Blood in the Snow 2021: Canadian Genre Festival Announces New Development Program For Underrepresented Filmmakers
Helping homegrown horror has always been at the forefront of Blood in the Snow Film Festival's intent with their Deadly Exposure Industry Conference. After all, when your mandate is to focus on Canadian genre cinema if you can help more get made then you have more to program in your festival. They call it reciprocity.
One of the things that we like about Blood in the Snow is that they have always done very well at providing opportunities for Canadian filmmakers to sit down with their peers and figure out how to get their movies made. But even the best of us see areas where we can grow more and Blood in the Snow sees a need to create a space where underrpresented filmmakers can do the same.
So this year they will start the Horror Development Lab, a program that focuses on Canadian filmakers who "identify as female, BIPOC, LGBTQ2IA+ and / or person with a disability. Projects must have BIPOC representation in front and behind the camera in their project proposals".
Horror Development Lab will take place during the Deadly Exposure Conference in November. Due to the current global health crisis it will be announced at a later date if this will happen virtually, or, gods willing, in person here in Toronto.
The Blood in the Snow Film Festival (BITS) is proud to announce a new Horror Development Lab starting in November 2021. The program’s goal is to facilitate the production of projects by previously underrepresented filmmakers in Canada. Approximately 12-15 filmmakers and their projects will be selected Canada-wide to be coached by industry leaders from November 18 to 23, 2021.The Horror Development Lab will occur in Toronto during the BITS 2021 over six days in conjunction with their Deadly Exposure Industry Conference. Due to COVID-19, it will be decided later in the year if it will be in person or done on-line.All applicants must be a Canadian citizen and identify as female, BIPOC, LGBTQ2IA+ and / or person with a disability. Projects must have BIPOC representation in front and behind the camera in their project proposals.The Development Lab’s core team comprises of Development Coordinator/Programmer Carolyn Mauricette and Festival Director/Founder Kelly Michael Stewart, and Development Advisors Mariam Bastani and Alison Lang, plus a diverse team of jury members.Part of BITS’s mandate is to push boundaries and evolution in Canadian film, so the Development Lab was created to ensure this also applies to inclusivity. Since the festival was seeing an underrepresentation of submissions with BIPOC/LGBTQ2IA+ themes, cast and crew, it acted to implement an inroad for those groups within the genre film industry.“With recent statistics showing how undervalued projects from Black and underrepresented groups still are, it’s our goal to create a space to put filmmakers who may not have a chance to create their vision in front of the people who can make things happen.” says Mauricette. “We plan to change the perspective of the industry bit by bit.”Stewart adds, “The Development Lab will help facilitate access to industry leaders, giving way to opportunities for underrepresented groups to produce horror and sci-fi content with their own unique perspectives and voices. With this input, they will hopefully have the chance to reach Canadian audiences with a finished feature film project.”It is free to apply, and applications are open from April 15 to August 15, 2021. Details are available at www.deadlyexposure.ca or visit www.bloodinthesnow.ca.The 2021 Blood in the Snow Film Festival will take place on Super Channel Oct 29 to 31 and in person from November 18 to 23, 2021 at the Royal Cinema in Toronto.BITS 2021 is presented in partnership with Super Channel and with support from Telefilm Canada.
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