On June 14, students sat on picnic blankets around a lit-up projector screen in a backyard in Burnaby. UBC’s IndieVision was holding its first backyard film screening; students gathered to watch a special showcase of six student-made short films.
IndieVision is a student-led filmmaking club founded by President Tibet Karayazgan that provides students with the opportunity to bring their scripts to life. Since its beginning in 2023, the club has grown significantly, serving not only as a space where people who love film can come together, but also providing individuals with the freedom to express their creativity through independent productions.
Karayazgan shared his inspiration behind creating the club and emphasized that indie filmmaking is about working with what you have.
“It’s almost like a game in my head,” he said. “You utilize the resources you have, and you try to shape the best film out of the original story idea that you had. I think in other subfields of [the] arts, there are things that you can do individually. For filmmaking, it’s rather challenging to do everything by yourself. I think the community is one of the most essential things that you could have in the filmmaking context.”
Around 35 attendees, a mix of UBC students and non-student club members, came together to celebrate the work the filmmakers put into creating these films.
The event opened with Meet Your Maker by Xander Ward, a coming-of-age film that follows a young man who discovers that he was adopted through a fateful meeting with his money-laundering father.
Living Statue by Quinn Funk is the visually quirky journey of a street performer, Mr. Copper Jr., who takes on the challenge to fulfill his father's dream of completing the 24-hour human statue challenge. Through visual street performance and comedic elements, it portrays the story of someone determined to follow in his father’s footsteps and make a name for himself.
Consumption by Conrad Kuhlmann grounded the screening with its depiction of a retired boxer’s addiction after being injured in a traffic accident. Consumption depicts the spiralling of an individual into addiction and trauma; how it slowly consumes his self-identity and choices.
The Best Part of My Life by Anica Zialcita is an emotional, reflective piece that centres on the final moments of a woman’s life. The film invites viewers to ponder and contemplate on their lives and what truly matters to them.
Music to My Fears by Cloe Romano is a horror-comedy follow
The last film, Always Forever by Tibet Karayazgan, ended the night by exploring the realm of time travel through the story of a struggling law student who must return to her previous life to amend a karmic debt.
Last September, IndieVision hosted a pitching session where they chose the scripts that would go on to be produced and feature in their June backyard screening. Although there were many submissions, the executives of the club were only able to select a few that resonated with them. In early October, the selected screenplays were finalized and the first film, Music to My Fears, was shot in mid-November. Meet Your Maker was filmed on consecutive weekends later that month. After a break in December, the rest of the films were shot in January.
If you missed the backyard screening but still want to support your local movie-makers or even get involved with the club yourself, IndieVision plans to showcase its members' work again in a second screening on September 4 at Cineworks, a non-profit in Vancouver that supports independent filmmakers.
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