CUFF Shorts Package: In Conversation with Zach Green (Cancer Szn) and Jade Benoit (No Artichokes)
The Calgary Underground Film Festival is offering yet another program of exciting features, but they’ve also balanced that offering with an eclectic collection of short films. While all shorts have a certain magic to them, there’s something special about seeing a Calgary-made short film screen on its ‘home-court.’
“I really wanted to just make something in Calgary with my friends that I have enjoyed making stuff with,” says Zach Green, director of a short playing at the festival.
Short films are wonderful pockets of creativity and craftiness that often go underappreciated. They allow fledgling filmmakers to get their hands dirty, experiment with new ideas, and get incredibly niche with form and content. They’re also a purer pursuit of passion than any commercial production, as they’re made with a lot of creative control from those on both sides of the camera.
“It did kind of feel like a self-made film school,” says Green. “I’d say that's the most that one of the most remarkable things that was just a learning experience for me; The magic of collaborating and trusting people to bring their own creativity to your project.”
Green’s film, Cancer Szn, is a story of queer yearning and obsession inflected with supernatural-horror elements. It’s a body-swap drama wherein a witch takes over the being of her unrequited crush’s girlfriend on their shared birthday, leaving her romantic rival trapped and fighting to escape. Though seemingly pulpy in concept, Green approaches it artfully and with reflection.
“I decided to really dig into the more obsessive side of this Cancer shadow work… You're young and you're queer and you're like, ‘Oh, I'm kind of attracted to my best friend, but, I don't know if I can express it, so I'm gonna make it all in my head,’” says Green. “I wanted to find a compelling way to use a genre element… If I were a witch, and I could manifest this relationship in a really ethically questionable way, what would that look like? And Cancer Szn was born.”
While a great vehicle to exercise and develop their craft, short films also provide an avenue for filmmakers to make something fun on the spur of the moment. Jade Benoit and Karlee McTavish’s short film, No Artichokes, was born out of an odd spark of inspiration from the Late Night at the Plaza alumns.
“I was in the bath and I was watching Tick, Tick, Boom- it was amazing. I was crying, I was laughing… I got out of the bath and I called my best friend, Karlee McTavish,” says Benoit. “She's like, ‘what?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, I'm gonna do it.’ She’s like, ‘Great. Write it and we'll shoot it.’”
The short film follows two best friends who endeavour to get themselves a free meal through extreme means. It’s a slice of humour born out of a preposterous premise and a snappy rhythm of jokes and visual gags.
“The audience is lured into thinking, ‘Oh, this is just going to be a fun buddy comedy, very Harold and Kumar,’ but we come in with balaclavas,” says Benoit. “We basically hold up the sandwich shop just to get two sandwiches.”
Another reason local short films are fun is that they often feature familiar places. Kensington frequenters will recognize Peppino Gourmet Foods as the scene of the crime in No Artichokes. Their use of real locations in the surrounding neighbourhood turned out to be a bigger risk than the filmmakers anticipated.
“We've got balaclavas on, we've got fake guns, we're standing outside, and it was like 10 o'clock at night… When we got back to my apartment, the owner called me and was like, ‘Oh, hey, the cops showed up. Someone saw you guys with your balaclavas on, and we had a SWAT team show up,’” says Benoit.
While excitement buzzes around many of the features showing at CUFF this year, it’s important to support all of the scrappy upstart short filmmakers as well. Both Green and Benoit are eager for their respective screenings and invested in what the local audience's reactions will be.
“I've never had anything screened at something as big or as awesome as CUFF, so this feels really huge and important for me,” says Benoit.
Green says, “This is a queer experience a lot of people have universally, but, I'm a product of my own environment. I'm really excited to see how fellow prairie queers are gonna resonate with [Cancer Szn].”
No Artichokes plays April 19 as part of the “Laughing Through Life (And Death)” package, and Cancer Szn is showing April 20 in the “That Someone Special” Package.
