Community Films and Exploring Creativity: A Virtual Summit
The COVID 19 pandemic has created new innovative ways for all of us to connect and converse with one another. These new virtual spaces have brought together and connected many young people and community leaders in ways that may not have been seen as possible before. To continue supporting these connections, we recently hosted a three day virtual summit where 35 young filmmakers from Canada, Sri Lanka, UK, and the USA connected, collaborated, and learned from industry leaders and their peers.
This virtual summit also featured 6 original short films submitted by the participants. These short films explored social issues such as identity, immigration, and environment and how it impacts them personally and their local communities. These young filmmakers also took part in LIVE Q&A sessions sharing their creative process producing them.
We started our first day of the virtual summit with a professional development session on Using Mobile Devices for Photography & Film. Facilitators Maliha and Shanik, from JAYU, talked about how young creatives can use their mobile devices for photography and filming to continue to create as they shelter at home without access to their regular media equipment. The conversation continued with Patrick Shannon on how to bring your unique style and culture into film making. As an Indigenous Filmmaker, Partick shared his journey as a creative, and how he brings his cultural perspectives into his work.
We started the second day of the virtual summit with the international award-winning filmmaker, director, and casting director Ron Leach on Digital Storytelling. Ron encouraged all the young creatives to push the boundaries and explore new topics through their storytelling. Following this conversation, the young filmmakers heard from Ryan Rizzo, the founder of Terresky. During this session, the young filmmakers learned about the many ways Drones can be used for storytelling, from providing different viewpoints to data collection.
This virtual summit ended with a panel on Careers in Filmmaking. Industry experts, Jamie Whitecrow, Jimmy Blais, Melissa Jim, and Michael Lobel talked about their career journey in the film industry, sharing insights, resources and advice from their experiences.
You can view all of the featured short-films and these professional development sessions on our web site.
We would also like to extend a thank you to our community partners, Better Youth, Fully Focused, Littleglobe, RAW Art Works, Reel Youth, and Squeaky Wheel Media Arts Center, in supporting their young creatives to be a part of this virtual summit. It’s creative youth organizations like these that have made this event possible and a great success. And lastly a special thank you to our guest speakers and facilitators, Jay Baker and Jennifer Corriero, for facilitating inspiring conversations among the young filmmakers throughout the summit.
