On Wednesday night, I headed out to the Meadowvale Theatre to check out this year’s Mississauga Youth Film Festival. Designed to coincide with National Youth Arts Week and Mississauga’s own “Rebel ‘15” week-long youth festival, the night was a great celebration of young filmmaking.
After overcoming some early technical difficulties, the show got started and showcased its nine diverse short films, interspersed with a few musical performances along the way. One very intriguing film early on in the night was Golden Pages, directed by Haaris Qadri, which follows the story of a young man who finds a book containing the story of his entire life. Boasting a strong premise and beautiful cinematography, it was an inspired entry.
The second half of the night saw two interesting conceptual films from the Bananappeal filmmaking collective, including Edge, directed by Sina Dolati, a powerful and artistic portrayal of the effects of mental illness on one man.
However, the big winner of the night was the final film to screen, This is My Life, which ended up taking the first place prize both from the judges and the audience vote. This polished short about overcoming one’s past turned out to be the perfect, hopeful note to end the night on.
Thoughtfully curated and varied in its programming, I was impressed with the level of skill on display at the Mississauga Youth Film Festival. It was a nice reminder that there’s plenty of talent to be found all over Southern Ontario.
- Colleen
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