EPISODE DESCRIPTION
It has been a year, and so many things have happened between then and now. In this episode, Aram and Kelly talk to filmmakers and programmers who continued to create art through the past year.
Follow the link here for an extended shownote and episode transcript: http://bit.ly/backstory-oneyearlater
This episode uses or mentions the following multimedia samples and sources:
- “Say Good night”, Joakim Karud
- “Morpho Diana”, Rachel Collier
GUEST BIOS
kim hayung is a multimedia artist originating from Jeollanam-do, South Korea. Her work primarily focuses on themes of diaspora and her fractured sense of identity that emerges from her Korean-Canadian background. Using text, photography, and drawing, kim hayung recontextualizes personal narratives to explore broader questions of history and her tenuous relationship with ‘memory.’ She has been awarded Reel Asian Film Festival’s “Air Canada Short Film Video Award” and has recently exhibited works at the Czong Institute for Contemporary Art (CICA) and the Carrier Gallery.
Khanh Tudo likes movies, sleeping (the opposite of insomniac, Khanh knows) and graphic novels. They like movies that are both funny and crying movies at the same time!!!! Khanh has been apart of the Insomniac team since 2016 and loves it so much that July is the new best month of the year.
Seb Decter hated movies all his life. Until one year, on Opposite Day, when he was struck by lightning. Now he likes them just fine. Shortly after this, Seb joined the Insomniac team, where he continues to keep his hatred for movies in check. Please don’t mention Opposite Day around him though, he could revert!
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Please note below transcription was made using speech recognition software, and as such may contain inaccuracies, misspellings, or errors.
Aram Collier 0:12
Sometimes, you know, I’m I’m reading baseball to, you know, to get her to go to sleep, which I was just doing. And sometimes I fall asleep, which I didn’t, because I was trying to sleep before. And then but then sometimes, you know, I think of things. And 10 minutes before this, I was trying to, I was trying to think of how to think about this last year. And I think so many people have talked about, at least where we are a year later. It’s like, you know, the light at the end of the tunnel, right. And to mix my metaphors. Because we’ve been in this tunnel, it seems like so long, though, I guess, you know, in the grand scheme of things a year is not that long. But while we’re in the midst of this tunnel, to mixed metaphors, there’s that silver lining is maybe the light at the end of the tunnel. But then I was thinking about this tunnel metaphor. And other people have talked about it, you know, as a portal, you know, and if you think about science fiction movies, you know, you’re ported to somewhere else, right. And so it made me think about this tunnel. And in the Bay Area. There’s a lot of tunnels that go through mountain. So there’s this kind of like experience you have, where and there’s all these microclimates because of the topography, its proximity to the ocean, different. And, and so my grandmother lived in Marin, which is north of San Francisco, and sometimes you be over there. And it’s just glorious, it’s sunny, it’s warm, and you go through the tunnel back to San Francisco. And then you come out, and it’s like, blindingly foggy, and you can’t see anything, right. And I was just thinking about that just before this, because it’s like, this portal, this tunnel, like, I don’t know what’s going to be on the other side, when we come out of this, you know, and it’s gonna be like this disorienting portal or this this disorienting experience, and you know, it, it’s not going to be this like snap and, and you’re, and you’re back to Oh, now this is real life, of course, it’s going to be this gradual thing. Just like this whole last year was this kind of gradual degradation of our spirits through like all the death and murders and systematic, or systemic problems and recognitions with those that hate anxiety, and just trying to get through that tunnel. So I don’t know, these are things that I’ve been thinking about, like, you know, how to talk about this last year, and what our role as exhibitors within that and our role as programmers and our role as creators, or enablers of creators. Yeah, I
Kelly Lui 3:23
actually really like that analogy of a tunnel. And, and I think that’s something that I, I think I want to hold on to right now is that, I mean, I think at this point of time, we’ve thought a lot about what does valuing work mean? What does valuing people mean? I think it’s a time where we can question what was thought to be normal, or what we thought was comfortable, because everything is kind of been turned around on its head. So I think there’s been definitely a lot of like, internal reflection, I would hope. And I think there there are conversations and hopefully, actions to go along with it. And at the same time, I think there’s also been maybe a chance for folks to rest, though, I feel like resting, it’s useless, waiting to have to feel like you can rest. But yeah, I really like that, that tunnel analogy.
Aram Collier 4:26
You know, it also made me think of this. This story, that this kids book that I have a friend of mine is really great, long term longtime friend of mine gave to me. It’s a I might say the name wrong, but Leo Leoni is a children’s book writer. And there’s a story it’s a it’s a book called Frederick. And it’s a it’s a he’s a mouse and he’s an artist. Right. And all the mice around him are just gathering food in the summertime, and they’re kind of working super hard. And he’s just chillin on a rock. And he says, they’re like, Frederick, can you help? He’s like, No, I’m coming up with stories. I’m working, I’m creating, you know, and then and then and then it’s fall, and they’re like, okay, Frederick, can you help us now? And he’s like, No, I’m coming up with stories. And then, and then it’s the winter time and, you know, food, I’ve got to skip to the ad. And food is getting like really scarce. You know, they’re, like, huddled together, they’re on their last grains of rice. And they’re like Frederick Lee, you tell us a story, you know, and then he tells them like, a great story, right. And it and it helps keep them helps nourish a different part of them through this difficult time, you know, and, but it’s funny, because, you know, I think about, like, you know, my mom, and, you know, the kind of like survivalist mentality that I think some of us maybe grew up with, and that like this idea of art as frivolous, and that my mom be like, kind of grumbling like, Well, hey, maybe if he, if he had helped out, they wouldn’t have been starving. Like, he wouldn’t have to tell the story, because they’d be eating because he worked during the summertime. So like, I actually liked that book a lot because it posed this, like, really, this real dilemma to me, that broadens things, you know, is it frivolous? Or is it necessary, you know, entertainment as distraction or or necessary to help carry you through time? Hard times. So yeah, I that’s another thing that I kind of thought about in this in this last year.
Born in Suncheon, South Korea. Kim hayung is an interdisciplinary artist currently residing in Toronto. She’s been awarded Reel Asian Film Festival, Air Canada Short Film Award, and is recently exhibited works at the CICA museum in Seoul, and they Carrier gallery in Toronto. So, before we get into it, can you explain your film SUNDAY that you made in the unsung voices program.
Hayung Kim 7:33
So for my film, which is called SUNDAY, or ilyoil, it was a short animated film that I made with the unsung voices program, it was originally jumps originally jumped off the theme of interior and at once, and so the interior that I thought of was sort of the interior spaces that I spent my childhood in, which was kind of the interior spaces of the church, specifically of my dad’s church. So this film kind of goes into a dialogue of what I thought of that space, and then what that space meant to my parents. And I don’t think the film necessarily arrives at an answer, but it just proposes that question of, you know, taking these two perspectives, and what does it mean for me? And, you know, subconsciously also asking the audience who might have also dwelled in those same spaces? What does it mean for them? And for them, maybe to think about what it means for their parents as well? Yeah,
Aram Collier 8:33
I think you also have a really interesting animation technique.
Hayung Kim 8:37
Yeah. For the film, I compiled a whole bunch of family photographs. So personal photographs. And I also use so I basically kind of use the stop motion technique where I would create a mark on those photographs, and then essentially expand on those marks. So for example, I would create a small tear and then make that tear bigger and bigger. I also used watercolor, watercolor paintings and drawings that didn’t necessarily pan out as I hoped, but I think the watercolor texture is still made into the made it inside the film. And a lot of people who have seen the film gave me this interesting response about like water. And kind of the parallels that has with like, Christianity and you know, within like church like stuff about communion and stuff, so I thought that was a really interesting,
Kelly Lui 9:32
I was gonna also say I, you know, this, the soundscape for the film is also really interesting. Especially when we think about now and COVID, where we can’t necessarily gather in those same spaces. So it was going to curious to hear how did you collect or create that soundscape?
Hayung Kim 9:50
I think I know, this was one of Aram’s suggestions about taking a recorder to like an actual church space. So at the time Even though we were dirt, we were in lockdown churches were still able to congregate with a limited capacity. So I know for some of I think you call it the room audio, I, I took like a recorder, and maybe I shouldn’t have done this, but I actually turned on the recorder during the sermon and just left it running for a bit. And then as people were filtering out, I pretended to like, have something to do like cleaning, cleaning the chairs or something. And I stayed back while people were leaving so that there could be more of room audio of just the space without people in it or as much people in it. And I think what the soundscape what I was trying to achieve with the soundscape was trying to collect sounds that were very prominent within my own memory. So there’s soundscapes of like the choir going in. And I know at my dad’s church, we would always have a choir that would sing, I gathered sounds of my dad’s sermon, as well, which, luckily enough, because of COVID, he started posting online, so I was able to gather some of that as well. There were older videos that I was trying to scavenge audio from, but unfortunately, the audio was not well recorded, or it didn’t quite like there’s so many children screaming about audio, but then those audio clips that I wasn’t able to quite fit it in. But I think I was just trying to mimic, like to use the sounds as ways of activation for my memories or triggers for my memories. Because I think that’s the way that memory and memory functions is we don’t remember the full picture. But we remember like distinct details. And and those details really stand out to us. I guess, for particular reasons, whether if it’s associated with a particular emotion or memory, or like the conflict that might have really shaped the way you think right now. So yeah, I think I was just trying to catch on those distinct details and incorporate them in so that they act those like trigger points for myself, but also for my parents as well. But I’m not sure if they actually translated. Because it’s so personal to my memory. I’m not sure if it translated necessarily to my parents. But I that was the aim for the soundscape.
Aram Collier 12:29
You know, it’s interesting to hear some of your kind of ideas going into the production, and how you kind of executed it. I think, you know, one of the things that has been for anybody who is producing in this time, like it, it’s changed all of the kind of production techniques. So did you find that was a challenge for you? Or was that, that this kind of fall in line with how you’ve worked before?
Hayung Kim 13:00
Um, I would say it definitely does fall in line with what i what i what my usual artistic practice kind of works. That works out as I think in the beginning, when we were introducing each other, for the unsung voices program, I spoke on how insular I felt that my art practice was and I really wanted to kind of challenge myself through the unsung voices program, by opening it up more to I guess the community by making this film less so for myself, but to other like Korean Canadians who grew up in church. So it was, I think, technically, it was pretty much the same, but conceptually and thinking about the way that I wanted the voice to be interpreted how much I was choosing to hide behind my words. Because I think a lot of my previous work, I tend to hide behind the work, whether if it’s like making text super, super small, or speaking in really arbitrary terms, or using a lot of metaphor that only I would understand. But like, I think the narration for this film is quite straightforward, right? Because it’s, it’s written like a letter. So it’s, I think the only key barrier is the language barrier, which my narration goes between Korean and English, which in some way is more authentic, because that is the way my Korean is so bad. So that’s actually the way I speak to my parents, but also in the way that you know, certain details that I want to hide from my parents were find a little harder to convey to them. I speak in English and then certain details that I find extremely vulnerable, but you know, feel less inclined to share with the general public. I speak in Korean. So you know, Old habits die hard. I still hide by In little components like that, but this is definitely the most open film that I’ve done, which is really interesting because it’s made within the pandemic, where you assume, yeah, people typically thing is think is closed or Yeah, well, so I mean, what was that was that kind of an impetus for you to make something that you would meet, you know, that is a little bit more inclusive or broader. It’s hard to say like retrospectively, what I can say, right now is, I think, definitely the pandemic has made, it made me more keen on wanting to talk to other people, because you’re so alone with your own thoughts that you’re, you’re, you’re more, you’re begging for more of a response, or you. Because your thoughts are so much more louder. When you’re by yourself, you’re begging, you really want to, like throw your voice out to the void, and somehow, but I think at the time, it was, I think it was a conversation that has been, that I’ve been longing to have for quite quite some time. And perhaps the pandemic or like, the situation that the pandemic has brought has, has allowed for the right conditions for me to, you know, sit with those vulnerable thoughts, articulate them, and then finally find, I guess, the courage to let them out in the open to other people. Yeah, I’m, it’s hard for me to say, because right now, I’m like, oh, it makes sense. Like, that I would want to be more open with the COVID with COVID, making me with no one to talk to with COVID. But I have a feeling like right now, the feeling I get is it’s not entirely because of because of the like,
Aram Collier 16:54
did you know and so we conducted this workshop all online, with other participants who were in other provinces. Right. And so, you know, did it still feel like a collective experience? And where did you feel like, there was a challenge in in that kind of like, distanced a situation? Or, you know, were you in your element?
Hayung Kim 17:25
Oh, um, no, I would definitely admit to a challenge, but at the same time, it’s like, I think, the, like, this unsung voices program, I mean, Arab, you can disagree, but I think, without the kind of limitations that this year had, because of COVID-19, I’m not sure if I would have necessarily gotten in to the unsung voices program. And I think it was very interesting to like, finally see other filmmakers from outside of the province. So in terms of like, the collective experience, I definitely did feel a need or a want of, I wish we were kind of in the same room. So we could, even though we have, you know, the post workshop meetings, where some of us would stay afterwards to talk. I feel like a lot more could have been, like, we would have probably grown more as a team and, you know, as fellow creators, if we got the chance to just, you know, eat out together and have a meal with one another. But at the same time, I recognize that like, without I don’t think I would have met Mariana Aiden or Onge, if the program was done, as it was, years ago was done. So local. So I think it’s both a positive, and, you know, kind of a negative and that, you know, I think it goes for like, the whole positive and negative about the internet, or, like, the zoom thing where you kind of have a wider cast of like, reach, but not necessarily. You don’t have like the right conditions to like, deepen those balls to like, a level that you would you would typically be able to do if you were in person.
Aram Collier 19:14
Yeah, totally. I mean, I remember some of those conversations, you know, was one of the funniest things that is also kind of sad is like, there was one day where we are like, How tall are you? You know, like, I don’t know if you’ve all asked each other how tall you were because like we had never met in person, right, like I mean, I met you finally because like, we live close to each other. Basically, neighbors live five minutes away, but but other than that, like I you know, it’s it is a bit bizarre, right? And it is this mixed bag and like, this is good and this is kind of sucks and you know, so yeah, I mean, I guess you know, towards that, you know, like we mentioned the film, wanted award at Reel Asian by an independent jury and it’s now played at some other festivals, you know it a lot of a lot of the kind of like experience is not just making it it’s also like what? What does what life does it have beyond when you finish it and and I you know also how you’re talking about like, Oh, you know, looking back on it, there’s a certain narrative that is different than what you had at the time. Right. And of course, that is always changing. So, you know, now that it’s been a while since you finished it clean some other festivals. So, you know, what, what has that experience been? Like? Both, you know, to show it to exhibit it. Maybe for you personally to, to, with your family, that kind of thing.
Hayung Kim 20:52
I think the online aspect of it, because I think I’m a very shy person with my own art. So both good and bad thing about it is because everything has been online, I haven’t been in person to see anyone’s reactions face to face yet. And I think typically, that’s how I like my art to be kind of received, I like to throw it out into the ether and say, it’s there for people to enjoy. But I don’t want it to kind of invade kind of my personal bubble, like I don’t need to see like the personal reaction reactions. So in so far, like, I’ve received kind of emails and comments here and there, which have been very interesting. So originally, this film was, like I very much intended it for for it to be for like Korean Canadians and people who grew up within like Christian churches, or like a Presbyterian Church, but I’ve received a couple of comments from people who do not come from that background at all. And they’ve said, Oh, I completely relate with this, like, I completely, like, this really feels like me growing up, you know, within the mosque, and kind of like the same kind of too much tension in terms of like, one’s relationship to religion and faith. Um, so I found that very surprising. Like, I think, once they got upon, you know, retrospectively, I’m like, of course, you know, this kind of ties into larger themes of religion, that don’t necessarily apply to Christianity. But it came in I don’t know why, but it came off as a very big surprise for me, because I guess because those individuals weren’t in my intended audience. I was like, oh, like, maybe this is opening a lot more conversations, or, you know, this is a lot more relatable than to who I originally thought it would be. to. My, my parents reactions were I think I mentioned that they were just confused. And actually, like, being totally honest, we haven’t really gone back to it yet. Kind of deeper with it. There’s just like, is this is this what you do in arts?
Aram Collier 23:17
Yeah, I make stuff about you.
Hayung Kim 23:19
Yeah. Where did you get all these photographs? I don’t know if I yeah. So and, you know, actually, I was hoping to kind of probe them more deeply when I got to see them in person. But unfortunately, that trip hasn’t happened yet. Because they’re not in Toronto. There Yep. So they live in Korea. So they’re in South Korea right now. But um, other than that, like, I think I think any first time filmmaker will have this in that they don’t necessarily or maybe it’s just me, but I didn’t necessarily expect this film to be so well received, like the fact that he won the Air Canada short was a complete shocker. I remember you calling me at work on my break. And afterwards, I was just pacing around. Like Aramis is he’s playing. Yeah, I was I was completely shocked and floored. And just recently, I showed the work at visual arts Mississauga is now streaming exhibition, and I had also won first place for that. Yeah, just like yeah, I’m just because I guess I haven’t talked to the people who have seen the film and because I’ve engaged the exact reaction. Now I’m like, Oh, I’m very curious as to like, what people are seeing in that like it works so well or that it’s speaking so well to them. Because I thought this was a very, like, personal one off experience that, you know, I it’s like the conversation that’s only running in my head, but it I guess it’s becoming more and more apparent that it’s a conversation that’s running in the background of many people’s. Yeah. So,
Aram Collier 25:18
um, you know, we are, you know, kind of like talking about creating, you know, in this last year of COVID. Is there anything that you, is there anything else you’ve been working on? Are you taking a break? Like, like we talked about, too? Yeah. Is there anything you’re working on right now or anything you want to plug?
Hayung Kim 25:42
Um, I can’t say that I’m working on anything. Right now, I know, what I’ve been doing and what I kind of did with Sunday or eatery, as well, as I was revisiting a lot of old work. So there’s another book work called tracings that I’m revisiting, which is I think it’s kind of interesting for the current context, because it deals with kind of lost history of Korean woman. So particularly, I don’t know a lot about my family history. And kind of what that means in terms of, like, kind of that generational loss, like the fact that one doesn’t know where they exactly come from, and how we kind of fill in those gaps. So for me, personally, I’ve just been reading more on like, the history of different Korean women, and I guess I’ve been slowly turning to them for like, different answers. On You know, different issues or different things that I’ve witnessed, present and past to see if there are any parallels, if there are any. If there any, like contradictions, which I think is also like, hurt. I don’t think contradictions is quite the right word. But like, opposite of parallel, not forward.
Aram Collier 26:58
Perpendicular?
Kelly Lui 27:01
Yeah.
Hayung Kim 27:03
Yes. But in terms of, in terms of what I like face today are kind of the actions that I take or responses I receive. Yeah, so I guess, maybe look forward to that. I’m not sure if I’ll actually come up with anything. But um, I went to like alumni night, just yesterday, and in terms of the topic of creation, my friend, Diana, she said something very interesting and that she said that, you know, she gave gave a metaphor about us kind of being like, you know, nature seasons, and that, you know, we have this natural, like, ebb and flow of like, when we can be productive and when we need to rest and we we need to really listen to that and like kind of know ourselves in that, you know, it’s okay, if we’re creating and then not creating that’s completely natural. And I thought it was just really poetic in the way that she described as like, you know, the change of seasons of like, fall, winter, spring, summer.
Kelly Lui
Known as Toronto’s most creative and wacky Film Festival, Insomniac Film Festival looks to celebrate works emerging from the lives and experiences of young Toronto filmmakers. This past year insomniacs team of brilliant programmers pulled 16 films, film teams together to create the broken telephone, film, Insomniac the movie. We’re joined by two programmers from this cool team come to tow a lover of movies, sleep and graphic novels. And Seb Decter and ex movie hater who joins the team to ensure he doesn’t have a relapse. Welcome to both of you. Thanks for joining today.
Seb Decter
Via may have been exaggerated for comic effect. good or not? Who knows?
Kelly Lui
Yeah, we were just discussing how I was like, Oh, this is the best, I guess hook to this section
Khanh Tudo
Oh, Good.
Seb Decter
You have to have a mystery. Yeah.
Khanh Tudo
People come to Insomniac to see Seb.
Kelly Lui
Yeah. make sure he’s okay.
Yeah. So to start, we were just curious if you both can just share how Insomniac the movie came to be. And I think as Aaron puts it, how was the sausage being made?
Khanh Tudo
How is it made? I guess I could tell from my perspective, so maybe you can chime in. But like, I remember I it was like our first meeting when the lockdown happened. And we start our meetings with someone being like, Alright, what’s on the agenda? What should we talk about? And I think I started that, meeting that time. And I was like, Okay, everyone what’s on the agenda as if nothing weird has happened, like total. And then funky was like, and we’re all and I think like, literally all of Insomniac ideas that comes from all of us, like jumping on each other and like barfing out every single idea that even like, barely spreads in the surface of our heads. So we’ve seen each other all pitch like some really great ideas that had never come into fruition, but some really bad ideas. Some like red random, has nothing to do with movies, but we do them anyway. ideas. So I feel like it came from that.
Seb Decter
Yeah, I actually forgot. Till recently that a lot of it was inspired by a friend Isaac, and how like, a year before COVID, he had invited a bunch of us to do a, like Exquisite Corpse, which is basically what the film is like a broken telephone sort of idea where we each wrote one scene of a script. And then, you know, we came up with like a 20 page script, and we read it and you’re unable to see the scene right before yours. And so we wanted to try and adapt that onto a larger scale. And, and Isaac was even involved in ANGEL segments.
Khanh Tudo
Isaac Roberts shout out to that guy.
Kelly Lui
On that, I was gonna say it’s really cool to to hear that. Your team is full of ideas, people cuz I feel like sometimes Aram and I, when we have our meetings, and we’re like, this idea, okay, we actually, let’s pull that back in. Because it’s not fully thought out. And actually, no, it’s just an idea. We don’t have to do it. It’s just an idea. But I guess on that, you know, I’ve also I’m really curious, like, at what point did the broken telephone format actually becomes a theme for the phone?
Seb Decter
I’m sure you remember exactly how it happened. What I think is cool about the movie is that I feel like it it almost becomes part of the story. The Broken telephone, like it starts with the telephones, which was the idea of Omnia. Team member. And I think throughout the movie, you see a lot of like, the theme of communication, and people trying to connect with each other. Even when it’s difficult, which I think, you know, is the movie in a nutshell as well. I don’t remember exactly how we landed on the idea other than being inspired by Isaac or that that brainstorming session.
Khanh Tudo
Oh, or those tic tocs that like people drop like a makeup brush down the frame and then Tick Tock like the next shot is like them receiving it from like the top of the frame. And it’s like a series of friends all like glamming up and it’s that idea of like being in different places but being within the Same in a sad setting like feeling connected through items. Yeah, and I think we thought we were like maybe people will continue the story and like keep the same characters. And definitely after the Insomniac teams segment, the next filmmaker did that. But then after that, it just like went haywire, which is like also what we expected. Yeah, it’s pretty cool.
Aram Collier
You know, I it’s funny. I think that this movie, The Insomniac movie, and minari were our, like, two most anticipated films. And I’m not even shitting you because I remember like, when, when it was announced that this was coming, I was like, That’s amazing. That’s such a, like, such a creative way to engage people. And it’s so fun. And, and, and then and then. And then it was like, I am sorry to put you on the spot. But I think originally it was like, Oh, it’s going to come out in August. And I was like, it’s a movie. And I kept asking Kelly did that. Did it come out yet? Did it come out? Yeah. I don’t know. though. I’m, I’m glad to finally seen it. And then then we saw it. And it’s like came out same time as minari. So there we go.
Khanh Tudo
Yeah, we timed it on purpose. Yeah. Yeah.
Aram Collier
Yeah. Box Office Wars movies.
Khanh Tudo
Oscar contender time. You know, like a lot of movies coming
Seb Decter
out. Yeah. Word season.
Khanh Tudo
Yeah, I mean, even the I think we we really wanted to because insomnia. It’s a summer event, right? So we did want to keep that energy. But in the summer with COVID. Like, it was so confusing. What was happening towards the end of the summer COVID started getting a lot worse. But in the peak of summer, we kind of were like, Oh, it’s not can we do an outdoor event, I don’t know, like, and because of all that uncertainty, it was really hard to make a decision. And we just really missed our friends in our community. And we really just wanted to see people in person. But as time was going on, and we were feeling more and more uncertainty, it was just harder and harder to do that. So we were just trying to think, between August and the premiere, we were just trying to think of another way that was like, fun and in and like engaging in some sort of way. And I think that’s how we got to the game. Someone made a joke, because we were we normally screen at the Royal cinema. And then someone was like, oh, what if we just screened it at the boil cinema? And we just were like, oh, what are the middle game? And then it just like, steamrolled and into that. Yeah.
Seb Decter
Yeah. When I think when we originally conceived the movie, I think like a lot of people, we thought, Oh, COVID will be over in a few months. You know, we’ll be finishing up the movie, and then we’ll be able to show it in the fall instead of like, our usual Summer Festival.
Kelly Lui
Yeah, I think that, you know, we are also curious, like, how much of the film? Like, how did you keep them under wraps? Cuz I’m sure the other teams must have been really excited to see everything piece together, that everyone on the Insomniac team already know what the film was looking like, like how much of it was like a secret operation? I don’t know. I mean, I’m just making this super dramatic. And it’s not really a
Aram Collier
lot, a lot of spreadsheets, a lot of spreadsheets,
Khanh Tudo
a lot of spreadsheets, a spreadsheet. It was a spreadsheet. We would just chime in occasionally. And I think like one of our team members Adam, he was putting it together but he just wait he wanted to wait until all the filters are in I think. And occasionally you could watch it like side by side but you’d have to be like skipping through all the files. We did do like a filmmaker only screening because similar to you, or like, there was a lot of emails that we got from filmmakers being like, Where’s the movie and weeks ago, we just we were just the guilt was building so we did a filmmaker only screening. And then that was really sweet. Like, it was really cool to see all the filmmakers together in like the same chat being really excited. And then we had to have a hotel party after which was quite chaotic. Some people were familiar with Habbo Hotel. It’s like how would you describe it? an avatar? chat room? Yeah. Yeah, avatar based chat room Club Penguin ask a little like raunchy history. Yeah. Yeah. And then everyone. It was funny. You could see people’s avatars and I would see filmmakers go up to each other and be like, I loved your movie. I loved your part. Thank you. I don’t like isn’t that I just it was just like the first time I had seen and it felt like being at a party. I don’t know some of you were like, that’s the craziest night. I’ve had in months.
Seb Decter
Yeah, it was it was fun. We stayed really late with like, there were there were some diehards, but it was like five people or something who stayed very late into the night discussing. Have a hotel.
Khanh Tudo
Yeah, that’s a very common, like Insomniac theme of your parties is like, it’ll be like the peak at the very beginning. And everyone’s like, it’s too hot in here, or it’s too chaotic. And then a bunch of people will leave. And then there was like, the stragglers of like three or four people, and it’s like, the strangest night.
Seb Decter
But I was gonna say with the with the production, which I thought was fun was that we Chad, filmmakers we were kind of coordinating with and making sure they got their segment in on time. So at first, I was watching them as they came in, like, every time I would come in, I would watch it. But then after a while I wanted to save it for the film. I wanted to see them all in sequence. So
Aram Collier
I’m just curious. So we’re, like, how, what was the mechanics of how you did your they only saw the one that was going to be in front of theirs.
Seb Decter
Okay, okay. So they could continue Okay, or not continuing.
Khanh Tudo
So each filmmaker had a week. And so like, by the Friday, they had to hand it in so that this Saturday morning, we could send it to the next filmmaker, we did give some leniency like you saw, there’s animation and you’re like, How the hell would they have done that in a week? And so, yeah, we’re like things like green screen. So we did give some leniency of just like, if you make it enough for like, the other person give enough for the other person to work off of and free for us and for them to understand. And then you can keep working on it until whatever date. So that was also we did actually in essence have to wait till the very end because somebody cool had like needed the whole time. Like the animation is, huh.
Kelly Lui
Yeah, I was gonna say like, 16 essentially a 16 shortfilms. Like that. That was a pretty ambitious like, project undertaking. But it you know, it was a lot of fun. But yeah, we are, I guess curious, like, how, how did the support look like for each project? And like, what were there were some, like, unexpected, I guess needs or wants from the teams like externally, like, as we said, like, you know, navigating COVID Plus, I don’t know, you know, having to communicate maybe remotely, that kind of stuff. Um,
Khanh Tudo
well, it kind of varied, obviously, from filmmaker to filmmaker. And this is only from my experience with my filmmaker stuff. But like, so I don’t know, over yours as well. But like, they’re varied from like, Oh, you have to borrow my dusty lights that I bought impulsively in film school. Here you go. It’s like, Damn that and like a Chinese lantern. And I was like, maybe they’ll need this and some light bulbs. And they use that and, but also, like, through, we also like, offered a lot of like, access needs, like, you know, a week is like, a lot of crunch time. And like, not everyone has like the capacity to do that during COVID. So yeah, like what I said is like, give enough where you can do that, but we’re just pretty lenient generally. And I felt like that was what we could do to help. And like, it’s like, here’s a way you can be evolved involved and like, feel connected and make something that you hopefully are proud of. But like, it’s also chill, like, it’s also okay, things are happening in the world. You do not, please don’t stress about this. This is like the last thing we want to stress about.
Aram Collier
Yeah, I think one of the things that really struck me about watching it is, and I think Kelly, we were talking about this, somewhere, we were talking about it that just like the spirit of it just really came through and you know, there’s certain energy that you feel in films, or that you don’t feel films that really comes through in terms of like, how it was produced and the spirit behind it. So yeah, I just really appreciated that. And
Khanh Tudo
yeah, yeah, and I also think it helps that like, we, when we were programming it and pick after our call for submissions, which was really difficult, I’d say. And we, because normally we’ve can look at films, we’re like, does this match the spirit of what we are normally like, what what we represent, but it’s harder on paper when people are describing their ideas or themselves and the ideas are extremely loose because they have to see the thing before and so Oh, How a lot of it was kind of like, Okay, how can we mix this bag of people to be enough people who have been to the festival and who are part of the community for us to like, you know, nourish the community that we do have. And then also, like, mix the bag up with people who are in proximity or people who have never heard of Insomniac before. And it’s like, how can we create this, like, this soup of chaos? But in a way, where it’s like, we’re not totally abandoning the people that we have built relationships with as well. Yeah, and like also giving them opportunity?
Seb Decter
Yeah, I think that’s the balance that we try and hit every year with the festival as well with with not just like programming the same few people. But also, yeah, there are filmmakers who we have relationships with, we’ve watched grow over the past six years, and I think the audience likes and is happy to see. So yeah, we always want to try and find that mix. And it was cool to be actually commissioning work, this time, rather than just watching stuff that’s already made. And we didn’t, we try not to interfere at all creatively, but it’s just cool to feel more connected to it. And to, to know that we helped make it in a small way.
Kelly Lui
Do you feel like this is a COVID film, and I think just a preface that, like, I feel like, as we move on, you know, that comment of, well, that’s a COVID file, whether because it’s about COVID, or set in a time or COVID, or, you know, the production value looks slightly different, like COVID film, I think, comes with, like, specific connotations. And, you know, Aram and I, we were always talking about, you know, you know, creative adoptability has always been, I think part exceptionally of the emerging and independent scene. And I think just hearing you both, like speak to the importance of like, nurturing and allowing opportunity for those folks to create the work and if it’s just a concept to still celebrate that. So just curious, like about your thoughts on that?
Yeah. I guess that question, do you feel like it’s a COVID film?
Seb Decter
Yeah, that’s interesting. I feel like I, you know, maybe selfishly or whatever, I just love the title that it’s Insomniac the movie, because I feel like it’s like, you know, the SpongeBob movie. encapsulate what this thing is, it’s like, you know, this version of what the festival is all smushed together into a movie, which I think is what we not what we had to do, but it’s something we had to, as you said, adapt to and we came up with this. So that’s our version of Insomniac this year. I lost confidence in it and
Kelly Lui
I’m giving you confidence.
Khanh Tudo
I was thinking on my second watch of it, like in the in the public premiere. How because so much time had passes. The first one, the first one had like all this anxiety of like the filmmakers watching it and it had been a year since and there’s so many things that are very early COVID like Pinnacle, like there’s reference to Tiger king in that in the beginning one and there was like, there and there’s this interesting progression because it was made over a period of 16 weeks but you can see you can see the energy of COVID heightened and disappear like into not disappear because it was never gone. But like in the summer, people could go outside they could connect with more people they can make filmmaker they can make films, bigger group slightly bigger groups and feel comfortable with that in a way as opposed to in the beginning. There’s like some you’re limited to your roommates or you’re limited to yourself so in that way for sure. And there’s like this I can’t tell like i i after party we used gathered town, which was funny as well. It’s also felt like a weird party and I was so nervous. I got people’s faces Yeah, what some people’s reactions were like, wow, you made something it really felt like something so horrible. Like was just turned into something that was like a really interesting opportunity and like experiment with these people that I wasn’t one of the filmmakers, feelings around it. And for me, I I felt like I could read that it was very of the COVID time of early COVID There was like a lot of optimism and stuff. And I’m curious if we hadn’t started the project now, if that would be any different. Yeah, but I’m not sure knows.
Seb Decter
I don’t Yeah, I don’t want to spoil or anything. But just even on the on the COVID thing may be used to answer two questions. But I’m already segment the second to last one. I think I love all the segments. But I just think that one does such a beautiful job of being about COVID without being about COVID, about like, trying to find like the need for human connection and to go outside and everything in a, you know, very unique character. And I think that’s, that’s very beautiful, without ever directly referencing COVID he made something that speaks to that moment. And I think there’s a lot in the movie that’s like that, though. COVID never mentioned in the movie, but you feel it kind of hanging over in a way that I think you you feel like the political situation hanging over a lot of, you know,
Kelly Lui
art. But actually on that we have a little bit more time and I just so curious, I we do want to know more about the game, which you can experience with them. So yeah, just hoping that you both can like, share a bit about the game that was created and and talk to that experience.
Seb Decter
I don’t remember how exactly we started on the conversations about the game, kind of maybe you do. But we wanted to do a video game. And I think the only realistic thing we could think of was a point and click text game, which Nora, our team members a big fan of and plays a lot of fun punch wine.
Khanh Tudo
Mm hmm. And she felt she gave us a whole list of like, inspirations that, that she felt was like, things that we can look at. And like, observe the writing of and then within that, we were like, Okay, how can we create the theater experience as much as we can through like a Choose Your Own Adventure style. So we did email the filmmakers and our like, 20 billion emails we sent them of like, movies coming, we promise, then we’re like, Wait, can we get these things for you? Actually, before that happens. And we were just like, hey, here are the locations, pick a spot and write some dialogue. We gave them like a format. And they could go all out in it. And it was so cool to see like, the way people played with like, being in the bathroom. And we ask them to draw pictures of themselves. And it was great. Yeah. Yeah, it kind of was like, it is kind of what it does feel like, in real life. When you are at the Royal, it’s so hectic that night. And there’s just like so many people and you’re like, Whoa, I could talk. I don’t know who to talk to. And I guess this is like a more anonymous way to engage with people if you’re introverted and like, not down. Not as bad for the chaos these times. So, yeah, some filmmakers were really excited and gave us like, a lot of text. And it was like, we were like, We It was the first time we’ve ever asked anyone to scale back in our time. We were we love David. David rules. David is like the best. But yeah, he gave us a 23 page script. We’re like this is new for us. This is the first time we’ve ever been like this might be too much. So sorry. We are not paying Mina enough for her to implement this. So yeah, but it was wonderful like it just like it only warms our heart to know that like David is not excited and like him and his friends is like balled out in this great,
Seb Decter
amazing, Insomniac superfans, as well as filmmakers
Kelly Lui
David and his friends, shout out lots of shout outs.
Seb Decter
I also want to shout out Lena because I think she did an amazing job of having an art style where everyone’s drawing of themselves kind of fits. Like it kind of looks like one cohesive thing even though literally everyone drew themselves in a different style. I feel like for extending the metaphor, maybe to its breaking point that’s what it feels like at the Royal is like everyone is very different. And then in this one, this one day like they all come together and it makes sense as a one picture of something Now
Khanh Tudo
That was so great.
Kelly Lui
I was like, that was so poetic and beautiful.
Seb Decter
I was working on it for a while, I had to make up for that question where I lost confidence.
Kelly Lui
back now, I do have a kind of pretentious question to ask, what do you what do you both think is the best or ideal way to now experience and watch the film? I don’t know. Maybe it’s not pretentious. I’m just always hyping things up. Oh, and also, will there maybe be a part two? So you can maybe answer either?
Khanh Tudo
Well, that’s a great question. Nobody knows. So do you know? I don’t know.
Seb Decter
I feel like our whole like, 2021 is very much a question mark right now with everything. But that’s a great idea. I mean, that would be so fun.
Khanh Tudo
So fun. Um, the best way to watch it is if you dim the lights near room, bring your parent or whoever you’re living with, maybe your roommate and play the entire game. Every single I actually had a friend play the entire game from five to eight. From the moment the game had she lived. He was like, I’m a completist I had to do it. I clicked on every single one. I read it and I was like, Oh my God, you are. You’re something. You’re incredible. But yeah, I think honestly, just through the game, maybe talk to some filmmakers. set the tone, eat some popcorn. Watch it on YouTube.
Kelly Lui
Backstory podcast is presented by Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival. It’s written and hosted by Aram Collier and Kelly Lui and is edited and produced by Seungwoo Baek. For more information about the show or festival or upcoming events, check out our show notes. If you have any questions or comments, write to us at backstory@reelasian.com.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Backstory Podcast 