Toronto Youth Shorts draws out the best of York filmmakers

On August 8, the Innis College at U of T hosted the Toronto Youth Shorts, an annual film festival showcasing short films by independent filmmakers under 30. This year’s program was split into two categories—Who We Are, and What We Were, What We Will Be. A total of 30 films were shown, five of which were created by York students and alumni.
These were some of our favourites.
 
MINE!
Directed by Patricia Ayu Lestari
MINE! is an animated short featuring a gopher, a badger, a precious stone, and no dialogue. A Sheridan College project, this two minute short was cute, simple, and entertaining. For no dialogue, the animation was so crystal clear that you went along for a ride with the character. Although it was reminiscent of Ice Age’s short stories featuring the saber-toothed squirrel, the story managed to get a laugh, a awe, and a applause from our auditorium.
This film was the winner of the Achievement in Animation award.
 
Blue Eyed Drunks
Directed by Abdul Malik 
A York alumni film, Blue Eyed Drunks is a specific film that somehow speaks on a very general topic: cultural assimilation. Shakey camera work and off-putting framing are offset with amazing graphics and subtitles. The film perfectly captures the teen awkwardness that comes from being a second-generation immigrant attempting to blend into a “white” culture.
 
A Woman Departed
Directed by Steven Czikk
Another York alumni production, this film is a documentary that deals with the caregiver and partner of a woman suffering from Alzheimer’s. The interesting cinematography and focus on everyday objects, layered with the vocal narration of the subject, provide a haunting image that sheds light on the difficulties of losing someone you love before burying them. This personal story feels as if we are intruding on a very sensitive topic, filled with raw emotion, loneliness, and love.
 
White Lines
Directed by Jessie Posthumus 
This animated short took us by surprise; a phone call recording of a former drug addict is animated with simplistic and clear lines, perhaps alluding to his drug of choice. Animated films often get casted as cute, childish films with light topics, and to see such a serious theme of addiction, poverty, and crime presented in a typically lighthearted medium is a surprising change of pace. The depravity in the narrator’s voice strikes a chord, and the animation compliments, rather than opposes, to distracts from the narrator’s message. This short won the Achievement in Film Direction, Nonfiction, and the Cultural Relevancy Award.
 
Footprints
Directed by Kevin Saychareun
Produced by Jenn Paul
Easily the crowd favourite, this Korean-based short won the audience and industry choice awards. Everything about this film screams professional film making. Littered with drama and even a jumpscare scene, the cinematography of Footprints practically blew my mind. The intelligent use of colour, music, and dialogue effectively produced a horrifying but heartfelt story of a man who faces his demons. There are moments of despair and tragedy accompanied with scenes of fear and horror that are skillfully manifested in ghostly images and senses of impending doom. Footprints brings out an appreciation for the international film industry considering that the entire film’s dialogue is in Korean. On its influence, Saychareun said he was inspired by Korean and international horror films. As a man of minority ethnicity, he felt tired of seeing Asian actors playing a comedic relief in Hollywood movies, and wanted to provide an outlet for minority actors to play serious roles. It is hard to believe such an amazing short was created by recent grads, including a York alumni Jenn Paul who acted as the film’s producer.
 
Forbidden Fruit
Directed by Nicole Cedic
Another York production, this black and white homage to the silent movie era is a fun piece. The presumably black and white grainy and shaky effects made the film difficult to watch by the end, but was saved by the acting and musical score. Several scenes were shot at the York Village, with familiar streets and steps of the resident houses. The sexual innuendos might be a bit too much, but the execution lead to a sea of laughter. Let’s just say you will never look at watermelons the same way again.
 
Bosniak
Directed by Kejd Kuqo
Produced by Brittany Sheahan 
The winner of the audience and industry choice awards, this historical drama takes places during the Bosnian War of 1992-1995. The violence plays second to the main issue of the sexual violence and enslavement of Bosnian women. The story jumps back and forth from 1992’s Bosnia to 2015’s Toronto, as the main character tries to redeem herself and her past mistakes. Another film with little dialogue, the silence works in the director’s favour. The little dialogue of Bosnian language illustrates the frightening and life-threatening conditions of a war-torn country. The computer-generated graphics are subpar, but are made up for with the beautiful location scouting for rural Bosnia. The casting was fantastic, particularly in the choices of the 1992 and 2015 versions of characters, and their delivery was phenomenal.
 
The Crocodile and the Capybara
Directed by Guillermo de la Rosa
The Crocodile and the Capybara was a crowd favourite that was masterly produced. It combined spectacular use of animation as well as acting and told a story of two brothers struggling to make ends meet, financially and emotionally. The story of The Crocodile and the Capybara itself was told through an amazing animation sequence that was inspired by the story of the scorpion and the toad in the 2011 movie Drive. Their prey-predator relationship was later exemplified by the brothers’ relationship that was falling apart at the seams. It was emotional and relatable, displaying the unbreakable bond between brothers, even when they seem to have drifted too far apart. The short film was able to capture the kind of things we would do for our siblings unconditionally, even when our relationship is heavily tested by the rest of the world and its unforgiving circumstances.
 
Asteroid
Directed by Kristina Mileska
Another York production, the film follows the train-of-thought of a child dealing with death. Children are not as emotionally aware of the cruelties that lie beyond their nursery rhymes and story books. They don’t know what it means to die or understand what happens when someone close to them passes. Asteroid did an exceptional job of explaining the thought process of a little girl as she witnesses her grandfather reach the end of his journey. Symbolized by green aliens and unintelligible language, the little girl is on a quest to save her grandfather from abduction as he struggles against his restraints only for her to remove all of them so he is at peace. Heartwarming and tragic, Asteroid shows us death from a different angle and what it means to perceive death as an innocent child who has never witnessed it before.

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Aleeza Qureishi, Contributor. Victoria Goldberg, Arts Editor

Featured image courtesy of Toronto Youth Shorts, in-text photos courtesy of Amir Chabouk.