A selection of winners from the 2012 Toronto Youth Shorts Film Festival will be airing on Rogers TV the next two weeks, including the Audience Choice award winners – meaning films chosen by YOU!
A few months ago, after a taping of a segment for Daytime Toronto featuring myself and Alex Kingsmill (whose film, Face the Strain, won the 2012 Visual Thesis Prize for the T24 Project), the Station Manager contacted me about potentially broadcasting some content from the festival. They were looking for work that doesn’t get much exposure while highlighting the locality and community that brands the Rogers TV channel. After months of discussion, we have formed a lineup of select award-winning and favourite shorts from this past year.
Tonight, four of our films will air on Rogers TV starting with one of my favourite animated pieces that Toronto Youth Shorts have had the pleasure of screening; Vernal Equinox, the winner of the Achievement in Animation award by Haiwei Hou. I’m also happy to say that 2012 T24 Project finalist, Appetizers, by one of the festival’s favourite group of people, the Heroic Melon Collect (featuring Philbert Lui, Lester Calleja, Alex Chung in addition to Elena Lau, Imelda Nurwisah and Eva Ho). People love friendly banter and food and what better choice than this short to be shown on the family-friendly airwaves of Rogers TV. Mile Zero, co-directed by one of the most energetic duos the festival has ever encountered, Roop Gill and Jean-Francois Taylor, which won the Audience Choice award for the Our Zany Adventures program will also be aired as is the Achievement in Film Direction: Non Fiction award winner, Backwards Rider, by Chris Barnard.
Ben Brook’s Ostrichcized, winner of the Youth Emerging Artist Award, heads up the lineup for the week of September 17-23. A re-cut of the Audience Choice award for the Young at heart program, Our Best Friends (because Jeans had to re-record some of the narrative due to Andrew Bundas having “a filthy mouth”) along with a personal favourite, Breaking Over Me by Luise Docherty will also play. Our Best Friends was also nominated for the Cultural Relevancy award and Breaking Over Me won two awards in addition to being one of the top five nominations for the Critics’ Choice award. I was so impressed with carol Huska’s performance, especially at such a young age, that I’m glad that it’ll be seen by many more people across the city.
The broadcast schedule is as follows for the two weeks:
Mon Sept 10, 7:00pm
Tues Sept 11, 11:30pm
Wed Sept 12, 7:30am, 12:30pm, 7:00pm
Sun Sept 16, 4:30am
On Wednesday, September 12, the writer of Breaking Over Me, Kelly Paoli, will join myself on Daytime Toronto to talk about the film and the festival. It airs on Rogers TV at 10am and repeats at 3pm and midnight.
Tune into to Rogers TV (cable 10/63) to check it all out!
-Henry
