With the Toronto International Film Festival buzz officially dying down, a York student has decided to go a different route. Elana Emer, a third-year film production student launched Remix Filmhouse, an online platform to host an online film festival featuring several York students.
“I wanted my work to involve bringing more representation to mainstream media, and I figured the best place to start was online, where there are no rules and the reach is limitless,” she says.
With an affinity for online collectives and an idea in mind, Emer started Remix Filmhouse with her sister, Robyn Emer, who runs their social media accounts, with help from her aunt, Simone Spiegel in the graphics department.
Out of the seven finalists for the Remix Film Fest, six are female filmmakers, and three are of people of colour. The selection process for the films was based on several criteria, including diversity. “As a company that aims to be representative of marginalized groups and all their intersections, we have to make sure that the filmmakers and/or their films reflect those aims,” adds Emer.
One of those filmmakers is Jessica Paquette, a third-year film production student at York. Her film, titled Recondite, is an experimental piece about time and memory, and how the subjects can be arbitrary. An aspiring film producer and director, Paquette found out about Remix Film Fest through classmate Emer.
“Film is such a collaborative industry that it can be very rewarding to celebrate and admire other people and students work. Overall it’s pretty frightening entering an industry like this because the job market can be difficult.” [su_quote]But I’d rather try to get into what I love than spend my life wishing I had tried,[/su_quote] says Paquette.
Other films include the comedy Duvet, dealing with heartbreak and a special duvet, documentary Make Believe about a woman who goes makeup free for a week, and drama Fresh Paint that addresses PTSD through the arts.
Many of the films are of York students, including Katie Thurman, Sabrina Budiman, Michèle DesLauriers and Jason Weston-Wong, as the original call for entries was through York’s film department. As the company and website were launched, submissions were open to the public.
As Remix transformed from a casual idea from a student without a lot of free time or disposable income, into a full-fledged company and festival, the filmmakers involved had been a massive support group and contributor to its success, says Emer.
The films will be viewable on the Remix Filmhouse website, remixfh.com, on October 2 to 4.
Victoria Goldberg, Arts Editor
Featured image courtesy of Elana Emer
