I attended two screenings hosted by Humber College's Film and Television Production program: the Graduate Film Showcase consisting of shorts, documentaries, and PSAs created by their final year students; and their Portfolio Screening featuring work produced in collaboration with the college's Acting for Film and Television Students. As usual, I am impressed with the calibre of talent that goes into these productions.

I thought the shorts that worked best this year came from directors who trusted their actors and gave them proper breathing room to flesh out the stories. Toronto Youth Shorts alumni, Jevon Boreland, created one such example in To Kill A Secret, starring Mark Taylor of Flashpoint and Student Bodies fame. The short doesn't explore new territory narratively but audiences are drawn into this world because of the strong performances, which also includes those by Glenn Cashin and Melissa Cultraro. Same can be said about Zac Pinto-Lobo's Where Monsters Live, a short that again doesn't tread any new waters and potentially could've been very hammy but it works because of its cast, in particular child actor Jonah Vogel. Stephanie Brister carries What Memories Hold directed by Ryan Doyle with a performance that make audiences empathetic and frustrated at the same time. 

I was even more impressed overall with the slate of Portfolio Screening films. Despite bigger constraints that included a limited run time (everything is under 8 minutes), a max of only two days to shoot, and must feature students in lead roles so they couldn't rely on experienced ACTRA performers to take the reign, the end result worked for the most part. Writer and actor, Robert Ryan Reyes, showed off his physical comedic chops in the hilarious Landed Citizen by Lara Cordiano. Matt Takatsch's Oscar did very well in creating atmosphere and building tension, scaring the theatre audiences to a point where many of them were screaming. Diego Perez Del Rio enhanced Simone DaSilva's wordless performance with his score in Staccato, which he also directed.

With an industry that is trying to more and more to satiate a young audience with over the top action pieces, it's nice to see the next generation of filmmaking talent recognize the small moments that can be cinematically compelling. 

​-Henry

This was the inaugural year for the Gen Zed Film Festival, organized by students of Ryerson’s Creative Industries program and for a first-year festival prepared by students, there was quite the turnout. Almost a hundred people were munching on free pizza, candy, popcorn and snacks, and purchasing glasses of wine and beer from the cash bar. The addition of the cash bar had everyone mingling and networking before and after the films were screened.

There were nine films screened at the event and most of the filmmakers took part in a little Q&A afterward where they discussed inspirations for their work. All the filmmakers delivered intelligent answers that offered some more insight into each of their films.

Jonny Micay’s brilliant short documentary Life Via Rail was one of the standout short films screened at the festival. The film mixed live action and animation seamlessly, while telling a true and charming Canadian story. Other notable films of the night included The North Woods by Adam Bartley, a short documentary about alleged alien abductions in northern New Hampshire; Your Mileage May Vary by Hollie Olenik, a touching LGBTQ+ story that isn’t often seen depicted on screen and handled with such maturity.

The only award of the night, the People’s Choice Award voted by the audience, was given to the raunchy comedy The Heirloom by A.J. Franchi and Vincent Martino.

Overall, the Gen Zed Film Festival was a resounding success and I look forward to attending the festival again in the future. Congratulations to all the filmmakers and organizers for a memorable night!

- Vincent

The 2019 University of Toronto Film Festival exhibited a line up of short films with a truly wide variety of genres and forms, showing a broad stylistic range. The short films spanned from drama, sci-fi, and horror to comedies and experimental films. Filmmakers were a mix of U of T students, alumni, and Hart House Film Board members.

Overall a very entertaining festival, there were quite a few films that stood out. In particular, Mother’s Day directed by Alexander DeSouza, was very well executed and the plot was truly heart-warming, depicting the story of a 12 year old boy and 2 younger neighbourhood brothers as they try to make pancakes for their mother on Mother’s Day.

Another stand out was the thirteen-minute short documentary Road to Colombo by Jillian and Ben Sprenger. It showed how drought, flooding, and coastal erosion affect the people of Sri Lanka, forcing them to leave their ancestral lands to inhabit urban areas. The documentary addressed relevant issues such as climate change, urbanization, and social dilemmas.

The sci-fi drama Mnemosyne by Paul Cassar was very compelling and told the story of a moral dilemma: a teenage girl requests an unusual procedure from a doctor, and he must decide whether to go ahead with it. This was the longest short of the festival, clocking in at 17 minutes. On a lighter note, the comedy An Underdog Story directed by U of T student Kenn Kao was a true audience pleaser. The film brought in a lot of laughs from the crowd, showing the story of a comical showdown between a math professor and a young teaching assistant.

Overall, the U of T Film Fest had a very interesting line up of short films showing a great range of styles. Congratulations to all the filmmakers!

-Lynn

*still from Mother's Day by ​Alexander DeSouza

This is my 8th year being on the jury for the Zoom Student Film Festival, which makes me the longest standing juror (unless someone proves me otherwise) for this event held at Earl Haig Secondary for the past 23 years. Every year I get asked by the current slate of students producing the event and despite the age gap between myself and the filmmakers growing each passing year, I love being a part of it. It's where I discover gems like Phoebe's Declassified Guide To Unwanted Pickups along with some great talent like Kassy Gascho, Max Shoham, Dylan Vogel, just to name a few.

Each year, the jury has to decide on some awards such as Best Director, Most Promising Filmmaker (one each for junior and senior grades), and so forth with a lot of contenders in the major categories. It was great to see Max Shoham receive Best Animation for Hearth, which is a strong contrast narratively and stylistically to his other piece, The Giant and the Moon, also featured at Zoom. Max Freeman is barely through halfway his high school journey but he made the audience laugh with his punchline piece, Survival.

The heavy hitter of the night goes to Cole London's My Fair Robot, picking up Best Cinematography, Best Picture, and Audience Choice for being a charming, hilarious, and one of the few well-produced shorts that featured a traditional story with a beginning, middle, and end.

Not everyone could make it out to North York on a week night to take in a high school screening of student films but if any of the above titles interest you, keep your eyes peeled because you never know what could end up screening at Toronto Youth Shorts 2019.

-Henry

*still from My Fair Robot by Cole London

It’s always a rosy experience to attend post-secondary screenings featuring graduate work. This is where they’ve put their best foot forward and display the years of devotion leading up to the spotlight.

The RTA annual practicum screening took place on a Sunday (as per usual). The first thing that struck me about this event was how it ran from 8am – 8pm. No further comment needed about how the bum got very tired. However, more importantly, it’s noteworthy and simultaneously a very heart-touching moment to see a dedicated audience clapping for each and every project. This only goes to show how supportive of a community RTA establishes.

The upcoming graduates dedicated one year’s time (at the least) on their project. It must have been such a bittersweet moment for them to see it on the big screens, and to be able to show it off to their fellow peers. Gratefully, this was also a very special moment for me because this will potentially be me in two years. I saw so many phenomenal work during the screening and it continues to inspire me of how much passion, hard work and talent can accomplish.

There was quite the variety, including narrative films, web series, documentaries, and VR projects with each project exploring a unique subject such as Tibetan culture through the exploration of food, alopecia discussed through mixing the documentary and narrative medium, the historical war from the perspective of an artist, and many more. I loved the appeal of the conceptual tale behind each project and the maturity of each production.

​It was a day of celebration, gratitude, and anticipation for what these new bloods would carry forward into the paths ahead of them.

-Carri

Image from Stable, a short film produced from the Ryerson School of Media

TIFF is running a campaign called Share Her Journey to promote equal opportunities for women. This campaign celebrates successful and inspirational women behind and in front of the camera and is joined by a number of talented women in the industry as Ambassadors, including the Oscar-nominated Deepa Mehta, award-winning filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal, and Toronto Youth Shorts award winner Carol Nguyen (This House is Not Empty, TYS2016). Carol has screened her film at Toronto Youth Shorts and a number of TIFF initiatives as well as numerous festivals across the country. We're so excited that Carol can take part in such a meaningful project.


Visit www.tiff.net/shareherjourney for more info.

Spring is a busy time for us; it's the start of the festival season and programmers run around trying to see as much as we can to study the market. We at Toronto Youth Shorts are generally scouring the crevices of Toronto for new works that wow us. We love the process, but invariably throughout the years there is always a good number of filmmakers that make it exceedingly hard for us.

If you're a filmmaker, especially a young one with any intention of getting your work seen by people outside of your social circle, you need to make it easier for your work to be seen.

LIST YOUR MAJOR CREDITS
Seems straightforward, no? Usually at screenings, there will be a program guide of some kind. But sometimes, even though a guide may be handed out, it would lack necessary information, like the name of the director or producer (or ANYONE that worked on the film). This means if we see a film we really like, we must wait for credits and then frantically take notes in the dark. And then put our google-fu to the test later, which leaves us feeling like stalkers.

This isn't the filmmakers' fault as it is the event organizer that is responsible for producing a coherent piece of collateral that represents their program. It's incredible how often organizers would completely ignore the creators of the work in their promotional material. As organizers of any screening, we should always let people know through some sort of marketing platform who directed the films that we put on our screens (at the very least). Anything less is disrespectful to the people who put their efforts into bringing the film to life for your event. (Shoutout to Ryerson for their outstanding programme guides!)

LEAVE FOOTPRINTS
As a filmmaker, it is recommended to take some time to create a digital footprint, whether it be a website or social media accounts for your film, and then ensure that your name can be connected to your work. Here is where you can make it accessible for your audience, your peers, and industry professionals to see you, and then reach you.

Make like Storm, not Susan Storm.

​-Sia