Latest posts from National Screen Institute - Canada (NSI)

A dishwasher’s dream of becoming a professional chef takes a step closer to reality when an unlikely alliance is forged with a local streetwalker who trades her culinary expertise for the regular meals he provides.

Creative team

Writer/director: Matt David Johnson
Producer: Alexz Johnson

Filmmaker’s statement

The inspiration for the The Dishwasher came from late nights driving through East Vancouver. Every night I would pass young women standing by the roadside, cold and resolute, and it was a rare occasion I saw the same girl twice.

Initially frustrated, as the days wore on I grew increasingly empathetic towards why someone would choose prostitution as a solution, realizing the answer was obvious. For many, they felt they didn’t have any choice. The question then became for me, “What could change their minds?”

Co-funding for this project was provided though a grant from the TELUS STORYHIVE Digital Shorts initiative, awarded through public voting and a jury process.

Casting was held in Vancouver, and this project was shot over three days in the century-old Gospel Mission in East Van, the culinary kitchens of The Art Institute of Vancouver, and the wonderfully grimy landmark restaurant Helen’s Diner on Main Street. It’s my pleasure that our film was also chosen as the winner of the BC chapter.

From a filmmaking perspective, I enjoyed experimenting with juxtaposition, flow and movement, and working with vignettes in approach to framing. Cinematography was crafted by the wildly talented Cole Graham, with Clairmont Cameras generously accommodating our use of the ARRI Alexa.

Musically, with so much emotion needing to be expressed through sound, I was thrilled to work with independent singer-songwriter Alexz Johnson who developed two original songs for the film. To point out that I shamelessly exploited the fact that she is also my younger sister is, frankly, neither here nor there. (Drifting and There’s a War are both now available on iTunes.)

Our score composition, which merges a mix of clinking and clattering utensils with classical elements, was designed by Marko Koumoulos and Matthew Chung in a sound experience I’ve fondly labelled our ‘cutlery orchestra.’ And credit must also be given to re-recording artist Gregor Phillips for bringing all those sound elements together with such grace.

Though shot in Vancouver, my goal was to create a story that could represent any city anywhere, since the underlying issues of prostitution, sex trafficking, familial disconnection – and perhaps even being an under-appreciated newcomer in unfamiliar places – are prevalent across the world.

And if this little story can serve as a subtle reminder there is a war going on, and every life lost to the streets is worth saving, then so much the better.

About Matt David Johnson

Matt David Johnson is an independent Canadian filmmaker, general business contractor and entrepreneur.

Drawn to performance at a young age, he attended the Gastown Actors Studio before appearing in several national commercials and television shows (Disney’s So Weird, Stargate SG-1, Psych) and becoming on-screen host and co-producer of CTV’s The Best of BC, producing over 150 segments with the network.

A psychological sci-fi love story that sees Dawn travel across the infinite multiverse all without leaving her living room.

Creative team

Writer/director: Jamie Alain
Producers: Todd Giroux, Jamie Alain

Filmmaker’s statement

Producer Todd Giroux and I had been talking about Collider for the past three or four years, constantly sending each other articles about new theories and advancements in the field of quantum physics and, specifically, parallel universes.

Todd grew up reading Scientific American magazine and I grew up reading the Fantastic Four, and between his understanding of the Higgs Boson and my knowledge of the Interdimensional Council of Reeds (sorry, nerdy comic book joke), we quickly came up with 100 different cool scenarios for a movie.

But it wasn’t until I found the character of Dawn, a scientist crippled with grief over the loss of her partner, that the story really crystallized for us. Set over the span of one night, Dawn is able to live out the fantasy of anyone who’s suffered a loss and see that person one last time, though her actions are not without their consequences.

Having dealt with that kind of profound loss at various stages of my life, the different ways we deal with grief has always been something that resonated with me. By setting Collider in the world of theoretical science and quantum physics I was able tell a story of loss and love in a hopefully unique and interesting way.

About Jamie Alain

Jamie Alain is an award-winning filmmaker and editor, best known for his work on films like Daydream Nation, Flowers in the Attic and That Burning Feeling as well as the television series Continuum and Olympus.

Collider is Jamie’s return to directing after a 10-year absence. His last short film, Toreador, won the Golden Sheaf for best experimental short film at the Yorkton Film Festival.

A tragic short comedy featuring Serbian film diva Rada Đuričin as a woman whose passion for Yuri Gagarin is still as strong as when it was first set aflame after Gagarin’s launch in 1961.

Creative team

Writer/directors: René Nuijens, Steve Korver
Producers: René Nuijens, Marko Nicolic

Filmmaker’s statement

By visiting and documenting the major settings of Yuri Gagarin’s bizarre and dramatic life we aim to capture the essence of both the man who is dead and the myth that is still very much alive.

This is our third tribute film to Yuri Gagarin and we are finishing number four at the moment. The films are all about people who admire Yuri Gagarin so much but they are mostly alone in their passion.

The animations and titles that are part of the movie are made by designer Celia Rosa and design studio ADDIKT. They combine old elements from the USSR space design time in the sixties with contemporary elements. They have a strong retro look which supports the time and feeling the woman in the film lived in.

The film is shot in Belgrade, Serbia where we found this amazing actress. She learned the text by heart in Russian and put so much of herself into the film.

We also published a photo booklet with a selection of 10 fascinating Gagarin monuments and souvenirs from the Soviet time. Some still have a heroic appearance, some are dilapidated, some are of great artistic values, some are quite kitsch. The booklet won the BLURB Award for self-publishing books and can still be ordered via Steve Korver’s website.

About René Nuijens

René Nuijens grew up as the son of a pet-shop owner in a village near Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

He finished the Amsterdam Graphic School, studied photography at the Royal Art Academy in the Hague and has worked in New York.

Straight after finishing at the academy René started work as a pop photographer for magazines and making alternative music videos.

Now he works as a director and photographer on national and international commercial assignments and on personal projects like publishing art books, making short films on Yuri Gagarin and runs the Road to Gagarin Facebook page. René is based in the old town of Amsterdam.

About Steve Korver

Steve Korver is an Amsterdam-based freelance writer/editor. After years of travel subsidised by carpentry and B-movie acting, he first came to Amsterdam in 1992 to reverse the journey his parents made as immigrants to Canada.

He settled down to become a freelance columnist, copywriter, editor/writer of guide books, and contributor to such publications as New York Times, Guardian, Time Out, McSweeney’s Quarterly, Conde Nast Traveller and The Globe & Mail covering such subjects as food/drink, sex/relationships, design/architecture, Yuri Gagarin, Serbian gangster kitsch and all things Amsterdam.

Between 2005 and 2009 Steve was the editor-in-chief of the alternative weekly Amsterdam Weekly for 175 issues and 14 European newspaper awards. Attracted to the idea of more varying deadlines, he returned to his freelancing roots in 2009.

For the past four years, he has been Googling ‘sex’ almost every morning as research for his weekly column ‘Sex in the Press’ for the award-winning global platform Love Matters.