Welcome Into Eric’s Backyard
For the last 5 years, Oakville has become home to Eric’s Backyard Film Festival, a festival founded by Oakville native Eric Génier, designed as a space to showcase local artists, musicians and filmmakers. An hour outside of Toronto in the heart of the suburbs, Eric’s has its own indescribable atmosphere, focused more on embracing the wider community than some of the more traditional, narrow film spaces that exist within the city. The result is a hodge-podge mix of artists and filmmakers sharing the space, decorated to the nines for the themed celebration of the festival's fifth birthday. Vendors and visual art installations line the borders of the festival, offering a mix of jewelry, thrifted collections, and interactive activities, including button making and a collaborative mural.
The programming is officially kicked off with live music as Life Sized takes the stage, set up in front of the screen with dual drummers seated eye to eye. Self described as a mix of western gaze and young adult contemporary, the crowd is on their feet, dancing along as Life Sized plays through their upbeat setlist. Feeling more like a party with friends than a formal event, the energy stays high as the second band in the line up, Mâché, hits the stage. Embracing more of a post-punk sound, the crowd happily bounces and head bangs along to the band.
With the audience buzzing after the music, everyone settles on the lawn to move onto the main event of the evening: the films. With a great variety of short films, experimental films, and student films, the showcase featured: Erics Vlog!!! The Movie: The Short Film 5th Anniversary Edition by Eric Génier, King of Super 8 by Anthony Wegner, Couch Locked by Luke Donovan, Bugsick by Venya Aggarwal, ten, nine eight… by Eliana Aleman Reategui, P for Patriarchy by Elaf Khan, Projections by Xavier Wehril, Rot by Rebecca Grace Van Fraassen, I Want To Know What You Are by Brennan Munshaw, Steal My Life by Annie Wren, and The Steak by Kiarash Dadgar.
Off The Record sat down with a couple of the directors to talk more about their films.
Eliana Aleman Reategui, director of ten, nine, eight….
Can you tell us a little about ten, night, eight…?
Eliana: Ten nine eight was an assignment for my second year film documentary class, I had just gotten out of first year and I lived in the TMU [Toronto Metropolitan University] Pitman Hall, and it was just very hectic. That dormitory is known for a lot of constant partying and it was fun and what not but there was always this underlying current of something off putting. I wanted to explore that narrative of dorm culture and also make it a documentary style, then in conversation I had the news broken to me about what happened during frosh week at Western University [Eliana references the drink spiking of dozens of girls in a dormitory building in a single night during the university’s frosh week, no charges were ever laid]. I just thought that was awful, and TMU has this shit thats like “consent comes first” but like the guys who are doing this shit are not going to give a fuck. The people who are saying consent comes first are the RAs, the girlies and what not and like, we’re not the problem. We’re not the fucking problem and I was just tired of this. I just felt like dormitory culture fostered rape culture, and I just wanted to talk about that.
Dealing with the heavy subject matter, what do you want people to feel walking away from the film?
I dont really know, I mean they can feel however they want about it. I already had a couple screenings of this and what kind of made me feel a bit stuck as a filmmaker was the people who think about it the most, and who are coming up to me are probably not the problem if you know what I mean [laughs]. I mean they are not the ones that this matters to and I had a little bit of a moment in one of the screenings where I was crying, I genuinely felt like I was yelling to no one, talking to nobody, making my silly little films about a topic that's really dear to my heart cause this has happened to my girl friends, myself, like everybody I know. I think that all women have had some sort of issue with sexual violence just cause its so prevalent in university, it’s so normalized to a point and it’s hard sometimes, feeling like you’re saying this to an audience that already knows, and you’re not actually making any change but I think the one thing that I’m trying to keep from all of it is that I’m trying, I’m trying to say something and people can feel whatever way they want about it.
The film has quite a large cast, what was it like working with such a team?
A nightmare [laughs]. It was quite a tedious casting process with my producer Jules [Julia Harris]. It was a lot of organizing the times, since all of the scenes were so short, we were getting the girls for literally two hours here then two hours there and one would finish and another one would arrive. It was very quick but we pulled it off, everyone was, all the girls in this film were so helpful, they were so cooperative, so professional, everyone was great.
What does being here at Eric’s Backyard Film Festival mean to you?
I'm actually so excited, there’s some people from my film program but they’re all in upper years so it’s nice that I get the chance to talk to them, it’s very exciting still being a student. It’s really cool to be here and see that there’s a community in Toronto that’s still moving forward.
Is there anything else you’d like to add? Anything you’d like to highlight or promote?
I’m doing my third year documentary assignment now so [laughs] next year we’ll be back with that, I’m really excited about that.
Brennan Munshaw, director of I Want To Know What You Are
Can you tell us a little about I Want To Know What You Are?
It's a short film only filmed through microscopes. It's kind of an exploration of bodies, the human body, any sorts of organic life. An exploration of the body as a machine.
When making it, how did you choose what subject matter to film, what made the cut?
All of the organisms I found to film were from a pond so I didn't have a ton of selection of stuff that's big enough to see their organs, it was mostly stuff that had nice lighting and colour and a lot of movement going on.
The progression of imagery in the film is complimented by the music, how did you decide on the soundtrack?
I made the music first quite a while ago, probably like a year and a half ago and it just kinda felt like something that fit together so all of the shots were edited onto it afterwards. It kind of has like a medical sounding feel to it so I thought it complemented it pretty well and it goes a little ambient and airy at the end that goes with some of the longer shots.
What does being here at Eric’s Backyard Film Festival mean to you?
I’m excited to have other people see it, I haven't really shown it to a lot of people so I'm excited to get people’s opinions on it, meet some new people. I’m sure it'll look much better on a big screen than my computer so it's exciting.
Is there anything else you’d like to add? Anything you’d like to highlight or promote?
I'll be posting a lot on my instagram soon which is something I haven’t done in a long time so a lot of new work coming.
Art by @nathanjsbirch on Instagram
Luke Donovan and Xavier Wehrli, director and star of Couch Locked
Can you tell us a little about Couch Locked?
Xavier: We did it, I would say, like 50% to meme on our professor, we had to create a sound design assignment,
Luke: We wanted to make something that would work interestingly; it’s a split screen so if you listen with headphones there’s a lot of panning, things happening on one side and things happening on the other side.
Xavier: The same as we have stereo audio, why don’t we have stereo visual?
Luke: Yeah stereo visual, it almost started with me wanting to make a really intense ASMR video, and it kind of derailed from that original premise but I would go through what they had at the schools resource centre and really deep in the inventory was this 360 Go Pro camera.
Xavier: We asked them ‘what is something no one ever takes out?’
Luke: They were like ‘oh god no one has booked this out in a long time’, but I took it out and I love that it would give you that doe eyed vision, seeing both sides.
Xavier: And then just get verbally harassed by two of my friends
Luke: Yeah he was kind of like the prey animal of the film, as he got picked on
The progression of the story is seemingly disjointed, is that an improvising thing or did you go in with that intention at the beginning?
Luke: We wanted it to be almost like the friends, cause he’s clearly not in a good place, and his friends, you don’t really know if a lot of what they’re saying actually happened to him or not, they might just be gaslighting him and fucking with him, being like ‘do you not remember what happened’, I think if it’s disjointed it’s cause they’re trying to make him feel bad.
Xavier: But something you mention you like about it is the weird sweetness at the end
Luke: Yeah, I could say it’s part of a larger scrappy kind of DIY movement, but I’ve noticed that a lot of those films, even when they are comedies, will be very mean spirited, they end cynically and everything’s really fucked up and edgy. We played with going to that dark place where they’re fucking with him but at the end they’re like you’re home and they tuck him in and give him a kiss and I think there’s this aspect of male friendship where there’s the teasing.
Xavier: To be honest, we did not plan the disjointedness, the production itself was disjointed which is Luke’s energy, I wanted to work with him specifically because I’m extremely type A, everything I make it’s full script, storyboards, top down floor plans, make it entirely, just build it, and then on the day there’s no, nothing should be up to improvisation. I was happy I was on the couch cause I’m the kind of person, I don’t trust my own consciousness, constantly questioning, so it’s funny to I’m the guy where it’s like you’re wrong about everything
Luke; I’m so interested in his process, being able to plan something out like that, like I just want to kill myself if I have to make a storyboard
Xavier: I do want to but I make the storyboard anyways
Luke: I would so just rather feel it out as we’re going and see what happens
You do end the film on a bit of a high note with the kiss, how do you want people to walk away feeling?
Luke: I want people to feel tucked in
Xavier: Yeah I want people to feel taken care of, like they’re loved
Luke: I think the beat at the end, you watch it, and you’re like that’s nice, that was a journey
Xavier: Yeah cause even after you have a terrible trip, you’re going to wake up the next day and then eventually you have to remember this is temporary, all of this is temporary, it goes on, my friends love me
Luke: You have a nice afterglow, there’s a sweetness to it
How do you feel being here at Eric’s Backyard Film Festival right now?
Luke: I was at Eric’s last year, with a split screen film as well,
Xavier: It’s a first for me, I’m just so happy to be out of Toronto, there’s a lot of cool stuff in the city because you have so many subcultures and filmmakers are all there, but something like this has a certain openness to it, if this were thrown in Toronto you would know everyone in the community there
Luke: People wouldn’t take a chance on it probably
Xavier: There’s just like parents here who maybe walked by, I wish we could somehow foster that more in the city but I think, I don’t know, there’s a jadedness
Luke: I’m just so interested to see how an audience reacts, cause the only audience we’ve seen this with is our sound design critique and everyone was just listening really, to the sound design
Xavier: This film has a ton of audio design, cause that’s what the project was
Luke: I feel very honored to be in the Eric’s canon now, and I’ve been here two years, in the legacy, I feel very happy about that
Xavier: Yeah Eric’s super chill, I just met him, universally loved man
Is there anything else you’d like to add? Anything you’d like to promote, anything coming up?
Luke: I have a podcast I started, it’s called donovanesque
Xavier: But it’s not like an annoying podcast
Luke: It’s not film related, it’s like a life podcast, it’s made out of field recordings, it's like a sound collage, a sound scrap book, field recordings and little commentaries I do with them, it’s like a flowing collage of sounds of my life
Xavier: Sounds, he likes sounds. I make a little guest appearance,
Luke: On one of the episodes
Xavier: I’m making a movie right now, that he stars in and while we were filming I was talking about the process of making the movie, it’s a very strange movie, and while we were filming it I was going on this diatribe about why I was making the film and I didn’t know he was just recording me from behind, you can hear me talking about the midlife crisis of graduating film school
Luke: So thats donovonesque, I’ve been trying it out, it’s been fun.
Anthony Wegner, director of King of Super 8
Can you tell us a little about King of Super 8?
King of Super 8 is a somewhat experimental documentary about an experimental Super 8 filmmaker named John Porter. I was just really inspired by him and his wacky personality, his approach and philosophy around filmmaking, which is kind of like a noble approach. So I made a documentary about that, trying to capture his aura, he’s an interesting man and I hope that came across in the movie.
How did you meet John Porter and when did you decide you wanted to make a documentary about him?
I shot this movie like 6 years ago or something like that, I was in film school, in my second or third year, it was for a documentary project and I didn't know what the heck to shoot, I was part of this crew and they were talking about maybe making a movie about this restaurant or something but I found this weird website that keeps on linking back to this weird theatre that's a coach house in downtown Toronto that plays movies and has a cafe and also a bike repair shop. Anyways, I saw this website with a bunch of really chaotic mixings of things that are happening in the underground film scene in Toronto and I met with him and he’s a very intriguing old man. Too bad he couldn’t be here tonight but John Porter is great.
As a filmmaker, what draws you to documentaries as a form of storytelling?
To be honest it might be the only documentary I’ve ever directed, I work primarily as a cinematographer, but I want to do more documentaries because I think it’s such a fun, involved process. I really love being able to learn a whole bunch and immerse yourself in a different space. I’ve worked on a few documentaries as a cinematographer as well and you get to immerse yourself in a weird space if you’re making it about a group of people or a place, and experience something you’ve never experienced before, rather than just creating something from your brain and making that, it’s really fun.
How do you feel being here at Eric’s Backyard Film Festival right now?
It’s awesome, I love Eric, he’s an incredible soul. Unfortunately I have not been able to make it in previous years but I had a previous film I shot play a couple years back. I feel great, I love the energy and all the art around and all the friendly faces. I saw a child dancing and dancing to the previous band and that was incredible.
Is there anything else you’d like to add? Anything you’d like to highlight or promote?
I shot a bunch of music videos, they’ll trickle out. A music video for Lillian Makin coming out and a band called Poor You, they’re great bands, would recommend.
Art by @r056art1nstagram on Instagram
Xavier Wehrli, director and creator of Projections
Can you tell us a little about Projections?
Projections is a mixed media video collage, it’s an experimental film that doesn’t really have a narrative. Projections, that's the idea, a mental projection on something so the whole film is about free associating and basically it’s a chain of images I put together, inspired by Dadaesque collage. I really love the look of these collages and I just remember seeing all these Dadaesque collages and being like I want these to move, can I make these move? And I made them move, basically. I think this was the second or third film I’d ever made. I’d come from a background of painting and sculpture and plastic non video art so it’s weird, it's a film but it doesn’t really feel like that, it’s an experimental film.
What was the process like, learning to combine mixed media and film?
Really slow, and arduous. It took four months to make this two minute film and mostly cause I didn’t know how to use any of the software. Half the time during those four months I was just slamming my head against the wall trying to figure out how to not delete the entire project, and then the other half was actually getting the images and figuring out how to compose them. I set down a series of core rules at first, I always had to have three types of animation on screen at the same time, I could never have just one cause then it wouldn’t be mixed media, and I couldn’t have any hard transitions, things had to come in and out of the frame. What I did was I would start with an image that I liked or came to me from a free archive and basically storyboard a sequence, teach myself whatever animation I needed to learn in order to make that happen and then what do I associate this with, what is my free association, unconscious mind, relating this to. It was weird, I’m usually Type A with things but I made this film in a chain, I didn’t make this film ahead of time like I do now which was an insane idea. It was kind of bliss though cause I’m what? In my house during covid like not going crazy, well I’m going crazy on my art project cause 4 months kind of disappeared into this vacuum of filming bottles exploding and animating telephones.
In the stream of consciousness flow, what influenced the progression of the story?
A lot of feeling it out, which is again, not how I work now which is really funny. I find the vast majority of objects in this world to not be interesting, physical objects or movements so I would just look around until I found something that felt kind of like, archetypally interesting to me, basically something I wasn’t bored by. I only used stuff I found on Internet Archive cause it’s free and a lot of it’s from the 40s and 50s so I would find a sound bite there and ‘oh they mentioned telephones, what telephones do I have in the world?’ and so I got this Fisher Price telephone and then I saw an ad and it was based on telepathy so it started floating but it had to look cool, that was the bottom line. It has to be interesting, it can’t be boring.
Here at Eric’s Backyard Film Festival, how are you feeling right now?
Feeling good. As always with festivals it’s always lovely to see your stuff but I’ve seen my stuff, I’m excited for everyone else. There’s a lot of movies I haven’t seen and it seems like the program here is very mixed media, experimental based.
Is there anything else you’d like to add? Anything coming up you’d like to highlight or promote?
I just finished another film, I learned how to make regular movies with actors and stuff. A lot of the DNA from these types of projects is still in my new work. The film I just made, called From The Clay, mixes claymation stop motion with live actors; a woman, a piece of clay slithers down her throat while she’s sleeping and she gets possessed. I have a movie called Slaughter Slate where the Slate of a film comes to life, it's a horror comedy. The big one is, I have a movie called You’re Dying, Remember? that's coming out, hopefully a year from today, where I’m making a docufictional piece about me exiting film school so rather than having an actual existential crisis like most people do, I’m making a film about it so I’m doing it by proxy so I don’t have to experience any real pain. That stars Luke [Donovan], and me in a weird way, it’s going to be the least marketable film of all time because there’s layers to it, so that’s the project I'm making to continue to make stuff.
Eric Génier, director of Erics Vlog!!! The Movie: The Short Film 5th Anniversary Edition, and founder of Eric’s Backyard Film Festival
Can you tell us a little about Eric’s Vlog?
Eric’s vlog was a way for me to cope during the pandemic, I was going through a break up at the time and just, pandemic, so I just started making these vlogs. I would make a vlog once a day, I started doing that over the course of the spring, about anything, usually just what I was doing that day and did like 50 of those and then from that came a character called Philip Granger. I don’t even remember how I came up with him. I thought it was time to make a short film for the vlogs and Philip Granger was a great character to expand upon for the short film.
Eric Génier; man, myth, legend, festival founder.
In the film, the story quickly becomes overtaken by Philip, what inspired the dual identity?
I feel like this day and age, with the idea that people can be anything, I was like I want to be a filmmaker, I want to be a vlogger, do I really just want to get into the film world forever, is that really what I want to do with my life or do I want to do other things in the art world. That was where the basis of this was, as like, the artist. From there I thought it would just be funny to make a very angry artist, who has a spiritual enigma, and I love breaking the fourth wall and doing a lot of meta narrative, I guess it came from that thought process.
The film deals with what it means to be an artist - do you think there is, or should be, an actual definable criteria for calling someone an artist?
It’s an interesting question, because there's art everywhere, but would you call the people who renovated your kitchen an artist, would you call the people who set up the lights in a film an artist? A lot of people would disagree, ‘I’m just a technician’, ‘I’m just that’, I don’t think you need the definition of an artist to make things, I think anyone can make art, it’s not something you are or aren’t, everyone has it within them. It’s not something you are born without, everyone is born with it and it’s just a matter of harnessing it.
We’re sitting here, showing your own film at a festival of your own making, how do you feel right now?
I feel a crazy array of emotions. Ecstatic I finally got to show this film to an audience because the origin of this film festival is because I didn’t have a place to show my films. It was built on wanting to show my films to my friends and continued because it’s so hard to get into film festivals. I feel like this is a way for me to get around that, and to make it my own, and to make film festivals fun and make them something everyone wants to attend to, not just for film makers, cause most film festivals can be very stale. Adding an aspect of entertainment and spectacle and community building is getting more people into film, getting more people into the arts and also helping me establish myself as not just a film festival organizer but also as a filmmaker.
Is there anything else you’d like to add? Anything you’d like to highlight or promote?
Yes! On October 15th I am playing one of my other shorts, you’ll have to come out and see what it is, as a mystery short, but it’s very very good, I worked very hard on it. I would love for you to come out and watch it. It’s at Innis Town Hall [in Toronto] on October 15, doors are at 6:30.
*interviews have been edited for length and clarity
@mimentomoriclown on Instagram
