10th SUMMER SEASON
In light of the pandemic, Christie Pits Film Festival’s 10th anniversary project has taken new form. 2020 was supposed to be extra special, because we funded 9 indie filmmaking teams to make brand-new short films to premiere each week at CPFF in celebration of our 10th birthday. This is a very special project that many of you supported through our Indiegogo campaign - read more about it below.
Recognizing the need for an event that could bring the community together in the year of the pandemic, even if we couldn’t be in our home park, TOPS curated a unique experience to celebrate the festival's 10th year with Toronto audiences, presenting the city's very first in-person festival of the pandemic period, for ten consecutive evenings in August, 2020.
Anniversary SHORT FILM PROJECTS
In celebration of 10 years of community arts programming at our signature series, Christie Pits Film Festival, Toronto Outdoor Picture Show committed $90,000 in cash funding to 9 Canadian short film productions, an initiative that will relies on donations from the community.
We have been so proud to share with our community short and feature films by 80 Canadian filmmakers over the years, and we really hope you’ll love new films by 9 of those alumni filmmakers this summer. Explore the projects and selected filmmakers below (and watch their previous shorts at home now!).
The following projects were awarded filmmaking grants from Toronto Outdoor Picture Show following a juried process in September, 2019. The jury was made up of Emily Reid, Felan Parker, Aisha Jamal, Ananya Ohri, and Katarina Gligorijević.
Tips Are Appreciated
Directed by Trevor Anderson
Written by Becky Johnson, Leigh Cameron & Trevor Anderson
Produced by Becky Johnson, Leigh Cameron, Chris Sandiford, Tyler Metcalf & Trevor Anderson
Cast: Becky Johnson, Leigh Cameron & Chris Sandiford
A five-star ride-share driver finds her daily route to the airport becoming a full-on head trip.
A long-time Edmonton filmmaker, Trevor Anderson has recently moved to Toronto. His recent film, Docking, premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Tips Are Appreciated had its world premiere at the Ten Years of Toronto Outdoor Picture Show festival in August, 2020.
Tips Are Appreciated premiered at the festival’s unique 2020 series at Fort York. It will be featured within CPFF’s 2021 season along with the full shorts programme.
Trevor Anderson’s short film The Little Deputy screened as part of the Stranded in Christie Pits! programme in 2016 alongside My Prairie Home.
Projections
Directed and written by Maya Annik
Produced by Kate Fraser
A mixed-media documentary - featuring vintage footage, live action drama and stop-motion animation - about the stories we tell ourselves when looking for love online.
Maya Annik is a Jamaican-Québecoise filmmaker. After living in the UK and Brazil, she returned to Toronto and launched Third Culture Media in 2013. Her films have have screened at festivals across North America and Europe and sold to Air Canada and the CBC.
Kate Fraser is a Toronto based film producer with Third Culture Media. She has an extensive background in community media programming, public arts, arts funding, and degrees in cultural anthropology and social work, all of which informs her work in film.
This director-producer duo presented their Toronto-set short film The Foreigner as part of 2018’s Cinematic Cities programme alongside Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, the festival’s first double-feature event.
Plain Sight
Directed and produced by Paige Gratland
A documentary portrait of feminist, activist, woman, trans person, and self-taught seamstress Brenna Bezanson, who has created a personal wardrobe of custom fit garments. Each piece is a symbol of creative resistance, an experimentation, a talisman, and an act of self love worn out into the world.
A graduate of Ryerson University in film production, Paige Gratland now calls Vancouver home. Her documentaries and experimental videos have screened at Hot Docs, Images Festival, The Anthology Film Archive, and Inside Out Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.
Paige’s delightfully quirky documentary short BOOTWMN screened alongside Best in Show as part of CPFF’s Eyes on the Prize series in 2017.
Distant Cousins
Directed, written and produced by Winnifred Jong
Estranged from her cousins at a young age, Chinese-Canadian Trixie has flashbacks and dreams which lead her to uncover a longstanding family secret.
Named 2018 Playback’s 5-to-Watch, Winnifred Jong is a Toronto-based filmmaker and an alumna of the Women In the Director’s Chair (WIDC) and Ryerson University.
Winnie Jong’s short films The Offer and Milk have been included in three Toronto Outdoor Picture Show series across the city.
Bee Problem
Directed & written by Roney
Produced by Julie Strifler
A woman in her late fifties struggles through a sudden divorce, as she navigates another workday in a city where every few hours the streets are swarmed with millions of bees.
Roney is a director, writer, and actor currently attending the Canadian Film Centre’s Cineplex Director’s Lab of 2019.
Roney’s short film Glitter’s Wild Women, which screened as part of CPFF’s 2019 summer season, is currently being adapted into a feature film.
The Women's Hour
Directed by Allison Johnston
Written by and starring Briana Templeton & Gwynne Phillips
Produced by Ariella Naymark, Tyler Metcalf, Briana Templeton & Gwynne Phillips
It's 1959. Two rival actresses are cast opposite each other in a film about a homicide… but only one of them will survive when the clock strikes murder.
Briana Templeton and Gwynne Phillips frequently write and perform live as the comedy duo The Templeton Philharmonic, picking up several awards for their work including The Just For Laughs Award at Montreal Sketchfest, Best Duo at the LA Comedy Festival, Patron’s Pick at the Toronto Fringe Festival, and Producer’s Pick at Toronto Sketchfest. The Women’s Hour had its world premiere at the Ten Years of Toronto Outdoor Picture Show festival in August, 2020.
Director Allison Johnston and co-writers and co-stars Briana Templeton and Gwynne Phillips introduced The Women’s Hour to an excited opening night audience of Ten Years of Toronto Outdoor Picture Show at Fort York.
Dynamic Duo Briana and Gwynne’s short film Dinette screened as part of CPFF’s 2019 summer season alongside His Girl Friday.
There's Only One Love Song In This Film and I Sing It To A Lamp
Directed by Charlie Tyrell
Written by Monica Heisey
Produced by Julie Baldassi
In the weeks after a breakup, a woman finds herself still adjusting to the apartment she once shared with her partner of nine years. An exploration of the echoes left behind by the people who once occupied a home with you.
Charlie Tyrell is a Torontonian filmmaker and the New Year's Baby of 1988. His work has screened internationally at such festivals as Sundance, SXSW, Hot Docs, Tribeca, and many more.
Head Above Water
Directed and written by Marni Van Dyk
Produced by Natalie Urqhart
An older woman held captive by a lifetime of secrets, decides she will face her greatest fear: learning to swim.
Marni Van Dyk’s short films include Learn to Swim, We Three Queens, nominated for a Canadian Comedy Award, and I Am Not A Weird Person (dir. Molly McGlynn), and is currently developing her original series Naked Nancy, a pitch finalist at the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival.
Marni Van Dyk’s short film I Am Not A Weird Person screened to CPFF’s largest ever audience in 2018 alongside Amélie.
THANK YOU TO OUR MAJOR SPONSORS FOR THEIR CONTINUED SUPPORT
