A non-profit organization in Edmonton that aims to get teen girls interested in careers in film and television is expanding its summer program to include a feature-length movie shoot.
“Being on a set, a real set, there’s nothing that compares to it,” said Elise Graham, director of operations for the Girls In Film and Television program.
“To give that opportunity to these kids, we’re really excited about it.”
GIFT launched about two years ago in Edmonton, and aims to give female teens the opportunity to get hands-on opportunities in film production.
The program has offered five-day workshops, including in smaller cities around the province last summer, but its 2020 feature film program will fully immerse young women in the process of creating a feature film.
Teens between the ages of 14 to 19 can sign up. Graham said there’s no need for any previous experience.
“We teach a very basic level of camera, lighting, directing, writing, editing, everything from the beginning concept of a film to the post-production,” she said. “We’re going to end up teaching the very basics and then delve deeper and deeper as the year goes on.”
The feature film program will run in Edmonton from Jan. 7, 2020, until July. All of July will be spent shooting the feature My Dad’s An Alien, written by Edmonton-based Jana O’Connor.
The teens involved will be working with all-female professional department heads as their guides during the film.
“All of our instructors are female and they’re all working professionals in the industry,” Graham said. “We’re going to try as hard as possible to have it be exclusively women and non-binary people on this feature film set.”
The feature film is being funded in part by a community initiative grant from the Alberta government, as well as private investors and donations.
Elise Leske, 18, attended the five-day program in summer 2018 and said that participating in GIFT was part of the reason she now hopes to pursue a career in the industry.
“The experience of putting into action everything that you’d worked on, being able to see it happen, being able to use the camera and set up the lights and obviously have help from female professionals … it felt like we could do anything in the industry,” Leske said.
“To see that there was an opportunity to make my own movie and be taught by professionals for a week, I was very excited.”
GIFT is hosting open houses at Kingsway Mall over the next several weeks to allow young girls to ask questions and learn more about the feature film program. The open houses will take place from 4 p.m. until 8 p.m. in the Oplandia Chroma Room on the mall’s main level on Dec. 18 and 21.
The feature film program costs $800 for the full session, paid for in installments. However, GIFT has subsidies available for families who may not be able to afford the price.
More information on the program, and how to sign up, is available on GIFT’s website.
The organization will also be running a variety of other workshops over the year, including its short film program.
GIFT was initially launched by Camille Beaudoin and Eric Rebalkin, who also run the Edmonton production company Mosaic Entertainment, as a method to address gender disparity in the film industry and encourage interest in young Albertans.
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