Latest posts from National Screen Institute - Canada (NSI)

Set in York, a city plagued by crime and corruption, two drug squad cops take hazing a bit too far in a precursor to the controversial digital series Filth City.

Creative team

Writers: Andy King, Danny Polishchuck
Director: Andy King
Producers: Matt King, Andrew Ferguson

Filmmaker’s statement

The idea for Filth City grew out of a desire to make a compelling crime comedy film that detours from predictable mainstream formats. The goal was to make something closer to true crime: dark, unpredictable, even absurd, but realistic.  The narrative was strongly influenced by the Rob Ford crack scandal which had dominated recent headlines.

Because we had no budget, we limited the scope to characters enabled by a crack-smoking mayor, exploring themes of corruption and normalization, through the story of three cops on a crack raid gone bad.

About Andy King

Andy King is an award-winning writer, director and actor whose credits include Fargo, Scare Tactics and Cock’d Gunns.

Andy has been creating web video content since c. 2000 when he co-founded the sketch comedy site skitfaced.com. Recent digital projects include comedy re-enactment series True Dating Stories (CBC), paranormal comedy series Mooom! (Blackpills) and dark crime comedy Filth City (Studio+).

Andy also plays Australian beauty expert J.D. Castlemane on the Emmy-nominated digital series The Amazing Gayl Pile.

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When Tara’s boyfriend presents her with the perfect house, memories of a lover who died years ago seep into her waking life.

It’s clear she must confront her past in order to move on, but can she?

Creative team

Writer/director/producer: Kim Barr
Producer: Kathy-Ann Thomas

Filmmaker’s statement

A Late Thaw is a poetic exploration of love, grief and hope. It’s based on the loss of my boyfriend in an ice climbing accident when I was 19.

The trauma of losing someone so suddenly is tricky; there are no goodbyes, no last words and no closure. There is nowhere to focus the tremendous rage and powerlessness so I froze, suppressing my feelings and living out of unresolved grief for years.

Though based on an event in my life, the narrative is fictionalized in order to tap into the universal themes embedded therein. Tara’s memories of Glenn are about engaging in a meaningful personal process, not simply waxing poetic about her lost relationship.

I tried to stay clear of devices like flashbacks or expository dialogue – anything that would detract from an experiential relationship with what was happening. My hope was that by creating a visual and tonal experience, the audience would access those places within themselves – at least in the magical sections.

The narrative was structured to create a sense of the mystery and unfolding with actions that are repeated, namely in the house. The director of photography, Benoit Beaulieu, and I decided a moving camera would better express the idea that Tara was on a journey of discovery so most of the film was shot on a Steadycam or dolly. We also used available light as much as possible, especially at the Manor House, and the happy accidents were worth the shorter days.

It was important to find the right cast. Tara had to be watchable because we follow her for the duration. Helena Marie was the perfect choice – her performance is compelling and subtle, and we root for her. The men, Glenn and Stephane, had to be difficult to choose between and Ivan Peric and Lucas Chartier-Dessert’s authentic performances are key to that effect. Michelle Boback as Carol Ann, Tara’s tough-love best friend, hit the right notes, as did Kathleen Fee as the ‘mentor’ realtor. We were very lucky to find them all.

People often ask if making this film was a cathartic experience, but the truth is it happened a long time ago, though I sometimes still imagine the worst when a loved one is late.

Did it bring any new insights into the nature of loss? I’m not sure. My main objective in exploring this event was threefold: to express difficult feelings to an imagined audience dealing with grief; to pay tribute to a man and event that shaped my life; and to immortalize the romance of grief, before healing, maturity and experience interferes. In this regard, I think I have been successful.

Ultimately, it’s my hope that people who watch the film will feel compassion about their own healing journey – as it is – alternately painful and joyous.

About Kim Barr

Born in Toronto and raised in Montreal, Kim began her career as a fashion photographer in Milan until an editor at Vogue suggested her work was cinematographic. This opened a whole new door for her and she never looked back.

Kim went on to study film in New York City after which she began making films and working in the industry. Kim holds a bachelor of fine arts from Concordia University, and a masters in film production from York University.

Her first short, Black Rock Burning, an experiential documentary on the Burning Man Festival, was produced by Dezember Productions and premiered at the Festival du Nouveau Cinema. Attachment and Elevator, both short dramas, premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival, and screened at over 20 festivals in Canada and abroad.

Attachment was a finalist for best short at the ACTRA Film Festival in Montreal in 2010, and Elevator, written by Miranda Handford, won an Award of Merit at Best Shorts and was recently licensed by CBC for their program Canadian Reflections.

A Late Thaw premiered at the Calgary International Film Festival and won a Goldie Award for best technical at the Vancouver Island Short Film Festival. It was also nominated for best writing.

Struck by how our inner landscape influences and shapes our experience, Kim enjoys bringing this process to light. An artist at heart, she brings a unique vision and production value to every project.

Kim is currently developing her first feature length film, Blestemat (Cursed), with a writing and research grant from the Canada Council for the Arts. Blestemat is a sweeping drama about a cursed wedding dress passed through three generations of the women in one family.

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A modern-day animated fairytale in which a woman overcomes the disappearance of her lover through her passion for baking.

Creative team

Writer/director/producer: Suri Parmar
Producer: Consuelo Solar

Filmmaker’s statement

The Bakebook is based on a short prose piece I wrote while attending Humber College’s School for Writers that was published in Black Heart Magazine in 2012. My older sister loved it and begged me to adapt it for film. I guess you could say that The Bakebook is my gift to her.

Because of the story’s fanciful elements and delicate tone, I felt it could only be an animated film. Puppets were hand-drawn and shaded in watercolour to channel Golden Age colour plates. As with fairytale books of the era, it espouses universal themes. Love, grief, loss. Specifically, how different people deal – or don’t deal – with tragedy.

Ginny, the protagonist, is a new take on fairy story heroines. She’s an accountant in her thirties rather than a princess, and is spirited, stubborn and eccentric. She’s also a woman of colour; when I was growing up I loved fairytales but felt they embodied a world in which non-Orientalised visible minorities like me didn’t belong. Ginny is a response to this paucity.

About Suri Parmar

Suri Parmar is a Toronto-based writer, filmmaker, designer and self-described “creative carpet bomber” whose work has screened at film festivals around the world.

In 2011, she was one of five writers from across Canada selected for the Canadian Film Centre’s prestigious screenwriting residency program. She is also an alumna of the Canadian Film Centre’s short dramatic film program and the Writers Guild of Canada diverse screenwriters program for television writing. She is also a recent graduate of the Stonecoast MFA program in creative writing.

Although Suri writes in a variety of genres, she prefers fantasy and includes Kelly Link, Angela Carter and the Wachowskis among her influences. She aspires to evoke the same awe and wonder she herself experienced the first time she watched the film Akira.

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

A young woman struggles to find closure after the sudden death of a beloved friend.

Creative team

Writer/director: Hannah Anderson
Director/producer: Aidan Shipley
Producers: Natalie Novak, Brett Donahue, Hannah Anderson

Filmmaker’s statement

Come Back is my personal homage to the late Kent Nolan who died suddenly at the age of 24. He was a dear friend, incredible artist and the most generous, fearless and positive soul I’ve known.

For so many, death is the greatest fear. The single most prevailing force motivating our lives. It lurks under our conversations and lingers in the darker corners of our private thoughts. But rarely do we actually discuss it. Rather than a commonality that binds us all together, death makes us isolated, distant and lonely.

Our film is centered around a recurring dream I had for about a year after Kent’s death. He would be walking away from me. I would try to catch up to him but I couldn’t reach him. On those rare occasions that I could, I would hold onto him tightly and say “we don’t have much time.” It felt so real. I could see him and touch him and even smell him. And then suddenly I would wake up and the pain and realization of his loss would hit me all over again.

I sought advice and therapy, thinking it might help me let go. But it just made me cling on harder. I realize now that those dreams, no matter how painful, were absolutely essential in my own healing process. I was slowly learning how to say goodbye.

There’s a strange impatience that comes when someone dies, a pressure to move on quickly and quietly. Why do we put a time limit on our grief and declare it inappropriate and unhealthy if it can actually make us feel better? What’s the rush to pack it away?

Come Back is a story about that intersection between resolution and grief and dares us NOT to put grief behind us but to grieve until we’re done. Even if we never are.

About Hannah Anderson

Hannah has been acting professionally since graduating from a three-year theatre conservatory program at George Brown College. Born and bred in the prairies, she now proudly calls Toronto home.

Film/TV credits include: LA Complex (Epitome Pictures), Saving Hope (Thump Inc/E1), Nikita (CW/Warner Bros.), Republic of Doyle (CBC), Lizzie Borden Took an Axe (Sony/Lifetime), Played (Muse Entertainment), Remedy (Global), Reign (CW), Lost Girl (Showcase, SyFy), Killjoys (Temple St. Prod.), Love of My Life (Paragraph Pictures Inc.), Shoot The Messenger (CBC), Gangland Undercover (Cineflix), Girls Night Out (Incendo), What Keeps You Alive (Digital Interference), Jigsaw (Lionsgate), X-Men: Dark Phoenix (Marvel), and a number of indie short films.

Hannah is also a writer, producer and director. Her second short film, Five Things, co-directed with Abigail Winter, is set for a 2018 festival release.

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