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Totally Indie Day

A gathering space for emerging filmmakers and independent creators

Taking place annually during VIFF, Totally Indie Day offers a place to share stories, gain insights, and learn more about the art and business of cinema. Featuring online panel sessions, case studies and masterclasses, the series brings talented artists together with industry professionals. Guests include master directors, film and television craftspeople, producers, and other industry leaders, and the topics are always relevant to today's screen-storytelling environment and culture.

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Totally Indie Day 2020 Program

Case Study: Nadia, Butterfly

September 26, 2020, 10:00 am - 11:00 am
Join us for a fascinating look at the making of Nadia, Butterfly, a Cannes-selected feature directed and co-written by Pascal Plante. The film centres on a 21-year-old professional swimmer on the cusp of retirement, and is set during what was scheduled to be the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Our featured guests include the film’s director, producer, cinematographer, and production designer, who will share their experiences with the development, financing, and production of this very personal coming-of-age drama.

Session Participants

Pascal is a Montreal-based filmmaker whose film Nadia, Butterfly was an Official Selection of Cannes 2020. His first narrative feature, a punk romance entitled Fake Tattoos, competed at the Berlinale in 2018. After his graduation from Concordia University’s Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, Pascal co-founded the production company Nemesis Films, with which he directed numerous short films, including BLAST BEAT, Blue-Eyed Blonde, and Nonna.

Case Study: Nadia, Butterfly

Dominique holds a Masters in Management from HEC Montréal with a specialization in Marketing of Arts and Entertainment, and has worked in film distribution for Entertainment One. She has produced many short films that have been selected for festivals such as TIFF, Sundance and SXSW. Dominique won the EVS Best Emerging Producer Prize at the 2019 Fantasia International Film Festival for the short film Red Wine.

Case Study: Nadia, Butterfly

Stéphanie’s award-winning cinematography for Xavier Dolan’s feature films I Killed My Mother and Heartbeats put her at the forefront of Canadian and world cinema. She has shot many feature films, including Jason Buxton’s Blackbird and Guy Maddin’s The Forbidden Room. Stéphanie lives in Montreal but has shot films in London, New York, Berlin, and all over Canada.
Case Study: Nadia, Butterfly

Joëlle is a production designer and artistic director who has been working in the film industry for a decade. She has collaborated with several filmmakers on award-winning feature films, including Kuessipan by Myriam Verreault and All You Can Eat Buddha by Ian Lagarde. Joëlle has also worked on many short films and signed the scenography of various plays. A graduate of Concordia University in film production, she continued her studies in scenography at the National Theater School of Canada.

Case Study: Nadia, Butterfly

Shirley is the Executive Producer of the National Film Board of Canada’s BC & Yukon Studio, where she leads the team producing documentary and animation projects. The studio’s new releases include the feature-length documentaries The Magnitude of All Things and Sovereign Soil, and its recent releases include The Whale and the Raven and Because We Are Girls. Short works include the documentaries Now Is the Time and Highway to Heaven.

Case Study: Nadia, Butterfly

Focus on Debut Docs

September 26, 2020, 11:15 am - 12:15 pm
Garrett Bradley’s directorial debut Time follows a modern-day abolitionist as she fights to free her incarcerated husband. Time won Sundance 2020’s Directing Award for US Documentary. Michelle Latimer’s feature-length directorial debut Inconvenient Indian is inspired by the best-selling book of the same name, written by leading Indigenous Canadian intellectual and storyteller Thomas King. Our directors will discuss shooting styles, interview techniques, and the process of bringing their stories to light.

Session Participants

Garrett works across narrative, documentary, and experimental modes of filmmaking to address themes such as race, class, familial relationships, social justice, Southern culture and the history of film in the US. She has received numerous prizes, including the Sundance 2020 Best Director Award in the US Documentary Feature Competition for Time and the Sundance 2017 Jury Prize for the New York Times OpDocs short film Alone.

Focus on Debut Docs

Michelle is an award-winning filmmaker, producer, writer, and activist. She is currently showrunning and directing the scripted series Trickster and has completed the feature doc Inconvenient Indian, an adaptation of Thomas King’s book. In 2016, Michelle chronicled the Standing Rock occupation protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline as part of the eight-part Indigenous resistance series RISE (Viceland), for which she was also the showrunner and director.

Focus on Debut Docs

Kevin is an award-winning filmmaker based in Vancouver. His credits as director include the CBC Television documentaries Humboldt: The New Season and After the Sirens (both nominated for Best Documentary Program at the Canadian Screen Awards), and the Knowledge Network doc series Emergency Room: Life + Death At VGH. His credits as a producer include the documentaries Haida Modern and Haida Gwaii: On the Edge Of The World.

Focus on Debut Docs

Indie Spirits

September 26, 2020, 1:15 pm - 2:15 pm
The pandemic has created a disrupted theatrical-release and festival-circuit situation that has wreaked havoc on many filmmakers’ projects, as well as their distribution and release strategies. Our featured auteurs, each at different stages in their careers, have risen to this challenge, successfully managed to bring their stories to life, and earned multiple awards and rave reviews along the way.

Session Participants

Eliza is an award-winning filmmaker, born and based in Brooklyn, NY. Her latest film, the critically acclaimed Never Rarely Sometimes Always, was released by Focus Features this spring following its international premiere at the Berlin Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Award. Beach Rats, Eliza’s previous film, premiered in the US Dramatic Competition at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, where she won the Directing Award.

Indie Spirits

Kris’s debut feature, It Was Great, But I Was Ready to Come Home, which she wrote, directed, and starred in, played in competition at SXSW in 2009. Her next feature, Empire Builder (2012), starred Kate Lyn Sheil, Bill Ross IV, and Joe Swanberg, and her third feature, Unexpected, premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival in 2015. Kris lives and works in Chicago, and teaches film production at Northwestern University.

Indie Spirits

A writer, director, actor, and producer, Amy Seimetz is best known as the co-creator and executive producer of The Girlfriend Experience, which was nominated for a Golden Globe in 2016. Her directorial debut feature film, Sun Don’t Shine, won a special jury prize at SXSW in 2012 and was nominated for two Gotham Awards. Notable acting credits include Upstream Color, Pet Sematary, Alien: Covenant, Netflix’s Stranger Things, and AMC’s The Killing.

Indie Spirits

Host: Curtis Woloschuk

Associate Director of Programming, Vancouver International Film Festival

Docu-Fiction: Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets

September 26, 2020, 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm
Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets, a semi-constructed documentary, is the latest from brothers Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross, whose films focus strongly on small communities of people. Set on the last night of a beloved Vegas dive bar, the film is populated by a group of real-life folks; it won the True Vision Award at the True/False Film Festival and was an Official Selection of Sundance and Berlin. Join us for a not-to-be-missed conversation on the making of the hybrid doc, which is this year’s sleeper hit.

Session Participants

The Ross Brothers are an American filmmaking team whose credits include the award-winning films 45365, Tchoupitoulas, Western, and Contemporary Color. Born and raised in Sidney, Ohio, Bill and Turner are graduates of the Savannah College of Art and Design. Their films have earned them a reputation as two of the most innovative and interesting documentary filmmakers working today, with a style all their own. Bill and Turner live and work in New Orleans.

Docu-Fiction: Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets

The Ross Brothers are an American filmmaking team whose credits include the award-winning films 45365, Tchoupitoulas, Western, and Contemporary Color. Born and raised in Sidney, Ohio, Bill and Turner are graduates of the Savannah College of Art and Design. Their films have earned them a reputation as two of the most innovative and interesting documentary filmmakers working today, with a style all their own. Bill and Turner live and work in New Orleans.

Docu-Fiction: Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets


 

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