While in the York film and video program, Evan Morgan (BFA ’08) developed his voice as a writer and filmmaker while part of a tight-knit community. With “a penchant for dark humour,” he embraced his fate as a director, as the modest beginnings of a dark comedy short film loomed in the background.

After becoming friends with actor and “kindred spirit” Adam Brody, one specific idea Morgan developed while at York felt particularly apt. After revisiting his old catalog of film school ideas, feature film came to fruition. After seven years of development, it was filmed in North Bay, Ontario, with lead actors Brody and Sophie Nélisse. It follows the story of a once-celebrated kid detective who, at 32, continues to solve the same trivial mysteries between hangovers and bouts of self-pity, until a naïve client brings him his first adult case – to find out who murdered her boyfriend.

After premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on Sept. 10, the film was released in the United States and distributed by Sony on over 860 screens across the country. It has since been touted as a highly promising film, recognized in TIFF’s selections for the , and The Guardian’s .

“When I think about the York film program, what I truly miss the most about it is the sense of community and the group of people who all have similar interests and aspirations. There was just an incredible bond.”

Despite the film’s release during a pandemic, for Morgan, it’s been a success story. “We obviously didn't have the opportunity to watch it with an audience, and it’s such a strange feeling when you're working on something for such a long period of time and suddenly it's out in the world before you even really had an opportunity to enjoy it together,” said Morgan. “But one of the high points of this whole release is just seeing those reviews float to the surface. They've been a really great supplement for us to actually being able to watch the film with an audience.”

While The Kid Detective continues its run, Morgan wishes he “had another project close to being finished.” With different projects in various stages, he’s excited to work on something new. He says that time at York was a uniquely creative period, and misses the community in the film program, where his imagination flourished.

“When I think about the York film program, what I truly miss the most about it is the sense of community and the group of people who all have similar interests and aspirations. I continue to work with the friends that I made in the program, and miss how everyone was so encouraging of each other’s’ unique talents and appetites. There was just an incredible bond. It was special and I knew I was going to miss it the way I do.”

For more information and to watch The Kid Detective on demand, .

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There will be no shortage of York alumni at the 45^th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival. While this year’s festival, which takes place from Sept. 10-19, will be slightly reimagined to meet COVID-19 guidelines, the show will go on. Many of the talented directors, actors, producers and cinematographers behind the much-anticipated selection of films are proud York graduates.

Filmmaker Madeleine Sims-Fewer (BFA ’08) co-wrote, co-directed and stars in , a provocative psychological horror about a woman pushed to her vengeful limits after traumatic betrayal. The film will screen as part of the Midnight Madness programme. “I was hoping for this section,” says Sims-Fewer about her feature film debut. “It’s my favourite one at TIFF!”

Sims-Fewer shares the writing, directing and producing credits with her creative collaborator, Dusty Mancinelli (BFA ’07). While the pair moved in similar film circles as undergraduate students at York, they didn’t officially meet until 2015 as part of the TIFF Talent Lab. “We immediately decided to work together,” she says, noting they shared similar creative visions and later pursued an MFA in Directing at York together.
 
For Violation, they collaborated with Adam Crosby (BFA ’08), director of photography and Sims-Fewer’s friend from her days at York. (Award-winning director and screenwriter Deepa Mehta (DLITT ’18), an honorary alumna, is an executive producer.)

Violation will premiere on Monday, Sept. 14 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, where Sims-Fewer and Mancinelli will be on hand for the Q&A session after the screening. “I’m excited to sit with the audience and see their response to the film,” she says.

Read on to meet some of the alumni whose names you’ll see when the credits roll on this year’s must-watch films.

Chase Joynt (MA ’11, PhD ’16) – Director,
This documentary explores that legacy of 20^th-century American jazz musician Billy Tipton, whose trans identity was revealed after his death in 1989. It’s co-directed by Chase Joynt (MA ’11, PhD ’16), a transgender moving-image artist and writer. His latest film, No Ordinary Man, and is already generating early acclaim ahead of its premiere at TIFF.

David Findlay (BFA ’07) – Director, (part of Short Cuts Programme 01)
A young man discovers the world of underground wrestling in the dead of winter. You can view the trailer for director David Findlay’s (BFA ’07)  sweeping short .

Sofia Bohdanowicz (MFA ’20) – Director,   (part of Short Cuts Programme 02)
Award-winning Toronto filmmaker and recent graduate Sofia Bohdanowicz (MFA ’20) explores themes of loss, remembrance, and perception in this elegant short.

Igor Drljaca (BFA ’07, MFA ’11) – Director, (part of Short Cuts Programme 03)
This short film by Bosnian-Canadian film director and producer Igor Drljaca (BFA ’07, MFA ’11) stars Schitt’s Creek actor Noah Reid, as well as Bahia Watson, and Maxwell McCabe-Lokos as three musicians who discover an old vinyl album in an abandoned home and attempt to reimagine it.

Nicolas Pereda (BFA ’05, ’07) – Director,
This is director Nicolás Pereda’s (BFA ’05, ’07) ninth feature film, all of which have premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival over the years. His latest, Fauna, offers a comedic take on how violence in his home country of Mexico has infiltrated popular imagination.

Chris Romeike (MFA ’13) – Cinematography, and Gordon Henderson (BA ’72) – Executive producer,
This highly anticipated documentary by director Michelle Latimer is based on Thomas King’s award-winning book of the same name, which explores the cultural colonization of Indigenous peoples in North America.

Sophy Romvari (MFA ’20) – Director, (part of Short Cuts Programme 01)
Filmmaker Sophy Romvari (MFA ’20) made the short film Still Processing while completing her MFA in Film and Video at York as a way to investigate the possibilities of cinema as therapy. In the short film, Romvari documents her experience of navigating through her father's unseen archive of family photographs and videos.

Are you a York alumni appearing at this year’s festival? We want to hear from you. Email us at alumni@yorku.ca to let us know what you’re up to.

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