Latest posts from National Screen Institute - Canada (NSI)

When little Audrey’s potted plant dies, the tot’s deepest fears take over her wildly growing imagination.

Classic animation meets a classically told child’s fable in this visual stunner.

Creative team

Writer/director/co-producer: Kyle Rideout

Filmmaker’s statement

When I was just a boy in kindergarten my teacher, Miss House, told the class somewhat seriously, “If you learn anything from me, learn this, never lose your imagination.”

I was terrified, worrying constantly that one day my imagination might accidentally fall into the barbecue or out the car window on to the freeway. But it didn’t. It’s still here. It’s the place where this story is bred and nurtured with every last droplet squeezed out with love.

About Kyle Rideout

Kyle Rideout has rapidly gained both public and critical acclaim for his films.

Eadweard marks his first feature film showcasing his distinctive visual style. His shorts, Hop the Twig and Wait for Rain won best short on the national TV series CBC Short Film Face Off and best fantasy short at Comic-Con respectively.

Both shorts have played international festivals to critical acclaim. Kyle is also an established actor with over 40 credits in theatre, film and voice-over work.

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Sad Bear collects people’s saddest objects to help them process past regrets. People are generally amenable to this except for Steve, who can’t let go of his prized possession.

Creative team

Writer/director: Joe LoBianco
Director: Liz Cairns
Producer: Erica Landrock

Director’s statement

Joe LoBianco and Liz Cairns say:

“Sad Bear was made with $800 in eight days through the Crazy8s filmmaking contest in Vancouver, BC. Working with story editor/mentor Dylan Akio Smith (Doppelganger Paul, Man Feel Pain) we were able to pull together a script in a few short weeks. We work well together and have a shared vision and sensibility. We wanted to creative a narrative landscape where the arrival of Sad Bear himself is a staple of the process of overcoming loss. Steve’s defiance toward Sad Bear’s collection of his dead friend’s shoes is about a misplaced desire to build a sense of self through things.

Production design was really important to us. Since the film is about material things, we populated each scene with stuff, infusing the identity of each character into the rooms in which they sat and bringing to the fore the theme of projecting identity, nostalgia and grief onto objects.

Sad Bear himself was hand-crafted in our apartment, making a few hula hoops and bolts of faux fur come alive with a pair of raccoon eyes from Van Dyke’s Taxidermy. Having become a haven for spiders in a dark corner of our storage for the last two years, a daily reminder of our unnaturally slow progress while writing our next short film, we decided to say goodbye to Sad Bear so that we, too, could move on.”

About the filmmakers

Liz Cairns

Liz attended SFU’s School of Contemporary Arts, with a major in film production. In 2007, she co-founded Stretch, an experimental film & video group that has created over 30 live video performances and installations. She has screened her work at galleries and festivals including the Toronto International Film Festival, Austin Film Festival, New Forms Festival, Female Eye Film Festival, Utopia Festival and the Montreal Film Festival. Sad Bear is her first narrative short film.

Joe LoBianco

Joe LoBianco was born in Victoria, BC, and moved to Vancouver to pursue filmmaking in SFU’s film production program. His short film, Down the Rabbit Hole (2005) screened at the Montreal World Film Festival. Continually writing throughout the years, Joe has cultivated a unique and whimsical magic-realist style. He currently works on the story team of a documentary TV series in Vancouver.

Joe and Liz are currently in pre-production for their next short film, Withering Heights, funded by the BC Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.

The post Sad Bear appeared first on National Screen Institute - Canada (NSI).

Transformed into a salmon, an Indigenous street artist travels through decayed urban landscapes to the forests of long ago in this sublime animation.

Creative team

Writers/directors/producers: Amanda Strong, Bracken Hanuse Corlett

About Amanda Strong

Amanda Strong is an Indigenous (Michif) filmmaker, media artist and stop-motion artist currently based out of the unceded Coast Salish territory also known as Vancouver.

Amanda’s work explores ideas of blood memory and Indigenous ideology. Her background in photography, illustration and media extend into her detailed award-winning works.

Her films Indigo and Mia’ challenge conventional structures of storytelling in cinema and have screened internationally, most notably at Cannes, TIFF, VIFF and Ottawa International Animation Festival.

Amanda has received numerous grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council and the NFB. In 2013, Amanda was the recipient K.M. Hunter Artist Award for Film and Video, Vancouver Mayors Arts Awards for Emerging Film and Media Artist and most recently the recipient of The Clyde Gilmour Technicolor Award emerging artist, selected by Alanis Obomsawin.

Her latest short animation, Four Faces of the Moon, will be premiering with CBC Short Docs and is being developed into a graphic novel.

Amanda is currently developing Wheetago War and Sugar Bush, two new short animations, as well as developing her works into interactive spaces.

About Bracken Hanuse Corlett

Bracken Hanuse Corlett is a multimedia artist hailing from the Wuikinuxv and Klahoose Nations.

He got his start in theatre and performance and has since transitioned into a focus on digital media, live-visual installation/performance and visual arts.

He is the co-founder of the Vancouver Indigenous Media Arts Festival and over the last four years he has performed across the country as a member of the audio-visual collective, Skookum Sound System.

He is a graduate of the En’owkin Centre of Indigenous Art and the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, and has studied Northwest Coast art, carving and design. Mia’ is his first film.

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