We hope audiences will enjoy being part of this very personal exploration and invite you to participate in The Memory Project on our website.

About Marlene Rodgers and Franco Pante

Marlene and Franco make films driven by their personal passions, while working in feature film, television and short film – Marlene as a writer and story editor and Franco as a picture editor.

Marlene wrote and produced the award-winning dramatic short Foxy Lady, Wild Cherry which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and sold in multiple territories, and attended the TIFF Talent Lab with her feature script Skin to Skin. Dreams of the Dead is her first film as a director.

Franco Pante is an award-winning editor whose credits include the CTV television feature Elijah and the CBC series Arctic Air. He previously directed the documentary Blood Makes the Grass Grow about conscientious objectors during the Gulf War.

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A Short Documentary About People Fighting

Posted: 11 Jul 2019 09:36 AM PDT

Strangers pair up to fight on camera. Consensual violence is, bizarrely, quite intimate.

There was only one hospital visit while making this film.

Creative team

Director: Solmund MacPherson
Producer: Allegra Chiarella

Filmmaker’s statement

Pairing strangers up to fight on camera started as a joke, but I’m glad we followed through. My initial casting call garnered almost 100 responses which slowly dwindled down as people realized I was serious.

If you’ve never been in a fight, or if you object to violence altogether, I hope you reconsider after seeing how tender consensual violence can be.

If you’re curious to see before and after photos of the fighters, take a look here: solmund.com/shiners.

About Solmund MacPherson

Solmund grew up in the theatre, came to adolescence as a travelling circus merchant and spent their formative years fervently clutching a camera. Nowadays they have one foot in filmmaking, the other in visual art and both in the grave.

Their work has been recognized with screenings and awards across North America, Italy and Australia.

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