FILM
curated by Cassandra Paige Johnston
Nancy Power Theatre @ The Roxy
Sunday, June 7 at 8:00 pm
The Nextfest Arts Company is delighted to showcase this compliment of new films by both local and international emerging filmmakers.
Content warnings: Adult Language / Adult Content, Bullying / Derogatory Language, Death / Dying, Eating Disorders / Body Hatred / Fatphobia, Mental Illness, Self-Harm, Sudden Loud Noises, Loud Sounds or Loud Music, Suicide / Suicide Ideation, Bright Lights, Trauma / PTSD
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Imperfect Practice
shot & edited by Laura La France
original song by Motorbike James
remixed by Cameron O’Neill
The year I tried to film something every day. A visual diary on Super 8mm, capturing one full year in a series of clips plucked from sad and wonderful and ordinary days. It was the year I turned 30. My first year of marriage. The year my dream job became a nightmare. The year I lost an old man I really loved. A year of existential dread and experiential joy.
Welcome to Zellers!
written and edited by Mickey Neal
directed by Mickey Neal and Madeline Lebanc
A short and surreal experimental film staged as a vintage TV commercial, mourning the death of Zellers, Canada’s beloved retail relic. Through eerie nostalgia, warped consumer ritual, we experience it once again.
Looking for Michael
written and directed by Walker MacDonald
featuring Alysha Clement, Michael Coolen, and Kyle Gallagher
A man obsessed with the Halloween films travels to Illinois in search of Haddonfield, the town where it all began.
Sunny Day
created by Amy Lee
featuring Yvonne Lee and Sunny Yee
晴天 Sunny Day is an animated short film that depicts a multi-generation Chinese Canadian family. The story in my film is inspired by my own family, and culture through language and food.
Wisest Fool
directed and written by Emily Anne Corcoran
singing and song writing by Kaeyley Jade
featuring Dale Bailey, Katie Wood, Holly Wandler, Sheldon Stockdale, Connie Wiebe, and Gabriel Gagnon
We’re all fools for love. Wisest Fool is a story of the grandest love, the deepest feeling and the foolishness we feel in ourselves in the midst of it. A campy storybook telling of a tale as old as time.
Media Verdad
created by Alyssa White
Media Verdad is an experimental animated short that descends into the shadowed edges of existence, where reality unravels into half-truths. Through a blend of mixed-media stop-motion, the film probes the unseen forces that linger just beyond human perception—felt in the darkest pockets of the universe, where truth reveals itself in fragments.
House of Gamborski & Meyer present
Fish Face
written, directed and featuring Bradley Gamborski and Vanzie Meyer
edited by Bradley Gamborski
produced Vanzie Meyer
Two best friends, Chase and Connor, rush to film their self-tape auditions. Chase, a gay actor, struggles with body image, while Connor, despite his leading-man looks, battles a voice that feels out of place. As the clock ticks and the pressure mounts, their insecurities surface, revealing the cracks beneath their polished performances.
Noch Productions presents
In Petrichor Daze
directed by Valentine Dumec
choreographed by Shannon Lin
created by Bob L’Heureux, Elise Fleske, Shawn Bracke, Benjamin San Martin, Ryan Leedu, Julian Koroluk, Kevin Lin, Jeremie Gutierrez, Benjamin Caufield, Liam Shearer, Levon Vokins, and Stephen Cameron
In Petrichor Daze tells the story of a pleasant encounter with an unmet acquaintance, an unfolding duality that explores the existence of the other only through the idea of them.“In Petrichor Daze” was developed with the support of Mile Zero Dance Society and the Film and Video Arts Society of Alberta, Edmonton Arts Council, The City of Edmonton
SOS L’Amir presents
Wicked
directed by Julieanne Burghardt
featuring L’Amir Sosa, Chau Truong, Kieran Stitt, Ayeesha Serena, Hassan Sayyid, Ranu, Joe, Fiorella, Joseph, Casey Tian, Anita Le, Raffi Lin, Nathan Holt, Nishant Rathod, Ishaan Thind, Sara Gil Sanchez, Jerry Sun, Wenjia Wu, Donnalyn Dioniso, Daniel Seo, Benzi Pichandze, Risa Nareen Pathan, Afnan Bahubeshi, June, Aman, Aarron, Enoch Ajayi, Jemmy lu, and Chris Wipf
A young woman escapes her boyfriend for a night, only to be swept away by L’Amir.
Navels I
featuring Justine Mccloskey, Victoria Long, Karly McCloskey, Robin Riad
Artist Robin Riad discusses her relationship
with her belly button.
Deus Esurit
created by Sahtu Gilday
featuring Bergen Hamilton, Josiah Ziprick, Adam Lister, Brynlee Horn,Quinn Yerex, Casey Mingay
A young man tries to decipher the meaning of a strange dream, while spending a day with his long-time friends.
The sound of Dreaming Trees
created by Tommy Dobbela
featuring Eiri and Elise
What is the sound of dreaming trees? Do trees dream? What is the sound from us humans when we dream of trees? Do trees dream of us? How does the eye of the roots dream its way up inside the trees?
This Is Special and I’m Never Letting Go
created by Dennis Belopolsky
featuring Kaylen Schumann, Broden Snyder, Kirill Sommer, Lucas Prud’Homme
A film made with and about a dear friend, Kaylen. This film explores their concept of Linus, an imaginary boy turned star that brings Kaylen hope and keeps them safe when they need it.
Waldrausch
created by Nina Criswell and Jeremie Le Henaff
featuring Nina Criswell, Jérémie Le Hénaff
Shot over the course of an afternoon in Grunewald, on the outskirts of Berlin, Waldrausch is an experimental short film by Nina Criswell and Jérémie Le Hénaff that emulates the experience of drunken elation in the forest. The German word Waldrausch is a poetic term that describes this phenomenon (Wald meaning forest and Rausch meaning intoxication, rapture, or ecstasy). It was this state of blissful, almost intoxicating sensory overload that inspired the film. Employing a range of digital and analog media from Super 8, film photography, to digital photo and video, we aimed to simulate the transition from the modern, technological world to a more abstract and atmospheric visual experience through the layering and interplay of these contrasting modes.