Matt Campagna, Festival Co-Founder - Photo By Bruce M. Walker
Geoff Kolomayz, Film Coordinator - Photo by Bruce M. Walker
Chris Trotman, Street Team/Communications Coordinator with interviewer, Louise Peacock - Photo by Bruce M. Walker
Some of the volunteers with Chris Trotman - photo by Bruce M. Walker
Interviewer Louise Peacock admiring the MIFF promo car. Photo by Bruce M. Walker
Recently we had the pleasure to attend MIFF ( Mississauga Independent Film Festival ) a local Film Festival held right here in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.
What is MIFF
In their own words ...
"Founded by two independent film makers, the Mississauga Independent Film Festival (MIFF) does all it can to be the most film maker friendly festival there is. Mostly because we know how exclusive, anonymous and unapproachable most big film festivals can seem, and that kind of environment can really frustrate and discourage an indie film maker."
"This festival has names, faces and people who want to see your film get the exposure it needs and deserves. Between the MIFF Film Market, the festival juries stacked with professional contacts, and industry parties at and leading up to the festival. Our aim is for MIFF to let you meet the people you need to get your film out there. Producers, investors, distributors, whomever you are looking to meet."
A Local Film Festival Helping Film Makers
The folks at MIFF keep submission fees down to less than one tenth than those of some other festivals this size. They encourage local talent, hold workshops with industry leaders, and keep the festival competition all-Canadian. These are just a few of the ways in which MIFF helps the growing digital indie movement and helps raise the level of what the world expects from Canadian film. MIFF is the meeting place for the next generation of Canadian film professionals.
MIFF is about Canadian films and film-makers and all the submissions accepted are from Canadians.
Keeping things eco-friendly, MIFF is also pioneering the Film Vert initiative, in an effort to create a film festival with a zero carbon footprint.
Who makes MIFF tick
We were able to catch up with three of the main movers and shakers at the Festival:
Film Coordinator: Geoff Kolomayz
Street Team/Communications Coordinator: Chris Trotman
Festival Co-Founder: Matt Campagna
Film Coordinator: Geoff Kolomayz
This personable Canadian born actor and film maker has worked in film and television for decades. From student art films to nationwide advertizing campaigns to international feature films, his expertise on the business side of the film industry paired with a unique dedication makes Geoff the ideal man for the top creative job at MIFF.
We talked to Geoff between films. His involvement with MIFF began roughly three years ago. He began as a simple volunteer, and once his potential was recognized he was quickly placed in the Film Coordinator spot.
How Geoff balances his MIFF position and his acting is truly amazing. Geoff loves what he does and is 100 percent behind the MIFF project.
Street Team/Communications Coordinator: Chris Trotman
Returning for his fourth year with MIFF, Chris is enthusiastic about putting his expertise in people skills and his organizational talents to work with the dedicated team of MIFF volunteers. These volunteers really are the backbone of the festival year after year.
Chris was busy processing Festival attendees and directing some of his team of volunteers when we caught up with him.
Interestingly, although heavily involved with MIFF, Chris is not particularly "into" films or film-making - sure he enjoys watching movies, but is not interested in acting, or film making. He just really enjoys being a part of the Festival. and is well suited to his position with MIFF since his day job is communications.
Festival Co-Founder: Matt Campagna
We found Matt busily putttting up posters and making sure everything was all set for the performances, just looking like a regular volunteer.
Youthful and dyanmic, Matt was bubbling with enthusiasm when we asked him to talk to us for a few minutes.
As an indie filmmaker himself, Matt broke into the industry in order to get his first movies seen by a large audience and sold around the world. Thanks to his involvement with MIFF and his constant networking, Matt has connections to producers, crew and international sales and distribution companies. Matt's goal is to make sure MIFF is doing everything possible to ensure that the process is easier for other indie film makers than it was for him when he started.
Matt and his brother started the festival 5 years ago, and had humble beginnings in a local theatre in a local strip mall. Matt somehow managed to get the attention of the City of Mississauga's tough Mayor, Hazel McCallion, and with her support was able to get some financial help from the City.
The first three years were a struggle, but on the third year, they moved from their first theatre to the beautiful AMC theatre chain in West Mississauga.
Matt's advice to anyone else trying to start their own festival: "Just remember that the first three years will be difficult, but after that, if you make it, it just gets better and better"
The volunteers
We managed to buttonhole a few of the MIFF volunteers and spoke with them about what makes them do this.
We found a mix of high school students who love the idea of meeting some of the actual film-makers and actors, and just being around the event. We found several film makers also, folks who had submitted films to the festival, folks who love film, several people who are students in film courses, school teachers and secretaries. No matter what their motivation they all shared one major thing: Enthusiasm for the festival and for what it does for Canadian film-makers.
We talked to Michelina, in her second year as a MIFF volunteer. By day, Michelina works as a secretary at a school. After hours, her passion is film-making. She is a film buff, with a really excellent knowledge of films. She volunteers at MIFF because it has been a very positive experience for her, meeting lots of people in the film biz, and loves that she gets to see a lot of really great indie films.
The Films
We only caught the Shorts and Documentary portion of the Festival, but the calibre of work we saw was excellent. Most of the works shown had budgets of under $5000.00. Overall, we had very few technical complaints - out of 28 shorts and 3 documentaries only one came up with mastering issues with sound levels rising and falling rather annoyingly in places but the overall production and the subject matter were good enough for us to overlook that.
Shorts and docs
Among the shorts we particularly enjoyed were notably "Victoria" love letter from a Victorian man to his lady love with a twist; directed by Elvis Deane; "Always sideways" Directed by Steve Mitchell - movie rental employee whose goal is to get everyone to rent his fave movie; "Ten" Directed by Kevin Saychareun,a story of a guy with ten lives debating how to use his last one. " Blind Spot" Directed by Matthew Nayman - Poor guy having 'phone battles with obdurate airline people, but that's not the worst; "The Girl and the Spanish Boy" directed by Danelle Eliav - whimsical romantic romp;" The Patriarch" Directed by Sara A. Brown - Beautifully done glimpse into an old world Italian family; "Post-lifers" Directed by Greg Kovacs - Zany tale about a day in the life of a bunch of zombies; "Down Bob" Directed by Adam Schafer - Hilarious look at a geeky guy who finally gets to beat up a bunch of cowardly punks, "Gun Happy": Directed by Jay Molloy - Thought provoking story about a guy who gets a handgun and a licence and proceeds to shoot everything in sight, including his roommate. ."The Undetected" Directed by Kristen Anderson Sauve - 2 sisters stranded on a lonely farm road seek help at an old beat up farm house and get quite a surprise, as does the audience. 2 animations that caught our eye - "Scrap metal" Directed by Anthony Strauss and "The Joy of Books" directed by Sean Ohlenkamp.
In the documentary category we were taken by "Unity: Hip Hop's Next Chapter" Directed by Mark Holmes and Mark Holt and "My Uncle's Tattoo" Directed by Jessica Virgilio.
The Film Makers
We chatted with a few of the actual film makers after the screenings.
First up was director, Elvis Deane. His film was called "Victoria". This is the first film that Elvis has submitted to a festival in the past 10 years. Victoria is set in a candlelit room where a young man in period costume writes a letter to his beloved. Elvis told us that although the actual shoot took only a couple of days, the "set" preps took months. He ended up turning his apartment into a Victorian room by extensively repainting it, and with candalabras obtained from various places. Elvis is moving on to his next project which is a film noir web series which he will begin shooting shortly.
Next we spoke to Kevin Saychareun the director of "Ten". Kevin started making films in high school but this is the first time he has had a film accepted by a festival, and it has given him a tremendous confidence boost. Kevin is already starting on his next short film project and is fundraising right now.
We met some of crew from "Post-lifers" Directed by Greg Kovacs - We met with Director/producer Greg Kovacs, and producers Darren Hutchings, Brad McMillan and Nathan Hawkins and make up-artist par excellence, Mitchell Stacey. We noticed some similarities between their movie and Edgar Wright's "Shaun of the Dead" as well as BruceCampell and Sam Raimi's "Army of Darkness". They nodded knowingly, smirked and agreed there were traces of these in their creation. Theysaid that they tried for a good balance of horror and comedy. They are currently working on a horror comedy puppet movie called Tasha and Friends. Note. We have just learned that The Post-lifers won Best Short at MIFF and has just been accepted to the New Orleans Film Festival.
We managed to speak to Allen Moy Executive producer of "Gun happy" Directed by Jay Molloy - We talked to Allen said it took only 2 days to shoot the movie, but post processing took a wack of time - as he says "the post processing gets you everytime". This is Allen's and Molloy's fourth short movie and last year they won an award at MIFF. They are now working on a feature length movie, a comedy, and are treading the fundraising path.
We met Adam Schafer the director of "Down Bob". Along with Adam were two of his main characters, Bob and one of the evil punks. Adam has been making films since he was 9, when he received a video camera as a gift. He has submitted successfully to various festivals over the years and has won several awards. He was excited about getting his film into MIFF and very enthusiastic about the future.
Short documentaries
Jessica Virgilio shot a hilarious documentary about her Uncles tattoo. Her first attempt at film making. It was a school project and took several semesters to complete. It required the cooperation of her entire family, since they were all in it. Her grandfather was a natural playing himself and describing the tattoo incident from many years ago. Jessica was really pleased that her film was accepted by MIFF and plans to start on her next project in September when she returns to Humber college.
Also in the documentary category, we spoke to Mark Holmes and Mark Holt directors of "Unity: Hip Hop's Next Chapter" . Unity is a youth movement which tries to work with youth to combat some of the problems which are part and parcel of the urban school system: bullying, gun violence, etc. This excellent documentary took them 3 years to shoot, going to many different schools to get their footage, and spending many hours in post production. After completion, they went back to revisit the Unity project and learned that many advances had been made by the group including getting financial aid in the form of a grant. They included this post film footage in the final cut of the documentary.
Attending MIFF - even though we caught only a fraction of the program - was great fun and very entertaining. We congratulate the people involved with running the festival and look forward to attending next years even, who know? We may even volunteer.
Visit www. MIFF.ca for more information about MIFF2013, which is currently open for submissions with dates of July 24-28, 2013.
