TISDALE — A former Tisdale resident is preparing for the release of a new short film that she is directing.
Cheyanna Kidd, 20, is currently studying at the Centre for Arts and Technology, in Kelowna B.C. where she lives with her partner, Kurtis Peskleway, who is in charge of sound aspects of the film, and their one-year-old daughter, Allorah Kidd.
The four minute short film, called Like and Follow, has the main message of spending less time on phones and finding your place in the world.
“Our project will be a beautiful dance between the visual aspects of the animation and the audio and musical aspects of our soundtrack,” Kidd said. “We won’t have any voice acting, it will all be based on the expression of the characters through colour and music.”
The storyline follows two characters, Nuna and Max, who go on a date after meeting through a phone app.
Things go wrong when a raven steals one of their phones, sending them on a quest to the mountains.
“This raven becomes their guide up the mountain as they learn the true meaning of connection and how to live in the moment, overcoming tons of obstacles and being forced to really be a part of the world instead of addicted to their cell phones.”
The project is advertised as was inspired by Indigenous culture and includes references to metaphors in nature as well as Kidd’s own personal experiences as part of the LGBTQ community – through being bisexual.
The film has eight First Nations artists on the team, including Syndel Chasity, Dez Bird, Mysha Perrault, Horton Severight, Ashley Renee, Lucas McLeod, Renae Whitehead and Darcie Faith.
“It’s incredibly important to me that Indigenous communities and people are involved in our film, are given a way to express themselves, and are happy with the way Nuna is portraying their people in our film,” Kidd said.
“I’m incredibly fortunate that I was surrounded by Indigenous culture in my school and my community growing up.”
The finished film is planned for a release this summer, with the project expecting completion toward the end of June.
The project is funded by grants through the Youth Community Stories program from Reel Youth and Telus Storyhive.
To receive the funding they had to first be accepted into the program, attend workshops then work with a mentor to develop the finished product.
“Using the guidance of our mentor we were able to make a pre-production plan and list, and then we were given a list of checkpoints for drafts and deadlines and we were guided along the way,” she said.
“The way the funding works as soon as we started the grant we got 25 per cent of the funding to start out with, when we completed our pre-production… We received the next 50 per cent of the funding, then once the film is complete we will receive the last 25 per cent of the funding.”
A link to their rough draft created from storyboard artwork can be found at vimeo.com/423002013. The finished film can be found online on the Storyhive Youtube Channel and Telus Video on Demand.
