On Sept. 25, I attended the Youth by Youth Cinema Competition at the Calgary International Film Festival. Kids and teenagers from Grades 4 to 12 made animations, documentaries and live action films that showed and portrayed issues in real life, especially how sometimes the voice of youths is not heard in today’s society.
The first film’s name was Todd and this was my least favorite in the competition because the meaning of the film was not really apparent, and the even though it was made by group of high school teens it still didn’t have the quality I expected it would. It showed a person who is dining out but must go to the bathroom under awkward circumstances.
The second film was called Tar Sand Pudding and was made by two girls in elementary school. In this documentary, the girls are making a pudding from tar and sand. They are sloppy at times but the overall meaning was evident that the oil sands of Alberta are destroying the ecosystems of ducks. This was one of my favorites because it was way more that what I expected from two elementary students.
Next I saw a film called To the Rescue. Even though, I didn’t really see a point in making a film about two wooden models going to find their third model, it looked as if there was a lot of effort put into it.
Next I saw a movie called Imagine, which despite its great theme, it had a poor storyline, it was poorly acted and the actors’ voices were a little too robotic.
After this, I saw a short film called Tiny Footprints Making a Big Difference. This was also one of my favorites because the actors really knew what they were doing and there was also a big range of opinions and cast members for the documentary. I especially liked all the effort that the Grade 4 students had put in to make their school more eco-friendly.
The next film I watched was called Cycle of a Circle, which was made by a group of junior high school students. This movie shows how a particle forms in the big bang and it goes through evolution and finally becomes a bird. Unfortunately, I did not pay too much attention through this film but the animation was still pretty good.
Next I saw a film called Maestro, where a girl creatively cleans up her room. This film was done in stop motion, a method of film-making where individual photos are put together to make a short movie. I found the movie very fun to watch and I assume it took a lot of work in the movie, since stop motion films take a long time to produce.
After this film, I saw a film called Vaccination Day. This movie was one of my favorites since it was based on a zombie theme and it expresses how there are many diseases in the world and how it is important to stop them. The film also expresses that some medicines in the world are not put under enough investigation. This film was based somewhat on the storyline for the cause of the zombies in I am Legend.
The next movie was called iSolation and it showed how children in a school are racist and prejudiced towards robots. This is an example of how some people in the world are faced by racism and unacceptance in society every day. This film can be compared with the previous life of the First Nations in Canada and around the world.
The next short was called Secret Suitcase and this movie was about a woman who goes to great extent to obtain the contents of a suitcase. In the end of the movie, the suitcase reveals a single button at the centre of the suitcase. I thought the movie was creative and was somewhat mysterious but unfortunately I didn’t get the point of the film.
The next movie was called Alone Fish and it was about a Iranian teenager that is celebrating the Iranian New Year but in the middle of his celebrations, he is shot. This movie is very significant towards the wars and huge conflicts that are going on in the middle east and the problems that are making people’s lives miserable and in danger. The red fish that the teenager is holding when he is shot represents the life of Iranian teenagers.
The movie I saw after this was called Phobia. This movie was a animation and it showed how a person turns yellow in a mass majority of blue. This movie shows how the world changes by an action that took place anywhere in the world. This movie was my favourite since it expressed how cultures and societies around the world have reacted to major changes in their life. In the movie the yellow person soons spreads to become close to a majority by is stopped by the blue colored dominant person.
The next film was called Storm and it was about a girl who is lost and has separated herself from the world. In the movie, the girl continues to go away from civilization and the movie shows scenes of the girl going to a forest.
The next movie is called Misfortune which is about a teenager who opens a fortune cookie and finds that he will die today. This movie represents how humans can be very paranoid sometimes and how the teen instantly assumes that he will die on a simple assumption. I like how at the end when the teen thinks he’s finally safe, he dies because of his paranoia.
The last movie I saw was called My Name Is Clarence which was about how a high school student is ignored and ridiculed all his life and finally his temper breaks and he goes insane by killing a couple of high school kids in school. He is a teen as well and this movie shows that how everyone has thier limits and what insults and ridicule can do to a person.
