Aparita

Toronto Star

 

The DJ spun the latest pop and r ‘n’ b tunes as two young girls in frilly dresses looked on. Elsewhere, volunteers handed out pizza and pop to a snaking line of children and their parents.

It was a movie festival opening gala with a difference.

The second-annual International Teen Movie Festival (ITMF), being held at the AMC Interchange 30 in Vaughan, had a festive start last weekend. The festival continues this week, with screenings every day. There will also be a series of lectures by entertainment industry professionals.
The closing gala screening will be held Aug. 23, followed by the ITMF awards show the next day at the Danforth Music Hall.

“It’s great to be able to show my film on the big screen,” smiled lanky 19-year-old Daniel Epton, whose Fast Track played at the opening gala. “It’s incredible. And getting together with all these kids who’re making films and having them shown in the theatre, it’s amazing.”

Epton, who got into filmmaking through a course at his high school, had a whole row of fans in the theatre, including parents, grandparents, his sister and her boyfriend, and friends, watching him film.
For 14-year-old Evan Kosiner, the evening was a chance to mingle with other filmmakers before addressing them as a speaker.

“Last year I started my own production company called Carabiner Productions,” says Kosiner. “It started as a teen filmmaking thing and now will be going into doing shows for High School Television. We’re doing a show called Fred TV, which is based in L.A., with all the big stars. Wherever there’s a red carpet, there’s Fred TV. And there’s another show called Price Tag. So, life’s kind of busy.”

Earlier in the evening, bright-eyed teenagers, accompanied by proud parents and the whoops and cheers of younger siblings, sent off dozens of helium balloons into the azure sky.

They then poured into the cinemas to watch five movies by what the organizers of the festival, siblings Jonathan and Naomi Hiltz and Myles Shane, like to call the “Spielbergs of the future.”

“Steven Spielberg was 16 when he made his first war film and I read in a recent biography that he wished there was someplace where he could have shown it at that time,” says 27-year-old Shane, who was a researcher at ABC News in New York before he partnered up with Hiltz Squared Entertainment.

A production company, Hiltz Squared Entertainment, was created by Jonathan and Naomi in 1998. Since then the company has diversified into M.A.S Media (a publishing house), Hiltz Entertainment (a distributor), MNJ (a record label), Hiltz Productions (the original production house) and ITMF.

“Myles and I were in Los Angeles producing one of our latest feature films,” says 27-year-old Jonathan, when asked how ITMF started. “Myles was reading a paper and noticed an article by a 15-year-old. He said, ‘Teens are doing a lot of things today,’ and passed me a napkin with the words ‘International Teen Movie Festival’ written on it. I knew exactly what he meant.”

On their return to Toronto, the three partners set about seeking sponsors from many countries, including Canada, and the festival was born. Even in two years, it has grown.

“We’ve grown not only in terms of submissions, but also in terms of where these movies are coming from,” says 24-year-old Naomi, whose own film, Jack’s House, is currently showing on Movie Network and Movie Central. “We had submissions from Lebanon, Russia, the U.K.”

“I got an e-mail from Lebanon saying that filmmakers there were making films about the life in refugee camps. I told them to send it along,” adds Shane.

Easier access to film equipment and the advent of digital technology has made it easier for teenagers to make films - and they have ideas they want to share through the medium. This year’s festival, which is showing “just under 300 films” out of 1,800 submissions, indicates several issues on teen minds.

“There are movies about 9/11, bullying and peer pressure, and many things teenagers deal with,” says Naomi. “But the films also offer solutions and hope.”

Besides offering networking opportunities to young filmmakers, the festival also functions as a talent search for companies such as Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox. Miles Fisher, the winner for the Best Actor award in last year’s festival, recently got cast in a new Gene Hackman film.

For other filmmakers, such as 19-year-old Justin Haigh, the festival is a great forum to showcase movies made on a shoestring budget.

“I am really proud of my dramatic short, A Pact With God,” he says. “It’s about a girl who is so angry with the state of affairs that she starts to question God. I got my friend, who is an actor, to act in it. The props were mostly found in my closet or garage sale. The only cost I had was the filming equipment I had already bought.

“My advice to other young filmmakers is to give it try. You can find most of the things in your basement, although you can’t always get every idea perfectly done. And be realistic in terms of writing a story.

“Don’t try to write Star Wars.”

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