School Information GIFTS News

Three GIFTS films are winners at the BC Student Film Festival!

Normal, Super8/16mm - Honourable Mention For Outstanding Filmmaking; Honourable Mention for Outstanding Art Direction; Film Craft Award Best Overall Post Secondary Film; First Place Post Secondary PSA
By Caitlin Padgett, Alyson Titkemeyer, Mary Ann Charney, Arlena Barnes, Silas Pronk
neige, Documentary - second place in Documentary
By Trevor Tablotney, Jonnie Penn, Sarah Hoemberg
The Bitch Just Won't Let Go, Super8/16mm - second place in Experimental
By Charles Granger

GIFTS Films win 8 more awards at the Canadian International Annual Film Festival!
Congratulations to the directors of the following films which either won awards and/or were screened at CIAFF 2002...

Callaesthetics - Best Youth Experimental; Best Amateur Experimental; 3rd Best Amateur Overall; 3rd Best Canadian
Rigor Mortis - Best Film Student Experimental
May I Have Your Attention - 2nd Best Film Student Documentary
beautiful - 3rd Best Film Student Documentary
At the Hands of an Animal - 3rd Best Amateur Nature Entry
It Hurts Because You're Weak
Door to Door
Amusements of a Digitized Bunny
Dirty Windows

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beautiful to screen at the prestigious Vancouver International Film Festival

Congratulations to Dan Uzelac, whose film beautiful, was selected to screen in the Canadian Images program at the VIFF 2002. beautiful was created during a youth documentary media intensive course in the summer of 2001. Showtimes are: Sat Oct 5 at noon & Mon Oct 7 at 9:15pm. Both screenings are at the Granville 7 theatre on Granville Street, Vancouver, BC.

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GIFTS Recieves 120th Award from 120seconds.com
We're not even joking! It Hurts Because You're Weak took Best Documentary at 120seconds.com Digital Film Festival, and it's our 120th award!

Congratulations to Jason Picton, Geoff Lonergan and Brock Miller! This 6.5 minute film was created during a youth documentary week in Summer 2001. It was also nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Youth Documentary at GIFTS' EyeLens Film & Video Festival.

Nice work Jason, Geoff & Brock!

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3 More Awards, 7 Finalists at the Cascadia Festival of Moving Images 2002

Rigor Mortis - Best Experimental, Post-Secondary
Dramatic Day for Dow - 2nd Place, Experimental, Post-Secondary
Callaesthetics - Best Experimental, Senior Secondary
Door to Door
It Hurts Because You're Weak
May I Have Your Attention
At the Hands of an Animal

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GIFTS Films Win 8 Awards at BC Student Film & Video Festival
The BC Student Film Festival takes place May 23-25, 2002 at the Centre for Digital Imaging and Sound in Burnaby, BC. The festival includes a competition in which 8 GIFTS films received awards:

• Dirty Windows - 1st Place, Post Secondary Narrative
• Amy's Dance - 3rd Place, Post Secondary Narrative
• The Job - 3rd Place, Jr. Secondary Narrative
• Door to Door - 1st Place, Post Secondary Animation
• Cars Aren't Toys - 2nd Place, Post Secondary PSA
• Into This - 3rd Place, Post Secondary PSA
• Touch - 2nd Place, Post Secondary Experimental
  
• Callaesthetics - 3rd Place, Post Secondary Experimental

Click on the film titles to view them in RealPlayer.

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GIFTS Filmmaker wins Best Director
Barry D. Johnson, director of the Super 8 film, The Visitors, was awarded the Jury Prize for Best Director in the Get Reel category of the Local Heroes International Film Festival in Edmonton, Alberta.

The Visitors was created during a week-long Super 8 film program last summer at GIFTS. "Symbolic of the Europeans coming to America. Visitors take over a man's home and make him stay in a room while they wreck the house." The Visitors have also screened at ImageNATIVE Film Festival in Toronto and at the Visualized Activist Film Festival in Denver, CO. Congratulations Barry! (click on the title to watch the film in RealPlayer.

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Student Films at the Victoria Independent Film and Video Festival
She Waits, an experimental drama by 4 award-winning young women, has been selected to screen at VIFVF 2002 on Friday, February 8th at 7pm at Herman's Jazz Club, 753 View St, Victoria. It is part of the "A Cruel and Demanding World" Shorts Program. Watch the film and get more info...

GIFTS is also proud to be participating in the InVision Student Program at this year's VIFVF. 13 of GIFTS new and old favourites will screen on Tuesday, February 5th at 7:15pm at the Capitol 6, Theatre 1, 805 Yates St, Victoria. Several of the directors will be in attendance. Come out and join the GIFTS party! Watch some of the films and get more info...

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GIFTS films take yet ANOTHER film festival by storm!

Five films created by teen GIFTS directors were selected to screen at the prestigious Burbank International Children’s Film Festival, Oct 26 to Nov 3, 2001. All five of these films received an award in the For Kids, By Kids category! And the winners are….

• Callaesthetics - Best Drama
  by Callianne Bachman, Asa Goldman, Bronwen Marsden, Rebecca Simonetti
• Into This - Best PSA
  by Stewart German, Nicholas Schilbach, Hannah Merrick, Michael Withers, Sarah Stefanovic
• Cars Aren’t Toys - Runner Up for Best PSA
  by Amanda Letang, Shea Pollard, Emilie Fournier
• Monster Movie - Runner Up for Best Comedy
  by Woody Ciskowski, Amelia Goodine, Matt Vague, Pip Hampton
• beautiful - Runner Up for Best Documentary
  by Dan Uzelac

Congratulations to the filmmakers!

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Belgian filmmaker wins a week at GIFTS

Congratulations to Irwin Verbruggen, who received the award for Best Overall Short Film at the Toronto International Teen Movie Festival early this month. The award includes a one-week session at GIFTS.

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GIFTS films screening at festivals internationally and locally
Some of the festivals include: Toronto International Teen Movie Festival, Visualized: Messages in Motion Activist Film Festival in Colorado, the Northwest Film & Video Festival in Portland, OR, The Burbank International Children’s Film Festival in California, and the Vancouver International Film Festival in British Columbia.

We’re also proud to be having our student films requested by film festivals all over the world, including the Sydney Mardi Gras Film Festival, Immaginaria in Italy, and the Stockholm Film Festival in Sweden.

Go to our Awards & Screenings page to get all the details on these and more screenings.

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The Elecric Shadows Guild

A new collaboration with Simon Fraser University's Communication students has created a resource for GIFTS grads in the Vancouver area. The Electric Shadows Guild [derived from the Chinese term for film: dian-ying - electric-shadows] is a worker owned [share-holding by all workers] co-operative for grads of the Independent Media Producer's Program's documentary stream and SFU Communications video program grads. The Guild is a support group for developing careers in independent documentary production, and provides information resources, networking opportunities, and access to tools and funding.

The Guild is the brainchild of SFU instructor Roger Howard (who co-teaches the Communications course with Dave Murphy) in an effort to help develop the grassroots documentary scene in
Vancouver. Roger attended our [2000] IMPP and was impressed by the approach and scope of the GIFTS teaching method. Following the heels of the success of his films [Bread] and [Beaters], he's now even more focussed on documentary work in relation to his many years in working on co-op development in China.

If you love making documentaries, live in the Lower Mainland, and are a graduate of the IMPP, the Electric Shadows Guild invites your participation.

Electric Shadows Guild
School of Communication
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, B.C.
Canada V5A 1S6
tel:604 421-5696
fax:604 291-4024
email us for more info: [email protected]