YORKTON - Among the finalists for the Best of Sask at this year’s Yorkton Film Festival is Our Community: AIM.
“I was very excited to learn of my Best of Saskatchewan nomination at Yorkton this year,” Lucas Frison, Director / Writer / Producer with Prairie Cat Productions told Yorkton This Week.
“It's an honour to be nominated at a festival with such a long history of honouring film and television in our province and across the country.”
For Frison it is a return to the finalist circle.
“I was fortunate enough to win Best of Saskatchewan at Yorkton in 2020 for my documentary, Humboldt: The New Season,” he noted.
Frison said certainly a YFF award carries some weight within the industry.
“Recognition from prestigious festivals like Yorkton is extremely valuable in creating interest in the film, which makes viewers want to seek it out,” he said.
So, in general terms what does YFF mean in particular to those involved in the industry in the province?
“Yorkton is a fantastic festival and market where filmmakers not only get the chance to screen their work, but also to network and meet with key industry decision-makers, like broadcasters and distributors,” said Frison. “Networking at the festival a couple of years ago directly led to me making Our Community: AIM.”
Our Community: AIM is a half-hour documentary episode of the Accessibility Network's ongoing series Our Community.
“Our episode focuses on the Ability in Me program in Saskatoon, an organization that supports youth and young adults with Down Syndrome,” explained Frison.
The film’s creation came about via a connection Frison had made.
“The Ability in Me program had previously invited me to virtually speak to some of their learners and share my experience as a filmmaker with them,” he said. “That was my first introduction to AIM and I quickly learned what an incredible organization it is and that gave me the idea for the documentary.”
Making a film about a large program of course had its challenges.
“Condensing everything about AIM and all the learners they support across Saskatchewan into just 22-minutes was a big challenge,” said Frison.
“Cole Blocka, a 20-year old learner at AIM, was one of our main subjects and Cole was ultimately the through-line in the story which helped introduce us to AIM from a viewer's perspective.”
In the end the people involved made the film what it is.
Frison noted the film’s greatest strength is “the amazing individuals at the centre of the story. The youth and young adults at AIM were curious, funny, and extremely generous in sharing their time with us and viewers will be instantly drawn in by their stories.”
As a filmmaker, does Frison see the film in new light with the Best of Sask finalist nod?
“My view of the documentary hasn't changed after the nomination as I'm proud of the story we were able to tell and any recognition it receives is a nice bonus,” he said.
The documentary is available now on AMIPlus.ca and on the Accessibility Network's YouTube channel.
