National Film Festival for Talented Youth, April 28 to May 1 in Seattle, Washington. Tickets and info at nffty.org.
Student filmmaker Tommy Lee is finishing up his last week of coursework at the University of Hertfordshire in England before he heads off to explore Europe in May and June.
The 21-year-old North Vancouver resident is a third-year student in Capilano University’s Bachelor of Motion Picture Arts Program, currently on a study abroad exchange. As such, he won’t be home in the Pacific Northwest when two of his films are showcased next week at the National Film Festival for Talented Youth in Seattle.
The annual festival for filmmakers 24 and younger marks its 10th anniversary this year with a lineup that includes over four days 230 films from 24 countries. More than 1,000 emerging filmmakers from around the world submitted their work for consideration.
Far from an NFFTY virgin, Lee had his work screened at the festival in 2014 and 2015. This year, he’s excited to show As I Am, a short-film he directed during his second year at Cap. The film was created with crew members Harrison Sima, Roz Ward and Brandon Wettig.
“I wanted to create a narrative that immersed the viewer inside the head of a character struggling and fighting for her identity,” says Lee, reached in the U.K. via email. “My lead character, Chris, doesn’t speak in the film and there is little overall dialogue, it has a music video feel to it. I worked closely with my composer to create a stylized score that brings the audience inside the bruised psyche of my protagonist.”
Lee’s other film in the festival is Show Me The Ropes (created with Ellie Linell, Shimon Machida and Cole Jackson). It’s the third music video he’s made for indie-folk band Good For Grapes that has screened at NFFTY (his debut music video, Renminbi Tips, won best music video at the 2014 festival). The audio-driven piece follows Lara, who is tied up in a corporate lifestyle that’s keeping her from her passions.
“Show Me The Ropes is the most personal film I’ve made so far,” Lee says. “I wrote three completely different story treatments before I connected with the concept of negative attachments that tie us down. The biggest challenge producing this music video was doing it at the same time as taking six courses, but I had a very talented cast and crew that made it possible. Tonally, narratively and esthetically this video felt like a key milestone for me.”
In addition to Lee’s two NFFTY submissions, another young North Shore film team (Allyson Fournier, Edward Davis, CJ McGillivray and Paul Human) will also be featured at the festival. Their film, Ben, follows 16-year-old Tannis, who must confront her mental illness and traumatic past when she meets troubled musician Ben Kidd.
Lee got interested in filmmaking at Seycove secondary when he was asked to assist with a film shoot in Grade 11.
“I was asked to come help out on a shoot and I played the glamorous role of a zombie who got hit with a bat by ‘Kim John Kill,’” he recalls. “I had a lot of fun and realized I’d never given thought to how movies were actually made.”
He took the film elective in Grade 12, loved it, and at his dad’s suggestion went to an open house at Capilano’s BOSA Film Centre. He applied to the Bachelor of Motion Picture Arts Program that same week. For Lee, film is a vessel for storytelling, creativity, entrepreneurship and collaboration.
“I love music – you can put music in a film. I love performance, art, writing, psychology, philosophy and learning about different people, places, and perspectives,” he says. “As a writer/director I get to build my own worlds and it’s so fulfilling when you see the seed of your initial idea germinate into a story someone else can experience.”
Among his biggest creative influences is the directing duo Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan (known simply as Daniels), who work primarily in music videos. Meanwhile, Avatar was the first film that really made him think about what a director does.
“The amount of world-building detail James Cameron put into Avatar’s alien planet Pandora is astounding,” he says, adding that Iranian-American director Ana Lily Amirpour is “also genius.”
“Her film A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night has the most spectacular use of music to visuals I’ve seen in any feature film and it shares space with Almost Famous and Stand By Me as a movie that I could watch at any time.”
Next on the horizon, Lee is writing his debut feature film, a coming-of-age story that he intends to shoot in 2018. After graduation, his goal is to work for a production company.
