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Working with Youth: Junior Programmers and High School Films

7/25/2016

 
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This is my fourth year as a programmer for Toronto Youth Shorts, and each year, one of my main goals is to increase the number of participants from the high school level. I am very happy to say that we have received over 80 high school submissions from a variety of schools across Toronto and the Southern Ontario region, and we will be featuring 13 films made from those in high school at this year’s festival. As a youth film festival, it is important to us to feature films from this demographic and these impressive stats were made possible by a team of junior programmers, a newly initiative at Toronto Youth Shorts. 

Our inaugural team is consists of Carri Chen, Christian Gnam, Avondale Nixon, and Meryl Allysa Romo. I had the pleasure of working with these wonderful film buffs in soliciting and programming our high school submissions. Thanks to their dedication, from attending numerous screenings to composing exceptional film notes, we were able to acquire and program some of the best high school films in the region. While reviewing the submissions, I was very impressed with the level of sophistication that these high school filmmakers brought to the table. Wonderful writing, excellent comedic timing, beautiful costumes, and polished cinematography are only some of the great things you can expect from the high school films showcasing at the festival this year. It is inspiring to see the immense talent and drive that these young filmmakers have, which is why we want to showcase their work to our audiences. 

My favorite part of working with the Junior Programmers was gaining insight on the unique perspectives they provided on all the films, including the ones made from university or college film schools and community-based non-academic pieces. Each programmer shed light on a different aspect of their favorite shorts that allowed the rest of the team to appreciate upon second viewings of these films. The level of detail with which they analyzed each film, from character design and story to the technical aspects of film and their personal emotional responses to each piece, made for very  insightful programming discussions, and provided this year's festival with a well-rounded youth voice.

The Junior Programming team and I curated Expect the Unexpected and though the majority of the team are from high school, the program is anything but child-like. Films will touch on domestic violence, sexual abuse, racial tensions, stereotypes, and mental illness. Watching some of these films and choosing to program them for a youth audiences requires an innate sense of maturity and I must give kudos to the junior programming team for that. We chose these shorts because they use the power of film to express the unheard voices of society, and provide insight on these sensitive topics in ways that will resonate with the audience.  We're excited to share with you some of the best of the best films made by youth and we hope you will enjoy them as much as we did.

​-Julia

What a Year for Us Programmers!

7/21/2016

 
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After months of reviewing submissions, I must say that 2016 was eager to outdo 2015 in every way. Just from content alone, this year brought us more submissions than ever before. Even with the short run time of each piece, we would need more than a full 24 waking hours to sort through everything.

Contrary to what many may think, we do not begin programming with a specific theme in mind. We watch, we take notes, and move on to the next film. Once in a while, we come together and we discuss what we've seen. If at the end trends emerge, they are a surprise to us. Each year is different.

This year is an incredibly strong year for documentaries and animation especially, both of which we received in greater numbers. Several of our documentaries tackled diverse cultural and social issues that are both local and international in scope – from a man's fight for his community's access to water in Colombia, to the Canadian Sikh harassed and wrongfully accused to be one of the Paris bombers in the hullabaloo of #Gamergate, to the Bowmanville Zoo controversy right at home in Ontario after video surfaced showing them whipping their tiger. I was massively impressed by the sophistication with which these stories were approached, especially the intimate, soul-baring film of a woman speaking candidly about her sexual abuse in an experimental mix of memory and myth.

The animated films are always a delight and my favourite bunch to go through. I feel like I say it every year, but it's absolutely true that Toronto Youth Shorts receives extraordinarily good animation pieces that are rich in both art and storytelling. We’ve been spoiled.

The content is not the only difference this year. Here on the programming front, we  expanded our team with the addition of our Junior Programmers. Like us, they waded through hours and hours of content, went through what has been our largest submission yet from filmmakers under 18, attended several screenings of their peers, wrote pages and pages of notes (often by hand!), compiled their picks, and spent hours deliberating the selection to curate a program that represents the younger side of our youth demographic. Their voice and vision were an integral part of this year’s lineup.

Youth are increasingly growing up with an audience due to the likes of Facebook, Twitter, and livestreaming. The entry into experimenting with image and film comes early. Teens are now more than ever creating incredible award-worthy works that travel to film festivals around the world, and age is fast becoming insignificant as a determinant of quality. 

But don't take our word for it. Swing by on the first Saturday of August at Innis and we'll show you!

​-Sia

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