A blustery snowstorm capped off the 24th Dawson City International Short Film Festival, proving that mother earth always has the last word. This did not dampen the last day of the festival as our Perogie Street Feast was moved indoors to the ODD Gallery where Ryan McNally entertained the audience alongside the video projections.
Following that a sold out crowd packed the Dënäkär Zho Ballroom for the final screening, a quartet of films about Dawson City.
It capped off a great weekend of films and events that started Thursday with the screening of the Yukon/NWT co-production Polaris. Steady crowds filed through the ballroom all weekend long, interspersed with some great workshop and events. A hands-on Super8 workshop by Brittney Appleby, a VR demo and talk by Jonny Klynkramer and a panel on analogue film covered the past and future of media arts. Along with some outdoor projections and a gallery installation featuring works by Dawson Film Lab participants, Dawson City was awash in moving images for 4 days.
Here's the video made during the Super8 Workshop (hand processed in caffenol)
Although we feel every film we screened was a winner, we did have some awards to give out.
Suzanne Crocker with her MITY
After great deliberation, the jury selected THE HOME TEAM by Suzanne Crocker as the MITY professional winner. It taps into a universal story while still being unique to Dawson. We would like to give an honorable mention to DON’T BRING LULU by Lulu Keating, because of its deep artistic commitment and sense of playful self-expression.
Suzanne receives $2000 cash (KIAC and Newmont Coffee), $1000 grip rental from SPYA (Screen Production Yukon Association) and $500 in services from KIAC or the Yukon Film Society.
KYOSYU (LONGING FOR HOME) by Kiyoshi Maguire, Lillian Nakamura Maguire was given the MITY Emerging Artist Award. The jury was astounded by this beautifully structured, well told narrative. A moving piece portraying a highly intimate family history utilizing ancestral photography and home movie footage. Honorable mention was given to TLINGIT SAMURAI, by Douglas Joe, a playful homage to traditional Japanese cinema with an indigenous Yukon twist. Kiyoshi and Lilian will receive $1000 cash (KIAC) and $500 services form KIAC or Yukon Film Society.
The Lodestar Award (best film from outside the Yukon) goes to TINY by Ritchie Hemphill and Ryan Haché, from BC. A beautifully animated tale of an elders’ childhood.
The Yukon Brewing Audience Choice Award went to HAULOUT by Evgenia Arbugaeva, Maxim Arbugaev from the Russian Federation, a brilliant documentary of an amazing natural event.
Then MITY Youth Award (sponsored by Red Snapper Films) went to OUR YURT LIFE by Isaiah Antony, an astounding debut documentary that describes a unique home and lifestyle with the insight of a seasoned filmmaker. Honourable mention was given to LIFE OF A SEA TURTLE by Darrius McLeod-Wierda, Chaydon Dulotoan, Brody MacDonald-Dell, Katie Van Riesen, A simple yet eloquent nature film that informs and entertains with subtle humour.
With the screen now up we look forward to our 25th anniversary in 2024.
Photo submitted by Brittney Appleby
And big thanks to all the volunteers who helped out on the weekend and in the months leading up to the festival. To the great audiences, who came from near and far, and to all our funders and sponsors, which includes Yukon Energy, our presenting partner,
Yukon Government, Canada Council for the Arts, Telefilm Canada, Klondike Visitors Assn, Newmont Coffee, Schmidt Mining, Red Mammoth Bistro, Parks Canada, Northwestel Community TV, Yukon Brewing, NVD Hotels, Air North, Bombay Peggy's, Yukon School of Visual Arts, Gold Rush, City of Dawson, Red Snapper Films, SPYA, Yukon Film Society, Dänojà Zho Cultural Centre, Hootalinqua Motion Pictures, johnsteins.com, CFYT, What’s Up Yukon, Bonanza Market, Westminster Hotel, Arctic Star Printing, Yukon Birch Syrup.
To relive the the weekend check out our photo ablum
The Dawson Film Lab was an opportunity for artists to come to Dawson City, Yukon for a week-long residency (September 3-11) to shoot and hand process Super8 or 16mm film. Participants shot negative film which they hand-processed in buckets using ecological materials such as wildflowers and local plants. They also made phytograms and applied tint and tone to their films (with both conventional tints and toners, as well as with plants, spices and fruits). More...
The 23rd Edition of the Dawson City International Short Film Festival capped off a brilliant spring weekend in Dawson City.
Audiences were treated to 17 screenings, workshops and events thoughout the weekend, featuring 85 films from 16 countries.
Steady crowds filed into the KIAC/Dënäkär Zho Ballroom for the screenings which featured some delectable concession foods that kept movie goers fueled up.
Workshops, installations, outdoor projections and a street party kept festival goers moving around a sun-bathed Dawson City.
Outdoor projections on the side of KIAC facing princess street, kept the festival in the eyes of Dawson once the sun went down.
Workshops by visitng filmmakers were both informative, fun and hands on.
Sharron Mirsky led “Photocopy Rotoscopy” in which the participants each made a segment of a rotoscoped film.
Fabio DeFelice led a “Low-Budget Lighting” workshop sharing secrets of how to light an indoor location with a minimum of gear.
Mayo artist Virginia Mitford installed her beautiful Mutoscopes (an early form of a motion-picture device in which a series of images of an action sequence are viewed in quick succession, by a hand crank, giving the impression of movement) and led a discussion on their creation and inspiration.
Sunday afternoon saw the return of our outdoor “Street Feast” which featured plates of homemade perogies (900 perogies made by a crew of industrious volunteers) while the local band CORN entertained the audience and passers by.
The MITY (Made In The Yukon) Professional Award went to the film HOTEL by David Curtis. A beautifully shot portrait of an empty hotel with a mysterious soundtrack. The Award is sponsored by KIAC, Newmont Coffee, SPYA, YFS and includes a screening at the Tromso Film Festival in Norway. Honorable mention was made to William Hunter Kendrick’s THE DAY AFTER YESTERDAY.
The MITY Emerging Artist Award went to HARSHAMA, a film created in 48 Hours by Tova Krentzman. A magical Alice in Wonderland like dinner in the country. The Award is sponsored by KIAC, Newmont Coffee, and YFS. Honorable mention was given to INNER HOBO by Amelia Merhar and CLIMATE MIGRANTS by Shizuka Yoshimura.
The MITY Youth Award (Sponsored by Red Snapper Films) went to the hilarious I HATE BUGS by Kevaugh Anderson.
The Lodestar Award for the Best non-Yukon film was awarded to LOLOS(BOOBS) by Marie Valade. An evocative animation on a woman’s love/hate relationship with her breasts.
Attendees to the festival awarded the Yukon Brewing Audience Award to MIMINE by Simon Laganière Pierre, a funny and touching story of a man attempting to create a magical day with his son.
The festival would also like to make special note of the film SHËTSEY HWËDËK (THE STORY OF MY GRANDPA) by Annie Procee. A beautifully rendered portrait of Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in elder Percy Henry. We were pleased to be back in the Dänojà Zho Cultural Centre to screen this and other indigenous works.
A big thanks to all the volunteers who work throughout the year to make the festival happen, to all the people that came to screening and events, to our supporters and sponsors and to all the artists who shared their work with us. It takes a community to put on a festival, and Dawson does it up good!
Canada Council for the Arts, Yukon Tourism and Culture, Yukon Media Development, Telefilm Canada, Klondike Visitors Association, Canadian Heritage, Yukon Film Society, SPYA, Yukon Brewing, Parks Canada, Gold Rush, Schmidt Mining, Newmont Coffee Corp., Air North, NVD Yukon Hotels, Yukon School of Visual Arts, Bombay Peggy’s, The City of Dawson, Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in, Dänojà Zho Cultural Centre, Yukon Film Society, What’s Up Yukon, Reel Canada, Bonanza Market, Red Mammoth Bistro, johnsteins.com, Hootalinqua Productions, Arctic Star Printing, Oro Enterprises, Yukon Birch Syrup, Red Snapper Films
The 2021 Dawson City International Short Film Festival returned to its April time slot with people inside and outside watching films! Our cinema opened with limited seating and people responded with over half of the screenings selling out. Attendees were treated to in seat service of our wonderful concessions (a different menu every day). Our 2nd drive In night at the legendary Palace Grand Theatre was a rousing success as the snow held off allowing people to even sit outside in the backs of their pick up trucks.
We are pleased to announce the winners if the 2021 Awards.
The MITY (Made In The Yukon) Award (professional category) goes to Pandemic At The End Of The World by Allan Code. A poignant documentary featuring an elders views on pandemics old and new. Honorable mention went to Lulu’s Keating’s sharp and imaginative King Covid. The MITY is sponsored by Gold Rush, SPYA, and the Yukon Film Society.
The Emerging Artist MITY went to Claire Ness for her charming film, Keno City Hooker, set outside the now bygone Keno City Hotel. This award is sponsored by Outpost 31, the Yukon Film Society and KIAC.
Hana Lao’s personal and insightful film Seventeen won the MITY Youth Award, sponsored by Red Snapper Films.
The Lodestar Award for best film from outside the Yukon went to the acrobatic Talk To Me by Jules de Niverville form Québec. Talk to Me also won the Yukon Brewing Audience Favourite Award. Heartland(Terrestes) by Norman Rajotte was given an honorable mention.
David Curtis won the Trailer Contest with his work Dënäkär Zho, sponsored by Hootalinqua Pictures.
Presenting partner Yukon Energy.
Yukon, Canada Council for the Arts, Heritage Canada, Telefilm Canada, Klondike Visitors Association, Schmidt Mining, Outpost 31, Newmont Coffee, Gold Rush, Parks Canada, Yukon Brewing, NVD Hotels, Air North, Yukon School of Visual Arts, Bombay Peggy’s The City of Dawson, Northwester Tel, SPYA, Yukon Film Society, Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in, Hootalinqua Motion Pictures, CFYT, Whats Up Yukon, Bonanza Market, johnsteins.com, Arctic Star Printing, Red Snapper Films and Yukon Birch Syrup.
Photos by Devon Berquist
Click below to see our 2021 slide show
3D Screening. Photo by Matylda LisWe are please to announce the winners of the awards from the 2020 Dawson City International Short Film Festival.
Thanks to all who came out, volunteered, sponsored or otherwise supported the film festival in it’s pandemic form! With ballroom screenings, a Drive in Theatre and outdoor installations from the Cold Cuts Video Festival it was an exciting 9 days!
The MITY (Made in the Yukon Award) for best professional film went to Jayden Soroka for THE PROVIDER. A film that beautifully mixes animation and storytelling relating a man’s first hunt at the age of thirty three. The provider also won the Yukon Brewing Audience Favorite Award.
Honourable Mention goes to Krista Davis’ BEING SO CLOSE TO YOU (A Story for the Arctic Refuge). A poetic rendering of her trip to ANWR to seek out caribou and beyond.
The MITY Emerging artist award went to Talia Woodland for her film ALL THAT GIVES, an honest and revealing portrait of Kosi Eze, a Nigerian immigrant who moved to Canada when she was 14 and discovers expression through Hip Hop dancing.
The Yukon Youth MITY went to BOXED IN, by Darius and Katie MacLeod, made in the Ice-Solo-Elation video Challenge!
The Lodestar award for best Canadian or International Film went to the documentary JESSE JAMS, by Trevor Anderson. The film follow a young Indigenous trans musician and his mumble punk adventures.
Our 2020 Trailer contest winner was Annie Kierans!
Thanks to our Award sponsors, Gold Rush, SPYA, Yukon Film Society, Yukon Brewing, KIAC, Lodestar Productions and Red Snapper Films.
The 2021 DCSIFF is now in motion! Submit your film here.
MITY Awards sculpture by Veronica Verkely.
by Dan Dowhal (From the Klondike Sun)
In a year where the bizarre has become commonplace, the strangest thing about the 2020 Dawson City International Short Film Festival is that it took place at all as a real-world event. Throughout the world, and here in Dawson, other festivals had been cancelled, or else moved into the virtual realm.
Originally scheduled for the Easter Weekend, KIAC opted to postpone rather than cancel the event when the pandemic struck earlier this year, and ultimately moved DCISFF to the Thanksgiving Weekend (as well as the week and weekend before) after a summer loosening of Yukon public health restrictions allowed limited public gatherings. An abundance of precautions were in effect at screenings, such as mandatory mask wearing, online ticket sales, no food or beverage service, and a greatly reduced seating capacity to facilitate physical distancing. (This followed four sold-out and incident-free September screenings in the KIAC Ballroom of Suzanne Crocker’s new film, First We Eat, which served as a test case for the feasibility of showing films to a small, widely-separated live audience.)
While this year’s restrictions took away the schmoozing and socializing that has typically accompanied the Dawson film festival, the point of the event is ultimately the screening of movies and showcasing of local talent, and so that aspect certainly went forth with resounding success. DCISFF showed almost 80 films in total, including dozens produced by Yukoners and Northerners.
Photo by Carol MacBride
Arguably, the highlight of the festival was a mid-week drive-in movie screening — a Dawson City first — held in the parking lot of the Palace Grand Theatre, thanks to support by Parks Canada. Movies were projected against the side of the building, while the sound was broadcast over CFYT 106.9 FM. There was an early showing for kids at 7 p.m., which included many of the festival’s films produced by Yukon youth, then a sold-out late showing at 9 p.m. Despite a steady drizzle all evening, the screenings were deemed a resounding success, and movie-goers showed their applause by honking their car horns.
This year’s DCISFF also included two related art projects that were run within the festival umbrella. On Tuesday 6 October, the festival featured a Drone Day Installation, also staged in the parking lot of the Palace Grand. Drone Day is an international event that takes place annually on the last Saturday of May. Experimental musicians across Canada gather in small groups and online to create droning works — a musical subculture based on ambient sound. This year, nine Whitehorse musicians ventured to a remote quarry “to bring musical drones to the woods and mountains.” DCISFF's Drone Day installation immersively re-created the musicians’ experience with a quadraphonic, surround-sound, and video installation using the audio captured on that day, which employed synthesizers, singing bowls, accordion, theremin, and saxophone.
The Friday before the festival’s Thanksgiving weekend finale saw the opening for the Cold Cuts Video Festival, which has been part of DCISFF for many years, and returned after a one-year hiatus. Cold Cuts is an annual curated exhibition of video works by contemporary Canadian and international artists. The theme for this year’s edition was “Imagined Futures,” and featured Canadian artists using imagined futurescapes to investigate identity, politics, and place to critique and reflect, and to envision new potentialities.
Photo by Melissa Naef
The Cold Cuts opening event took place at the waterfront at the Art Market Building, and featured a bonfire and socially distanced outdoor gathering. The video installations themselves were available all Thanksgiving weekend, and in addition to the Art Market, were located in the windows of the Odd Gallery and the Red Feather Saloon — more concessions to the reality of physical separation in 2020.
Among the screenings on the final weekend were First Eyes, a Saturday matinee showing of short films by indigenous filmmakers, and curated by Dawson artist Kerry Barber. Always popular and thought-provoking, this year’s collection included not only Canadian films, but also works by Samoan and Sámi filmmakers.
The culmination of the Dawson Film festival was a screening of Sovereign Soil, a new feature-length documentary by local filmmaker David Curtis. The film was shot over five seasons, and explores local food production around Dawson City. With its focus on of food sustainability the documentary is certainly timely, as it relates the relationship to the land and the diverse perspectives of various people growing and harvesting food in the Boreal climate.
Photo by Melissa Naef
Festival Director Dan Sokolowski was pleased with the way the revamped DCISFF turned out overall. "We think the festival was a great way to re-introduce live events into the KIAC (Dënäkär Zho) Ballroom and also to add on some innovative events like our Drive-In Theatre at the Palace Grand and outdoor installations with the Cold Cuts Video Festival," he said. "We were thrilled to be able to bring the eclectic mix of films that is the DCISFF to the community directly even though some of them had to be seen through windshield wipers! We now jump into the 2021 festival — April 1st to 4th, COVID willing — and can't wait!"
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Studio 20/20 Dance PartyThe 20th film fest finished with a bang hosting Studio 20/20, a Studio 54 remake in the ballroom. Two days later, the Yukon River “broke” with a whimper, sending a small pan of ice ¼ mile downriver, announcing that spring had finally arrived.
The rest of the weekend was filled with excitement, good times, wonderful films and great atmosphere at workshops, meet and greets and between screening gatherings!
It all started with the world premiere of Chris and James Healey's The Winter Folk ,a finely crafted documentary on the people that inhabit the Klondike and specifically how winter affects them.
Yukon Minister of Tourism and Culture, Jeanie Dendys addreeses the crowd on opening night of the 2019 Dawson City International Short Film Festival. Over 1300 people attended various festival events through out the weekend. Photo: Devon BerquistYukon films were strewn throughout the festival in screenings on every day of the festival, culminating with a special retro screening of some of the festival favourites from the past years. 45 of the 95 films shown were created in the Yukon.
The festival was more than just films. With workshops on Editing, creating iPhone movies, Haptic Visuality, The World of Short Film according the Danny Lennon, Run and Gun Gear, there were also video installations by Jillian McDonald and Marten Berkman, a live street concert complete with plates of home made perogies, a burlesque performance by Chevonne of the Yukon, and the finishing Studio 20/20 dance party!
We look forward to our 3rd decade of bringing media arts to the Klondike on the beautiful traditional territory of the Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in.
The MITY (Made in the Yukon) film awards highlighted the final Sunday night screening.
The MITY professional award went to Grey Mountain by Naomi Mark and Marty O-Brien. Honourable mention went to Aubyn O’Grady and Evan Rensch’s Bridge.
The MITY Emerging Artist Award went to Wrestle Maniac by Andy Pelletier and Robin Sharp.
The MITY Youth Award went to Clement Potoroka for his film Sea Shells by the Sea.
The Yukon Brewing Audience Favourite Award went to Homecoming Song by Daniel Janke.
The Lodestar Award for best overall film was claimed by the mockumentary, The Last Days of the Man of Tomorrow by Niklas Hlawatsch of Germany.
2019 MITY Youth Award winner Clement Potoroka (left) flashes his prize.