Latest posts from National Screen Institute - Canada (NSI)

Congratulations to the NSI grads with films screening at the First Nations Film and Video Festival in Chicago next month:

• NSI IndigiDocs film From Up North (pictured) by Trudy Stewart and Janine Windolph

• She is Water by Darlene Naponse (NSI Features First).

The fest runs from November 1 to 10, 2017.

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Feature film The Hollow Child from Jeremy Lutter (NSI Drama Prize, NSI Features First) and Ben Rollo (Script to Screen) screens at Portland Film Festival on November 5, 2017 at 4:45 p.m.

This Telefilm Canada micro-budget production is about troubled teen Samantha whose position in her new foster family is jeopardized when her new sister Olivia goes missing in the woods, only to reappear, apparently unharmed, days later.

When Samantha suspects that what emerged from the woods is not Olivia, her investigation brings her face to face with an evil presence which has haunted their town for generations.

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Congratulations to Kirsten Carthew, whose NSI Features First-developed film The Sun At Midnight premieres tomorrow on The Movie Network in Canada.

The Sun At Midnight tells the story of an unusual friendship between a hunter obsessed with finding a missing caribou herd and a teenage rebel who gets lost while on the run.

• • •

NSI Features First is a development training launch pad for producer/writer teams looking to produce their first or second feature film with strong commercial appeal.

NSI Features First is funded by Presenting Sponsor Telefilm Canada; Supporting Sponsors Entertainment One, Super Channel, Corus Entertainment and Breakthrough Entertainment; Provincial Sponsors Creative Saskatchewan and Creative BC through the Daryl Duke and William Vince Scholarship Fund; and Service Sponsor William F. White. NSI Core Funders are Manitoba Sport, Culture & Heritage and the City of Winnipeg through the Winnipeg Arts Council.

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Congratulations to Mayumi Yoshida on her recent win at the NBCUniversal Short Film Festival.

Mayumi was named outstanding writer for her work in TELUS STORYHIVE digital short Akashi-あかし-.

Akashi is about a woman who returns to Japan after her grandmother passes only to find her modern ways clash with the traditional values of her homeland.

• • •

STORYHIVE is a community-powered funding program that allows members of the community to vote for their favourite projects.

The program allows content creators in British Columbia and Alberta to submit their story ideas to an online public platform.

NSI delivers mentoring through the STORYHIVE mentorship program in partnership with NSI.

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Congratulations to the NSI grads who took home awards yesterday at the 2017 imagineNATIVE Film + Media Festival in Toronto:

• Indictment: The Crimes of Shelly Chartier from Shane Belcourt (NSI Totally Television, Featuring Aboriginal Stories Program) and Lisa Jackson (NSI Storytellers, Featuring Aboriginal Stories Program) won the the Alanis Obomsawin award for best documentary work (long-form)

• Birth of a Family from Tasha Hubbard (NSI IndigiDocs) won the special jury prize – Moon Jury

• Spectrum by Darcy Waite (CBC New Indigenous Voices, NSI IndigiDocs) and Madison Thomas won the web series live pitch competition.

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Following a violent incident, a young woman isolates herself in a cottage hoping to find peace. However, past traumas and insecurities resurface and haunt her with each passing day.

Creative team

Writer/director: Spencer Ryerson
Producers: Jessica Reis, Maddie Zekkou

Filmmaker’s statement

Since I was little, I’ve always loved horror. I would always watch and read Goosebumps or Are You Afraid of the Dark? despite it resulting in many childhood nightmares.

As I got older and was allowed to watch things I shouldn’t have watched, my love for horror grew as did my passion for filmmaking. My problem was that I didn’t just want to make the usual slasher flick or haunted house throwback so I decided to bring in some more personal elements into my script(s).

Sprouting from my experiences with anxiety over the years, as well as observing the increasingly popular culture of selfies and obsession with physical appearance, I came up with the base for my film and my character, Danielle. Although there has been a growing awareness towards removing the stigmas people have with mental illness and one’s physical appearance, these issues and pressures people deal with are still out there.

Now, the trick was making something that touched on these feelings and experiences while still entertaining the audience. So throw in some blood, a ghost and some very sharp objects … and that’s how Cover-Up was born.

About Spencer Ryerson

Spencer Ryerson is a Toronto-based director and cinematographer.

Ever since Spencer was a young boy, he has been interested in telling stories visually, starting his filmmaking career with nothing but his grandmother’s webcam.

Since graduating Humber College’s film and media production program, Spencer has written and directed the short films Farewell, Unannounced and most recently, Peaches.

He also co-directed the award-winning short A New Home with Peter Widdrington for the Toronto Urban Film Festival.

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A young woman enters a crisis on the eve of her 19th birthday as she realizes she’s about to out-age her older sister who died at 18.

Creative team

Writer/director/producer: Leah Johnston
Producer: Jess Brown

Filmmaker’s statement

This is a female-driven Nova Scotian short film which I made acting opposite my real-life sister, Katherine.

Inspired by true events, My Younger Older Sister chronicles the crisis of a young woman as she realizes she is about to out-age her older sister who died at 18. Having witnessed this strange phenomena in my own life, I realized it was an unusual crisis which many people go through in the wake of a sibling or parent death – one which I had not seen shown in film before.

My Younger Older Sister explores this conflict through the character of Rose who has spent her life living in the shadow of her dead sister, Kayla. Now, with her 19th birthday looming, Rose must make a decision whether to continue following in her sister’s footsteps or carve a new path of her own.

About Leah Johnston

Leah Johnston has written and directed four award-winning short films that have played at over 40 festivals worldwide and been broadcast on Air Canada flights and CBC television.

Her most recent, Ingrid & The Black Hole, was the recipient of the $35K WIFT/BravoFACT pitch prize. It premiered in the Cannes Not Short on Talent program and won best Canadian short at both Edmonton International and Silver Wave Film Festivals, sweeping the awards at Vancouver Island Short Film Festival (best picture, best editing, best screenplay, best technical achievement).

Some Things Won’t Sleep received the 2013 National Screen Institute Drama Prize and racked up prizes across the country for direction, design and performance, including the Corus Fearless Female Filmmaker award.

My Younger Older Sister, which she also stars in, earned Leah a nomination for both her performance (ACTRA Maritimes awards) and her filmmaking (best short, Silver Wave Film Festival; Remi winner, Worldfest Houston) and was broadcast on CBC.

Leah divides her time between Halifax and Toronto, where she is represented for television directing by Greenlight Management. She was recently one of six directors across Canada selected by the Academy of Canadian Cinema to participate in its inaugural female directing mentorship program.

She is currently shadowing director David Wellington on the series Mary Kills People while developing her first feature film, Creature He.

She holds a BFA in drama from New York University and is a graduate of the National Screen Institute Drama Prize program and the Reykjavik Talent Lab.

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While on a hike Sage meets Nitanis, a beautiful young woman, and falls in love at first sight. Sage soon discovers that Nitanis is in fact a ghost – but his love for her compels him to seek the truth about her disappearance and murder to help her spirit complete the journey to the other side.

A story of love and its power to transcend time, space and even death.

Creative team

Writer/director/producer: Petie Chalifoux
Producer: Micheal Auger

Filmmaker’s statement

I truly believe that story is key to a healthy life and strong culture – and a story that makes people think about the issues around them is a successful story.

Past Time is a short film that sheds a unique light upon the murdered and missing Indigenous women of Canada.

About Petie Chalifoux

I am a Cree filmmaker, originally from northern Alberta. I have chosen to be a filmmaker because it is a powerful and creative medium to shed light upon the realities of social issues that surround the world we live in today from an Indigenous perspective.

I graduated with my bachelors of motion picture arts in January 2017, and I was selected to be the very first Indigenous valedictorian for Capilano University’s convocation in June 2017.

The first documentary I wrote and produced is titled Indig-A-Fit which speaks to modern day Indigenous lifestyles and reclaiming our natural health and strength.

The first short dramatic film I wrote and produced is titled The Shifter about reclaiming power for an Indigenous woman. The Shifter screened at the American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco as well as the LA Skins Film Festival in Los Angeles, California in November 2015.

My first feature length film as a writer/producer is River of Silence with which I hope to bring worldwide awareness to the issue of murdered and missing Indigenous women and violence against all women.

I not only want to raise awareness but I hope to inspire a call to action as this is a serious issue that’s been going on for years with thousands of missing and murdered people. River of Silence will have its world premiere screening in Los Angeles at the LASkins Film Festival held at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood this November.

Following the feature film, my directorial debut was on a TELUS STORYHIVE short dramatic film Past Time that expresses how love can transcend time, space and even death.

My husband Micheal Auger and I have been successful in our application to the National Screen Institute’s IndigiDocs program and have began production on a short documentary titled Mihkowapikwaniy.

Mihkowapikwaniy will capture the best of Indigenous tradition with current forms of healing including dance, food and laughter – all under the beautiful July sun surrounded by the northern Alberta boreal forest.

Other recent successes include a short documentary with BravoFactual titled Bella’s Story about the life and time of a young Indigenous woman named Bella before her tragic death.

We are motivated by our own personal experiences with the loss of a loved one to the thousands of murdered and missing Indigenous women of Canada and we hope to continue to make a change in today’s world using film.

The next project we have on the go is a pilot episode for a TV series titled Nîsowak. We recently won one of the 100K edition grants through TELUS STORYHIVE.

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