May 12, 2020

Tuesday, May 12, 2020 - A group of Canada’s most acclaimed and esteemed filmmakers from across the country are participating in a capsule collection film project entitled Greetings from Isolation, launching online in May. Created by Canadian industry veteran Stacey Donen in the hopes of finding inspiration and enlightenment from our shared human experience of isolation under COVID-19, the project will include new and original works filmed while living in isolation from Anita Doron (The Breadwinner), John Greyson (Lilies), Richard Fung (Re:Orientations), Igor Drljaca (The Waiting Room), Sadaf Faroughi (Ava), Ann Marie Fleming (Window Horses), Nadia Litz (The People Garden), and André Turpin ((Une crabe dans la tête) among others. The collection of films will begin to be released online on May 11, 2020 at www.greetingsfromisolation.com.

Currently there are 45 participating Canadian filmmakers creating short films, 2-5 minutes in length, across all genres, including fiction, documentary, essay, and video diary, with more filmmakers expected to come on board in the coming weeks. Each filmmaker will use their own phone or personal camera and anything else that is available to them in their living space, with no budget attached. Greetings from Isolation is operating with no funding attached. Should any revenue be generated in the future from the project, all proceeds will be donated to Food Banks Canada.

“A few weeks ago, I began my involuntary new life as an at-home kindergarten teacher with my 5 year-old Sophie, who incidentally thinks I am pretty boring. With the few minutes of the day not building forts, struggling with origami, or watching Buster Keaton movies, I reached out to a group of my filmmaker friends to gauge their interest in participating in this project,” said Stacey Donen. “What’s happening around us is unprecedented, momentous, and frankly hard to believe or understand. All around the world we find ourselves forcibly separated from one another. With our extraordinary new everyday routines, connecting with one another is more important than ever.”

Participating filmmakers will be updated regularly here. 

About Stacey Donen

Stacey Donen programmed Canadian cinema for The Toronto International Film Festival from 1999 to 2006. Also with the Festival Group he was the original programme co-ordinator of Canada’s Top Ten, and a programme consultant for Film Circuit where he programmed the Canadian Short Film Showcase and initiated special screenings in Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver.

Donen was the Director of Programming at The Royal Theatre in Toronto for seven years, was the founding director of programming for the Voices Forward Festival, programmed a special Canadian sidebar at FebioFest in Prague and Les Rendez-vous du Cinéma Québécois, and from 2009 to 2011 was the Artistic Director of the Whistler Film Festival.

-30-

Social tag: #GreetingsFromIsolation

For more information contact:
Andréa Grau, Touchwood PR
andrea@touchwoodpr.com