Latest posts from National Screen Institute - Canada (NSI)

Playing House

Posted: 24 Mar 2017 12:52 PM PDT

Janet feels under-appreciated. Gary is oblivious. It sounds like a standard marriage.

When Janet sees that she must take drastic measures and give Gary an ultimatum, will he finally realize it’s time to grow up?

Creative team

Writer/director: Nicole Steeves
Producer: Jenna Murphy

Filmmaker’s statement

This satirical take on marriage, played by children, is meant to expose the childishness that we sometimes bring to our own relationships.

The use of brightly coloured, dollhouse-like sets brings life to the silly and whimsical nature of the film.

This was created through the Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative Film5 program. It was a joy to make from beginning to end.

A lot of very creative people helped to bring it to life, and I am very lucky to have had the help taking it from a picture in my mind to reality.

About Nicole Steeves

Nicole Steeves is a writer, director and actor. She has written and directed six short films.

She recently made her first feature film, Head Space, with producer Lynn Matheson. The feature was made possible through the 1K WAVE ATLANTIC program created by WIFT-AT and Ingrid Veninger of pUNK Films.

Nicole was the winner of the 2015 WIFT Pitch Competition for her project Getaway.

Along with co-writer Struan Sutherland and producer Andre Pettigrew, Nicole became one of the CineCoup Top 15 finalists in Canada with their concept for Namas-DIE.

Gnaw, a short film created for Cinecoup, was picked by Telefilm’s Not Short On Talent program and screened at the Clermont-Ferrand short film market.

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I Am Coming To Paris To Kill You

Posted: 24 Mar 2017 12:49 PM PDT

A woman hijacks a family trip in pursuit of a deceitful kidnapper.

Creative team

Writer/director: Seth Smith
Producers: Jason Levangie, Nancy Urich, Marc Tetreault

Filmmaker’s statement

This film came together after a conversation with Taylor Kirk of Timber Timbre about collaborating together on a project.

He had written the song I Am Coming To Paris To Kill You as part of a series of murder ballads. I was drawn to it and for whatever reason kept visualizing a new-wave noir. And I always liked the idea of a guy that kidnaps dogs for ransom, like as a job … but he’s not very good at it.

Anyway, this film didn’t end up being about him so much.

About Seth Smith

Seth Smith is a Nova Scotia-based filmmaker and visual artist. His films have screened at festivals around the world and are praised for their dark tone and surrealist style.

In 2012 he completed his first feature, Lowlife. The $5,000 horror premiered at Fantasia, then screened at the Atlantic Film Festival where it was named “the most original feature debut in East Coast cinematic history.” It picked up the audience award at the festival, and went on to receive a crowd-sourced theatrical release.

Outside of directing shorts and features, Seth is known for his music in Dog Day, his visual art in Yorodeo, and frequently serves as a programmer for various film festivals. He is presently completing his next feature The Crescent.

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