Latest posts from National Screen Institute - Canada (NSI)

Multiverse Dating for Beginners

Posted: 03 Apr 2019 03:10 PM PDT

Ivy and Dave are totally hitting it off until she says the wrong thing and completely freaks him out. TYPICAL.

But tonight’s no ordinary night. There’s a glitch in the Matrix, déjà vu in the air, and Ivy gets the chance to see how things will turn out if she plays the dating game differently.

Creative team

Writer/director: Kelly Tatham
Producer: Sasha Duncan

Filmmaker’s statement

After many years of repetitive dating experiences, I made Multiverse Dating for Beginners to explore the ‘what ifs’ swirling around in my head. What if I’d played the dating game differently? Played hard to get? Or spoke my truth sooner? How would things have turned out?

Driven by those questions and a desire to see my personal experience on screen, Multiverse ended up being a way for me to analyze my own behaviour and question my own beliefs in love. In a culture where we believe ‘love is magic,’ I came to ask myself the question, “What if we believed love was a choice?”

There are still many layers to peel back, but I hope to leave the audience inspired to ask questions and reconsider the beliefs they take for granted as true.

About Kelly Tatham

Kelly Tatham is an award-winning filmmaker, photographer and writer known for blurring the lines of genre, using metaphysical concepts to build story structure, and turning deep, emotional vulnerability into unexpected comedy.

She is a graduate of the Vancouver Film School’s screenwriting program and studied acting for many years.

Kelly is currently working on a documentary about the evolution of consciousness.

Read more from Kelly, including her reflections on the film’s YouTube comments at medium.com/@kellytatham.

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I am Syd Stone

Posted: 03 Apr 2019 03:06 PM PDT

A Hollywood heartthrob returns home to rekindle an old closeted relationship.

Creative team

Writer/director: Denis Theriault
Producer: Colin Davis

Filmmaker’s statement

I’ve been in Syd’s shoes. Well, somewhat.

I’ve been working in the film and TV industry since I was a kid and, until very recently, being an actor meant everything to me.

I absolutely loved being on set (and still do). Nothing made me happier. It gave me more joy than getting drunk with friends, doing drugs or, hell, even having sex. A teenager so driven by their passion that they forego most societal rights of passage? Yeah, that was me. So when I realized I had an attraction to the same sex, I buried it. Deeply. There was no way I was letting something get in the way of that.

And anything that did was to be struck down immediately.

I saw the negative press generated by most public figures of either sex who were suspected of being gay. What if my agent found out? And what about the casting directors? Would I be typecast as some effeminate kid, incapable of portraying anything but a gay character? Or worse yet, never work again? The fact that my sexuality could affect what I was doing for a living was jarring.

That’s why I wrote and directed the short film version of I am Syd Stone. I was, and still am, utterly fascinated with celebrity culture. I thought to myself “Someone in Hollywood, at this very moment, is feeling the way I do, but on a much grander scale.”

That’s how Syd was born; a composite of my own fears combined with an educated guess of those felt by a multitude of celebrities I’d observed over the years.

In the five years since originally making the short, I’ve grown into the man I am today. I’m out. Proud. I’ve had my journey and, don’t get me wrong, I’m still on it. But if I can impart just a little bit of insight and knowledge by telling this story, then my struggles will have been for a purpose.

About Denis Theriault

Denis Theriault was born in New Brunswick, discovering early on that he wanted to work in the entertainment industry. At 14, he landed his first big TV role as Jeb in The Space Channel’s hit science-fiction series Starhunter.

Since then, Denis has appeared in various film and television projects. He is most recognized for his role in the feature film All the Wrong Reasons, starring alongside the late Cory Monteith, which had its world premiere at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. The role earned him an ACTRA Maritimes Award nomination for Outstanding Male Performance. His work can also be seen in the feature film Growing Op, on CityTV/CW’s Seed, Showcase’s G-Spot and HBO’s Call Me Fitz.

His latest film Across the Line is the racially charged feature debut of acclaimed music video director, Director X. The role of Todd, the story’s main antagonist, once again earned Theriault an ACTRA Maritimes Award nomination for outstanding male actor in a supporting role.

Following years of observing directors and being drawn to all aspects of film, Denis wrote and directed his first short film Sibling Rivalry in 2013. His 2014 follow-up I am Syd Stone, a deeply personal film, earned him acclaim at over 30 film festivals all over the world. The film was nominated for the prestigious Iris Prize, the ACTRA Award for best male performance and won best Canadian short film at the Silver Wave Film Festival.

His third short film The Gift Giver recently had its world premiere during the prestigious Inside Out LGBT Film Festival at TIFF Bell Lightbox.

Denis is now in the process of developing his first feature-length film entitled Chasers and web series adaptation to I am Syd Stone.

The post I am Syd Stone appeared first on National Screen Institute - Canada (NSI).

Girl Epidemic

Posted: 03 Apr 2019 02:43 PM PDT

Girls are being treated like they’re an infectious disease. Millions disappear every year – many are victims of infanticide, sex slavery and child labour. Fortunately, there is a cure: education.

Creative team

Writer: Justin Via
Director: Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri
Producer: GK Reid

Filmmaker’s statement

Girl Epidemic is an epic story of girlhood facing the darkest impulses of the human psyche. These tiny heroines make us ask: what would we do if we were them? What will we do to help save them?

My passion for empowering girls was awakened by childhood experiences, as I was raised in Calcutta. Volunteering with Mother Teresa, I experienced the life-changing power of love that even the tiniest person can wield. As a teen international model/actress I returned to India to co-found Shakti Empowerment Education Foundation (SEEschool.org), where I had to learn to help survivors become heroes and help others. My understanding deepened working with 20 NGOs and with the UN, and I was inspired by Anand Mahindra and project Nanhi Kali which supported the creation of Girl Epidemic.

Lacking budget, producer GK Reid and I raised a small army of volunteers through Facebook. From directing films including Girl Rising starring Freida Pinto and Priyanka Chopra, and Crescendo: Beats of the Beautiful Game, a short on girls’ sports, we learned to encourage non-actors to bring the richness of their life experiences to the screen. We shot with real girls at risk of trafficking, in their homes on top of a refuse dump outside Mumbai. We were able to connect emotionally, to overcome language barriers and achieve filming objectives through the power of play.

My directorial style is as a collaborator: I encourage improvisation to add emotional honesty, and use as much realism as possible, thriving on flexibility, contrasts, characters and beauty in the chaos. My vision is to create a quixotic, danger and hope-filled dreamscape that reflects the characters’ inner life. To provoke viewers to laugh, cry and to hope, to join our protagonists in finding their own potential, to help others and fight for their fundamental human rights to freedom.

Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi encouraged us to build upon this short to create a feature film version to maximize awareness against trafficking. Join us!

About Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri

Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri is an Indian-Canadian “rad feminist director” (Jezebel) and photographer. Known by a single name for her “iconic imagery and visionary storytelling” (Huffington Post), Indrani’s work is described as “dynamic … at the crossroads of pop culture and critical acclaim” by the Lincoln Center, which presented her major exhibition ICONS.

Collaborating with global influencers and the most marginalized, her work explores the intersection between mythology and reality from diverse perspectives. Her films have won 25 awards including best picture and best director at the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival, two Gold Lions at Cannes Festival of Creativity, and best film at the CNN Expose Awards for Girl Epidemic about the millions of girls missing in Asia due to sex trafficking and female infanticide.

Born in Calcutta, India, as a teen Indrani co-founded SEEschool.org, providing education and vocational training for over 300 women and children. Then, while a student at Princeton University, her work was discovered by David Bowie, before she graduated with a magna cum laude BA in anthropology.

Indrani has collaborated with artists from Lady Gaga to Beyonce, Kate Winslet to Keanu Reeves, and brands from L’Oreal to Pepsi. She is the recipient of significant press recognition from major media outlets, and is frequently asked to speak at institutions such as Harvard, Princeton, New York University, Carnegie Hall, the Center Georges Pompidou and the United Nations.

Her work can be viewed at indrani.com.

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