I+N x FMC/CMF SERIES
IN CONVERSATION WITH

A heart-expanding documentary about the youngest generation of LGBT2SQ+ youth on a much-needed escape to Camp fYrefly, a bastion of safety within the conservative communities of southern Alberta. Some have never been in a space with all queer people. Together, they forge essential friendships and unfurl in a judgement-free environment.

JEN MARKOWITZ is a Canadian film and television director and producer, whose feature documentary film debut, Summer Qamp, was released in 2023. Markowitz previously worked in documentary and reality television, including on the series Vice Canada Reports, Canada’s Drag Race and Call Me Mother.

Perpetually disturbed by the world around them, two twenty-somethings navigate their lives as underdogs in Toronto’s queer community. As a chubby gay man and misanthropic trans girl, they don’t exactly adhere to the “ideal gay image,” While the pair have their share of grievances with fellow queers AND society at large this jaded and judgmental duo aren’t completely innocent either…

IN CONVERSATION WITH BLAKE MAWSON, LILY KAZIMIERA AND BOBBI SUMMERS

BLAKE MAWSON, a 2017 CFC Director’s Lab fellow, captivates audiences with engaging storytelling, unconventional characters, and striking visual style. His debut short, PYOTR495 (2016), addressed anti-LGBT2SQ+ hate and violence in Russia, winning global acclaim. Mawson has directed music videos for queer country icon, Orville Peck and is developing his feature, Perennials, a supernatural thriller with Wildhood producer, Gharrett Paon.

Hotel Clarington, Montreal, 1958. Post-war economic boom, little regard for individuality. This is the world in which Sophie, a hotel chambermaid with nosy tendencies, works. One morning in February, as a snowstorm wreaks havoc outside, Sophie works her shift…

IN CONVERSATION WITH CHLOÉ LUSSIER

Montreal-based Lowbirth Games challenges the stereotypes that still govern game design by telling stories featuring unconventional heroes and specializing in narrative and mystery games. As CHLOÉ LUSSIER, CEO and founder explains, “Our games feature characters of all kinds, in roles that aren’t necessarily heroic like knights, soldiers or superheroes, Lowbirth makes games where the hero may look like you”. In This Bed we Made, the player takes on the role of Sophie, a maid in a hotel where a crime has been committed. Her job gives her privileged access to the intimacy of the hotel’s guests and she uses this to find out their secrets.

Glitchhikers: The Spaces Between is about thoughts that exist between destinations, parts of journeys dominating our time, not our attention: when our minds wander. Since its 2014 origins as a free game, it’s pushed boundaries of what they can be: part videogame, part interactive concept album and part divinatory experience. No pressure. No failure. No optimal path. No journey exactly the same.ut their secrets.

IN CONVERSATION WITH LUCAS J.W. JOHNSON AND AUDREY STOREY

LUCAS J.W. JOHNSON is an award-winning author, designer and founder of narrative design and game studio, Silverstring Media. Lucas experiments with interactive narratives, game design and emergent storytelling. Besides Glitchhikers, he’s written Flow Weaver, Extrasolar and Timespinner. AUDREY STOREY is a multi-disciplinary game maker and the studio’s Technical Director. She’s helped create games on a variety of platforms, including as lead designer/programmer on her project The East Van EP, as well as Glitchhikers: The Space Between.

What happens when a star isn’t born? An adaptation of Vivek Shraya’s hit play and book, How To Fail as a Popstar answers this question with hilarity, vulnerability, a healthy dose of imagination, and of course, music. This series tracks the journey of a young queerbrown boy growing up in Edmonton trying to achieve stardom and what went almost right along the way – from the perspective of the now 40-something trans femme artist that boy became.

VIVEK SHRAYA’s body of work crosses the boundaries of music, literature, visual art, theatre, TV, film and fashion. She is a CSA winner and a Polaris Music Prize nominee, and her best-selling book I’m Afraid of Men was heralded by Vanity Fair as “cultural rocket fuel.” She is also the founder of the award-winning publishing imprint VS. Books, which supports emerging BIPOC writers. Her CBC Gem Original Series, How to Fail as a Popstar, launches this fall.

Hailey has made an unharried life in Calgary with her non-binary partner, but is summoned home to Nova Scotia after ten years away. There, she sets off on a wild goose chase for her drowned father’s boat, dodging the wacky “blood relatives” she thought she had shaken off for good.

IN CONVERSATION WITH SANDI SOMERS

Independent award-winning filmmaker SANDI SOMERS is a native of Cape Breton Island now residing in Alberta. She has worked for the past 25 years as a filmmaker, theatre artist and educator. Sandi’s work often revolves around challenges within human nature, discovery of truth, while addressing themes of connection. Sandi is the creator of Herland, a workshop and mentorship program for women in film.