Homegrown Talent in TIFF’s Discovery program
Over the years the Discovery section at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has come to assume an essential part of this particular annual celebration of film.
Congregating debut and sophomore films from some of the most promising filmmakers from around the world, the Discovery section has been known to welcome early work from the likes of Christopher Nolan, Barry Jenkins and Maren Ade. This track record highlights TIFF’s role as a key supporter of early and middle-career stage talent.
This year’s Discovery selection was a mixed bunch, ranging from the transcendental to the average. While some filmmakers took risks, experimenting with and complicating the concept of genre, others played it safe and yet managed to reveal new angles to familiar tropes. A number of titles from the host country highlight this observation in clear terms. Film funding bodies in-country like Telefilm Canada have risen to the challenge of supporting independent films that are reflective of the country’s much heralded reputation as a beacon of diversity and inclusiveness. This dedicated approach to finding and supporting diverse talent has contributed to the realization of a project like Really Happy Someday, an intimate peep into the world of an artist navigating major change.
Producer and director J Stevens worked with lead Breton Lalama to craft a personal voice for protagonist Z, a professional, Toronto based singer who while making the transition from female to male, has to figure out how to sing in his new register. This way, he can meld his past and present selves together while continuing to work professionally in a field that he loves.
It is hard to see where Z and Lalama’s stories differ and where they merge and this is a testament to the sensitivity with which Lalama and Stevens approach their collaboration. Really Happy Someday is lived experience, and this comes across clearly, from the dynamic amongst the actors to the rawness of their performances.
Scenes in which Z takes lessons with a vocal coach Sherry (played by real life practitioner Ali Garrison) sparkle with an authenticity that perhaps, could not be achieved in a project with limited resources such as this one. Stevens compensates for a shortage in resources and skill by capturing a perspective that perhaps only they could outline. Really Happy Someday might be modest but it is eloquent about elements of the transition process; the shifting nature of identity, crippling anxieties, economic insecurities and emotional toll that arise. It is also a look at the community that supports the artist’s hunger to express themselves and give voice to their ideas .
Seeds, the debut feature by actor and filmmaker Kaniehtiio Horn, supported also by Telefilm Canada features a similar sense of community albeit one drawn from blood and legacy. Inspired very much from her Indigenous heritage, Seeds is written, co-produced and directed by Horn and carries a message about her Kanienʼkehá:ka food sovereignty.
Horn also stars in the lead role as Ziggy, a Toronto-based bike courier and wannabe influencer who lands a new contract creating content for a buzzy seed and fertilizer company named Nature’s Oath, On a house sitting trip back to her ancestral home, strange things begin to happen and she finds herself called to protect a family heirloom.
Seeds gestures to Canada’s violent and complicated history with its indigenous population while pointing to late stage capitalism as the eventual iteration of colonization attempts that remain till this day. It is heavy stuff that the film grapples with but Horn presents it in a campy, B-movie thriller that often struggles to outline its intentions. The filmmaking is rough, budgeting is clearly limited and the wild tonal shifts make the experience all the more jarring. There is a potentially interesting voice within the bloodshed and the dark humor but it is yet to be refined.
Montreal set You Are Not Alone directed by the duo of Marie-Hélène Viens and Philippe Lupien has some similarity to Seeds in that it advocates for a blending and blurring of genres. But Viens and Lupien are operating on a different, more accomplished register. The debut feature by the long-time collaborators (and partners) is a high risk, yet tremendously rewarding picture that takes the high concept of an alien abduction thriller and crafts it into a tender, surprisingly sweet tale of heartache and romance.
After suffering a heartbreak, Léo (Pier-Luc Funk) downsizes his existence to working night shifts at his parents’ pizza place and getting drunk. When he meets Rita (Marianne Fortier), a sweet-natured musician, he finds a reason to hope again. Except there is one complication to a potential union. Léo has been targeted by an alien (François Papineau) who preys on Montreal’s lonely and alienated men. Can their love survive this otherworldly threat?
You Are Not Alone opens with a graphic alien abduction scene that ends with a man walking naked into a fridge. The rest of the film then takes a different direction as the filmmakers set up the dramatic stakes of their love story before bringing back the extra terrestrial aspect of it. There will be audiences who roll their eyes at the metaphor that links the hero’s depressive state following his failed relationship with the concept of aliens coming down to earth to study humans but Viens and Lupien handle their not-so–novel idea with a dexterity that ensures this depiction remains fresh. They have an eye for the emotional beats of the story and are just as adept at creating suspense, plus a sense of wonder too.
The filmmakers manage to pull off a delicious blend of romance, thriller, science fiction and some comedy. And they do this without sacrificing their own personal ideas for cinema, crafting a film that borrows from elsewhere- think Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin– in some parts but also emerges as a thrilling, understated original vision.
Elsewhere Grammy winning, Somali born Canadian singer K’naan Warsame makes a confident feature debut with the hugely affecting Mother Mother which won the festival’s FIPRESCI prize. A vividly arresting dramatic lead performance by first time actor Maan Youssouf Ahmed in the titular role is the driving force that propels this narrative forward and Warsame’s rich and observant scripting is paired with solid craft work. An ode to the strength and vitality of the women of his birth country, Mother Mother is a quietly assured debut that is able to speak to the personal as well as the political in its treatment of grief, closure and second chances.
The point of the Discovery section at TIFF is to platform new voices on a global stage. Going by the diversity of talent, stories and skill on display, the present state of independent Canadian cinema appears promising enough to celebrate.
Wilfred Okiche
© FIPRESCI 2024