Bernice Afriyie | Arts Editor
Featured image: TYS will have its final showcase on August 13, featuring selected films. | Courtesy of IMDB.com
For new filmmakers, finding festivals and submitting content can be challenging when you’re competing with filmmakers who may have 20 more years of experience than you.
Toronto Youth Shorts, or TYS, has made it their mandate to screen GTA-only films produced by filmmakers 30 years old and under for the past nine years. The films cover a diverse range of topics and bring various perspectives into focus.
On February 15, TYS opened their TYS180 showcase, which featured films and videos that were under three minutes in length. Among the many successful submissions was York’s own Kristina Wong, a previous TYS award winner.
As a film production student, circulating her work is a huge challenge, one that is common with other students in her program. TYS has provided her with a local platform to share her films with like-minded filmmakers and audiences.
“TYS is not only run by the most hardworking team ever, but their platform has helped me share my work with the community and gain recognition as a filmmaker and for my slate of upcoming projects. I’ve also been able to network with a bunch of other talented filmmakers and make local acquisition deals,” says Wong.
Her latest short film, “Praxis,” is a departure from her linear method of storytelling.
“We shot this film on 16mm and relied heavy on post-production and animation to tell the story,” shares Wong.
“It features upcoming actress Jade Caissey in the lead role, where we find her trapped in a haze-like world trying to escape her own thoughts.”
The one-minute film achieves great texture and depth in a short time by layering classical sounds with black and white images. The colours themselves convey a sense of being stuck. Just as the main character cannot escape her mind, the film is trapped in a muted mode of expression.
“Praxis” visually captures Wong’s vision with the mirrored images of Caissey that fade out and into each other. The film feels like an endless loop even though it’s finite, which beautifully adds to the sense of not being able to escape.
There is no dialogue in “Praxis” but the words on a typewriter that are repeated across the screen stay with viewers: “Let me out.”
The effort seems futile and hopeless, as it’s the most significant entry viewers have into Caissey’s mind. The typewriter motif doesn’t feel cliché or conventional because it plays perfectly into the theme of not being able to escape, which is reflected in the length, colour and genre of “Praxis.”
In a sense, “Praxis” is the antithesis to Wong’s views on filmmaking. The main character’s life is redundant and repetitive; nothing new happens. For Wong, filmmaking is all about growing and having new experiences.
“I’m always inspired by different perspectives and creativity to a point where it fuels my own films. Filmmaking is a collaborative art form and it would be selfish to just reflect my own vision of the world without listening to others as well because that’s how we grow,” shares Wong.
Filmmakers who have likewise been inspired by the world and people around them or who have something to share or say have until May 5 to submit their work to TYS.
Have you ever considered including more than merely your posts? I mean, what anyone say is essential and almost evghetriny. However just think about if you added some good images or films to give your blogposts more, pop! Your content is great but using images and movies, this weblog could absolutely be one of the most beneficial throughout its specialized niche. Awesome blog!