From Dead North to the French Riviera
Amateur filmmakers experience taste of life in the limelight
Robin Grant
Northern News Services
Wednesday, June 14, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
One auteur from this year's Dead North Film Festival is making waves in France.
First-time filmmaker and Range Lake North School teacher Keith Robertson, right, stands with Steve Outlet, star of BAIT! and the photographer's dog, who decided to get into the shot, at the Cannes International Film Festival in May. The film was screened at Telefilm Canada's Not Short on Talent program. - photo courtesy of Keith Robertson |
First-time filmmaker and Range Lake North teacher Keith Robertson's film BAIT! was selected to screen as part of Not Short on Talent, a Telefilm Canada program held each year at Cannes international film festival.
Robertson went to Cannes for the screening in May.
Created for the 2017 Dead North film festival, BAIT! is about a man who goes ice fishing alone and horror ensues.
After his European foray, Robertson described Cannes as a flashy affair and a great opportunity to meet other aspiring artists.
"It was screened in front of other Canadian short filmmakers and got we to show off to them and vice versa," he said, adding the film was also made available to be seen by other festival directors, curators and producers.
His journey to Cannes all started at the Dead North awards ceremony at the end of February. There, Robertson's film won the award for the best poster but didn't receive nods in any other categories.
Nevertheless, one of the judges, Danny Lennon, approached him and said he liked his film - especially how he weaved humour into the narrative.
Robertson said Lennon, who is a part of Telefilm Canada's Not Short on Talent program, encouraged him to enter.
"At first I thought it was a joke," said the rookie filmmaker.
Then, he said, he was speechless.
The unique approach he took in the film is what wooed Lennon.
"I don't like horror movies," said Robertson. "So I basically tried to take a familiar Northern experience and apply a horror lens to it."
Robertson isn't the only filmmaker catching attention this year.
Twelve-year-old Andrea Geraghty's film, Yellowknife Ground Zero, recently won the Best Short Short award from the Women's Only Entertainment Film Festival, which is a monthly online festival that recognizes women in the industry.
Yellowknife Ground Zero is about "energy people" who live under the new Stanton Territorial Hospital and threaten to destroy humanity.
Geraghty explained her Dead North filmmaking odyssey began because she wasn't able to work with her father on his film projects like she usually does.
"I couldn't be in them because they were a little bit more grown-up. So I thought I could make my own film," she said.
While she admitted her father helped with the concept, she said she did everything else on her own.
After the Dead North festival, she said her dad suggested she enter the Women's Only Entertainment Film Festival.
"I came out as the winner," she said.
"They said they really liked it and it was really neat."
When asked what her favourite horror movie is, she exclaimed: "Mine!"
