It’s not the kind of film festival with one limo pulling up after another and hordes of paparazzi clamouring along the red carpet to get photos of celebrities but for local filmmakers it will be a special evening in Black Diamond.
Local moviemakers Zoe Slusar and Bailey Kerluke will host 365 Days – A Year of Shorts film festival Dec. 28 at the Sheep River Library and Dec. 30 at The Stop in Black Diamond.
Slusar, 22, and Kerluke, 24, started creating movies together seven years ago when they were both students at Black Diamond’s Oilfields High School.
Times have changed significantly from their days as students at Oilfields. Slusar now lives much of the year in Ireland while Kerluke resides in Calgary making it more difficult for the pair to collaborate, but whenever they are together they’re able to shoot, edit and complete films quickly.
In fact, with the few short days they have together before the festival kicks off, they’re hoping to create a couple of new shorts to insert into the 365 Days lineup.
Kerluke divulged their quick turnaround on movies, which they make under the banner of Untitled Productions, are made possible by the pair’s years of experience filming together.
“We’re kind of always on the same wavelength in terms of what we’re looking for,” he said. “We also each have our own strengths. Zoe’s great at directing people and directing me if something seems off. She’s also good at acting. She’s very natural. While I’m very shot-oriented and strong editing wise. So we’re both on the same level but we each know what we have to do and how to do it.”
Kerluke said he and Slusar have become quite accustomed to showing up at film competitions and finding out the movies they are up against took longer to shoot and featured much larger crews. But the duo has been fairing well and picking up hardware often at these events, which has reassured them they are doing things the right way.
Having just a couple of people in charge of a movie also has an added benefit Kerluke stated.
“You don’t have to argue with six other people on a set, you just have to argue with one,” he said.
The 365 Days festival marks the fifth time Slusar and Kerluke have brought their work home to display to local film fans, but it’s the first time this kind of showcase has been stretched over three days.
None of these shorts have been shown in the area before and people who come out for the event should expect to see a lot variety in the work being screened.
“They range from one minute long to nine minutes,” he explained. “We’ve got a lot of different genres. Either myself or Zoe or both of us has made the films. I’d say about 70 per cent are us working together.”
Last year it was standing room only at a screening at The Stop in Black Diamond. This has prompted the filmmakers to add the Dec. 28 showing at the Sheep River Library this year to the return engagement at The Stop on Dec. 30.
The 365 Days – A Year of Shorts festival currently features 22 short films including several award winners and international film festival selections. Some of the acclaimed works to be seen are: Black Coffee, which won first place in the 2010 CBC Calgary Shorts competition; Urban Spin, an official selection of this year’s Toronto Urban Film Festival; and Delicious Goodbye, a music video for the band Metal Messiah that was a 2010 Audience Choice winner at the Calgary Folk Festival.
The collection of cinematic work will also be shown at the Plaza Theatre in Calgary Dec. 29. The show time for all three events is 7 p.m.
All three nights of the festival, including the one in Calgary, are free. It will feature Slusar and Kerluke providing live introductions, a chance to meet the filmmakers and the opportunity to purchase DVD collections of their films.
Learn more about the filmmakers and their work at www.untitledonline.ca
