Dubbed "Depth of Field", two free programs of short films will be screened tonight, March 7, at 7pm and 9pm at Toronto鈥檚 TIFF Bell Lightbox. A number of filmmakers will be available after the screenings for a question and answer session.

鈥淭hese screenings offer a diverse range of remarkable abstract experimental work, clever documentaries and innovative short dramas,鈥� said the event鈥檚 organizer, Professor Laurence Green, graduate program director of production & screenwriting . 鈥淲e hope 'Depth of Field' will become an annual opportunity for 91亚色 to showcase the talent from our graduate film program in a downtown setting with works by candidates who are on the cusp of completing the program alongside the thesis projects of our recent alumni.鈥�

The聽programs are聽part of the new series 91亚色 Film Downtown, which features free screenings and panel discussions with industry professionals on the art and business of cinema.

7pm screening

Refraction Series (8 minutes, 2009) offers an experimental approach to optics and some brilliant "visual music" composition in colour and light directed by (MFA 鈥�09). Inspired by the ideas of early scientists like Ibn al-Haytham and Isaac Newton, who investigated the nature of light and visual perception, Gehman used everything from unmounted lenses and prisms, to CDs and liquids to generate a wide range of pure light and colours in motion.

Right: Refraction Series offers a visual music composition in colour and light

This visually arresting silent film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in 2008, and has since screened internationally at festivals including the Ann Arbor Film Festival in Michigan where it won the Peter Wilde Award for Most Technically Innovative Film in 2009.

A former director of Toronto鈥檚 Images Film Festival (2000-2004) and programmer at TIFF and Cinematheque Ontario, Gehman is an independent filmmaker, curator and critic based in Toronto. In fall, 2010, his films were the subject of a retrospective screening at the Canadian Film Institute (Ottawa). Gehman is also teaching a film course in the film Department this year, on contract.

(BFA 鈥�06, MFA 鈥�10) directed Deadman (31 minutes, 2010) a documentary exploring two visions of the wild west. On screen, Matt Sandvoss enthuses over his plans to build a replica of an Old-West theme park complete with a saloon and gunfighters in British Columbia. In sharp contrast, Cree resident Gerald Carter explains the history of the town, Deadman's Creek and is stunned by new commercial and real estate developments in the region. Their contrasting perspectives provide the drama. Deadman screened at TIFF and the Vancouver international Film Festival in 2009 among others.

Left: Deadman, directed by alumna Chelse McMullan, explores two visions of the wild west

McMullan won鈥檛 be able to attend the screening as she is currently in Treviso, near Venice, Italy participating in the Benneton Family鈥檚 artistic think tank . During her year there she will explore a wide variety of projects in collaboration with the other 39 young resident artists in this unique talent incubator.

Ghost Noise (23 minutes, 2009) was directed by Marcia Connolly (MFA 鈥�10) and explores the absolute intelligence, mischief and poetry of Inuit artist Shuvinai Ashoona. The film won the聽Lodestar Award for Best Canadian or International Film at the Dawson City Film Festival and has screened at festivals coast to coast including ImagineNATIVE and the REELARTISTS festivals in Toronto and Vancouver鈥檚 Women in Film festival among many others.

Right: Ghost Noise by Marcia Connolly explores the poetry of Inuit artist Shuvinai Ashoona

Other works on the 7pm program include dramas by current MFA candidates, like 鈥檚 Open Window, (9 minutes, 2010) in which a backyard birthday party is consumed by tension between the parents as a result of abusive relationships between the characters; and Rafal Sokolowski鈥檚 7th Day,聽(24 minutes, 2011) that depicts two recent Toronto immigrants who try to beat prohibitive Toronto rents by working their taxicab 24/7 -- while one is driving the other is sleeping in the miniature apartment in the trunk.

9pm screening

Bridge Kids (16 minutes, 2010), directed by (MFA 鈥�10) is mesmerizing collage of found footage, sci-fi cliches, and original drama, featuring telepathic children. Set in the near future, there are no adults, a tree house becomes a door to another dimension, and rocks release intuitive powers. Documentary, historiography and mythology collide and transform in a multi-format, multi-channel installation showing a virtual world of telepathic children and their attempt at reincarnation. Bridge Kids connects a research documentary on J.B. Rhine and the history of ESP/ Parapsychology, with a science fiction drama portraying an adolescent's connection with the dead. Pugen screened the video at a widely publicized solo exhibition at Toronto鈥檚聽TPW Gallery.

Left: Alumnus Geoff Pugen's film Bridge Kids features found footage and telepathic children

Current MFA candidate 鈥檚 Three Walls, (26 minutes, 2010) traces the development of the office cubicle since its inception in the late 1960s to its current status as North America's dominant form of office furniture. More than a bit of social history, this documentary captures the melancholic absurdity of the modern day office and examines the larger issues surrounding the shifting nature of white-collar work.

Right: Current MFA candidate Zaheed Mawani鈥檚 Three Walls,聽traces the development of the office cubicle since its inception in the late 1960s

Other films that complete the 9pm screening are Fabric (9 minutes, 2009), an experimental narrative about a woman trying to reconnect with her family directed by Coral Aiken (MFA 鈥�10) and Uniform Activity, (20 minutes, 2010) a drama directed by Chris McCarroll (MFA 鈥�10) that shows the unwitting transformation of a middle-aged man as he methodically prepares for his first day at a new job. Plus two works by current MFA candidates including 鈥檚 Left-Behind Woman, (21 minutes, 2011), a documentary examining the living conditions of women in rural China, and 鈥檚 Agape (23 minutes, 2011) a drama set in Nazi-occupied Poland about a widow in a relationship with a Nazi officer, who is placed in a life threatening situation by her eight-year old daughter.

Republished courtesy of YFile 鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin

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The 91亚色 talent among the 300 productions showing at TIFF Sept. 9 to 19 includes聽debut features by video artist Daniel Cockburn (BFA Spec.聽Hons.聽鈥�99) and Ryan Redford (BFA Spec. Hons.聽鈥�01), a film by veteran director Carl Bessai (MFA 鈥�89) and three shorts. And more may still be announced.

Left: In Carl Bessai's film, Repeaters, a group of addicts in rehab find themselves in the same situation day after day with varying reactions

Bessai鈥檚 feature, , screening as part of the Special Presentations series, is a tense action thriller about the price of freedom and the burden of taking responsibility for our actions. It聽follows three young addicts in a rehabilitation centre, taking viewers on a provocative journey through the personal hell of trauma and addiction. It starts when the residents of a rehab centre in British Columbia are granted a rare one-day pass to venture back into the world聽to make amends with those they have wronged. But each day, the addicts relive the same events over again 鈥� a situation each responds to in radically different ways.

Right: Ryan Redford's feature debut Oliver Sherman explores the question of responsibility

, in TIFF's Canada First聽series,聽is Redford鈥檚 first full-length film (he's directed several shorts, two of which played at TIFF in previous years).聽The central question Oliver Sherman explores is: Does saving someone鈥檚 life make you responsible for them? When Sherman visits the home of Franklin, a fellow soldier who saved his life back in the war, tensions begin to rise. Franklin has long since moved on 鈥� to a wife, two children and a reliable job, but the stability he has worked so hard to establish is soon threatened by Sherman鈥檚 presence.

Left: In Daniel Cockburn's feature debut You Are Here, the characters聽find themselves trapped in bizarre social experiments of their own making

Cockburn鈥檚 feature, , also screening in the Canada First program, melds a series of intriguing and smartly crafted narratives that arise from a string of bizarre experiments. Office workers at a mysterious call centre inexplicably track the movements of several urbanites. An archivist opens a puzzling inquiry into her self-created library of found documents. A scientist constructs a working-model scenario for 鈥渨hat to do if they shove Chinese writing under the door.鈥� At the same time, it is the birthday of one of the characters who has lost his computer password and is looking for an explanation for a door that shouldn鈥檛 be there.

Showing in the Short Cut Canada program are:

Left: The short film How to Rid Your Lover of a Negative Emotion Caused By You is聽directed by Nadia Litz

, directed by former film student Nadia Litz,聽takes a look at Sadie and Dennis, a seemingly ordinary couple with issues. However, rather than confront her negative emotions with Dennis, Sadie decides to extract them. It is a breach of trust, but perhaps not an insurmountable one if Sadie decides to open up. This is Litz鈥檚 directorial debut although she is already an accomplished actor having won a Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for best supporting actress in Reginald Harkema's Monkey Warfare, which premiered at TIFF 2006 (see YFile, Sept. 20).

Right: The short film The Old Ways, directed by Michael Vass, is a black comedy and satirical look at the聽justice system

Directed by Michael Vass (MFA 鈥�05), asks what it would take for a government to justify and enforce the death penalty for a child following a judge鈥檚 harsh sentence. The court then mitigates a public relations crisis with an elaborate and dubious scheme. The film offers a scathingly satirical response. It's a pitch-black comedy that frames the justice system as spectacle.

Left: 91亚色 student Cam Woykin's short film Open Window looks at聽the reactions of partygoers after it's revealed that the birthday boy's parents are in an abusive relationship

is directed by Cam Woykin, a current MFA student at 91亚色, who made this film earlier this year as part of his course work. It鈥檚 about a casual backyard birthday party that is consumed with tension when an abusive relationship is revealed between the birthday boy鈥檚 parents. Told through cautious glances and wandering eyes, Woykin controls the viewers鈥� gaze partly through a homemade pi帽ata which becomes a powerful focal point, symbolizing all the fear and helplessness felt by the party鈥檚 guests.

Screenings of TIFF films will take place over 10 days at a number of downtown Toronto cinemas. For more information about the festival and the complete film schedule, visit the Web site.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin,聽 with files from .

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