6:00 pm - Doors Open
Performance by B-The Wiz
Bio: B The Wiz has found writing and storytelling to be beneficial for his mental health & an instrumental tool in combating depression and anxiety. These factors are shown prevalently through his writing style – B The Wiz’s music has prominent and powerful lyrics – oftentimes discussing themes like – spiritual awakening, finding our purpose & staying true to oneself. B The Wiz has performed over 80 + shows, has performed for audiences at festivals and concert events as large as 300+ & continues to work towards his goals of releasing music and helping those around him to build themselves up.
7:00 PM - Love & Boundaries Session
The Family We CHose
DIrected by- Justin & Kristen Schaack
Logline: Michael’s holiday tradition is avoiding his wife’s family by retreating to the basement. This year, his wife’s brother’s wife, Sarah, passively confronts him about his Grinch-level attitude towards the family. From childbearing expectations, politics, and convincing their mother in-law to downsize, the two in-laws build a connection over the dynamics of the family they married into.
Directors Bio: Justin & Kristin Schaack are a directing duo that have been making films together for over 20 years. They’re a married team that started their creative partnership in the theater…waaaaaay off-broadway. Since their illustrious career on the middle school stage, they’ve found success directing commercials, online content, and independent films that have screened at 300+ international film festivals, receiving over 20 audience choice awards and over 70 jury awards. To see more of Justin & Kristin’s work, you can follow them on social media @AbovetheLineEnt.
Porcelain Directed by Alex Forgues
Logline: Following a break-up, Michel learns to live on his own. Followed by the ghost of the relationship, he must understand the reason why he is holding on before he can fully let go.
Director’s bio: Alex Forgues is a French Canadian filmmaker from Ottawa, Ontario. Interested in writing and directing, Alex graduated from the documentary microprogram at L’Inis, Montreal in 2019 after making his short doc: Graffiti corporel (Body Graffiti). He also studied at Canadore College in the Digital Cinematography program where he directed multiple student films such as Dirty Laundry (2019) and Kids (2020). In 2020, Alex also directed his first independent work, A Family Recipe, a short documentary about the local pizzeria from his home town. Since moving to Ottawa in 2021, he wrote and directed the short thriller La diffusion! (The Broadcast!) and the short drama titled Porcelaine (Porcelain).
Kiwi's Guide Directed by Santiago Lasko
Logline: Facing unemployment and possible homelessness,
Bruce “Kiwi” Kimbal, the 31-year-old ex-con with an imposing
stature, quiet attitude and a hidden watchful angel, feels
lost on the streets that once pushed him into a cell. Sent to
care for Kiwi, the angel begins guiding him towards his dreams
of creativity which lie in a local artists exhibition. If the
Angel can’t push him there with something to submit in time,
Kiwi will never escape the institutionalised lifestyle that
robbed him of his freedom.
Bio: Santiago Lasko is a recent graduate of Conflix and a film festival award winning indie filmmaker from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Santiago is following in the footsteps of his immigrant Argentinian mother who holds a masters degree in fine arts. Santiago enjoys the outdoors, canoe trips, old school cinema and painting. Santiago is inspired to make films by his desire to send important messages to change the world around him for the better.
Live & ADAM
Directed by Emma L.R. Hogg
Logline: There is no correlation between love and rightness–love is much more complicated than that. For Liv and Adam, just because their relationship didn’t work out, it doesn’t mean it didn’t matter.
Bio: Emma L.R. Hogg is the writer and director of Liv & Adam, a short film selected to screen at festivals across North America. She currently lives in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada, and is shooting her next film this summer.
A Toast To You Directed by Dianne Brothers
Flash Frame Film and Video Network and Rear View Mirror Productions are proud to present “A Toast to You”, a comedy short film about wedding speeches: the good, the bad, and the drunk. This film features all of the different kinds of speeches we’ve come to expect at weddings, set across time. Each speech is contained in one to two scenes.
A Language Revitalization Project Directed by Morningstar Deroiser & Noles Dennhardt
In this short documentary, we travel to Mattagami First Nation to sit down with four elders and speak about language revitalization. Through their stories and teachings, we gain a deeper understanding of how the Anishinaabe language was lost and what we need in order to help bring it back.
8:15 pm -Performance
Performance by DJ ICOSA
8:45 pm - Bridges to the North - Feature film
Bridges to the North Directed by Tony Mcquire
We were asked to tell the story of two First Nation reservations who are trying to reclaim their past but are finding a mixed bag of support and opposition while they are trying to work with all the parties involved. It was going to be a hard story to tell but a year and a half later we have something accurate and most importantly, Anishinawbe told. This is a Marten Falls and Webequie First Nation story about their quest to bring roads into their communities while facing up to pandemics of suicide, food, and standards of living. A story about the “Ring of Fire.”
