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- AFCOOP Updates - May 15th, 2025
AFCOOP Updates - May 15th, 2025
Film is back in stock, HIFF program highlights 🎞️
This week we’re highlighting some upcoming screenings for HIFF at the end of the month! |  |
HALIFAX INDEPENDENT FILMMAKERS FESTIVAL PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
 OPENING NIGHT:There, There is the sophomore feature from Halifax filmmaker Heather Young, whose 2019 debut Murmur earned awards and accolades across Canada and beyond, and introduced viewers to a new way of seeing Nova Scotia on film. There, There marks a huge step forward in Young’s spare, exacting framing and cut-to-the-bone storytelling. |  Feature preceded by Kate Solar’s (For Once I Dreamed of You), created with support from HIFF’s Open Field Grant The characters inhabit a small world of heavy, pervasive quiet, one in which each bingo dauber, doily and bedspread has something to say about the particulars of Maritime suffering. Midway through the film, a doctor asks Ruth where she lives. When the name eludes her, she falls back on a pleasantry instead: “It’s the city I live in. It’s a great city, it’s wonderful.” There, There offers no easy answers on whether these are things we believe or just say to fill the silence. —Evan Bower |
 BLUE SUN PALACEIn the Chinese enclave of Flushing, Queens in New York City, a trio of immigrant women run a massage parlour. Navigating uneven power dynamics with predatory clientele, trying to protect themselves from abusive customers, and scraping by on modest earnings, their days aren’t easy. But their sisterly bond brings them plentiful moments of shared joy, meals, and dreams—a glimpse of home, away from their homelands. | One of the women, Didi, has a strange, tenuous relationship with a man named Cheung that oscillates somewhere between romance and companionship. When a violent tragedy strikes, the characters are set adrift within the stifling darkness of grief and find solace in unexpected new connections. Constance Tsang’s debut feature is an intimate, bleak, yet compassionate portrait of the loneliness of displacement, brought to life with introspective performances by a skillful cast, including legendary Taiwanese actor Lee Kang-sheng. In gorgeous 16mm, we witness the space immigrants carve out for themselves and the comfort they find in one another. —Kelly Li  SCREENING: MAY 28, 2025 • 9:00 PM |
 EEPUSThrough his work in the Omnes Films collective, cinematographer Carson Lund has spent the better part of a decade turning a critical eye to the rituals of small-town America, offering a refreshing, esoteric new vision for the possibilities of independent film. Now, in Eephus, his feature directorial debut, Lund finds a microcosm of the nation’s folksy charms and societal ills in its national pastime. | Eephus tracks the final game of a men’s rec league on a New England ball field set to be demolished the following day. As their day-game extends late into the night, the players go to increasingly ridiculous lengths to keep it going, sensing that once it ends they’ll be incapable of finding an excuse to spend time with each other again. Far from the skilled play and high-stakes drama of the typical sports picture, Eephus is the rare work to capture the sad, complicated allure of sport for the average unremarkable player. Matching its rhythm to the game’s crawling pace and brusque dugout banter, the film basks in the many ways baseball is at odds with modern living, examining it not so much as a contest, but a fading framework for connection. —Evan Bower |
 LOST CHAPTERSBathed in sunlight and the warm glow of nostalgia, Lost Chapters captures moments of a family’s life in Caracas. After years of living overseas, Ena has returned to her childhood home to search for a sense of grounding. She spends her days rifling through books alongside her father who is on a mission to archive rare Venezuelan titles, in order to protect Venezuela’s cultural heritage from the grasp of dictatorship. | The two spend time with Ena’s lovely grandmother, who too is on her own journey of identity as she loses her memory. When Ena happens upon a forgotten Venezuelan author, her unmooredness is catalyzed into an obsessive quest of her own, which unveils an intuitive interconnectedness between these writings, her grandmother’s memories, and her search for self-identity. The debut feature of filmmaker Lorena Alvarado, Lost Chapters is a remarkable meditation on the quiet hours of life, on what we pass on to our future selves and generations, and on what lingers even when forgotten on the surface. —Kelly Li |
CANADIAN SHORTS
92 mins / MAY 30, 2025 • 5:00 PM
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Every year, our Canadian Shorts program showcases a selection of bold national shorts that are pushing the boundaries of filmmaking in this country. This year’s program features: | Fort Garry Lions Pool 8 Times Who Loves the Sun Serve the Country | Geométrika Serve the Country Days Before the Death of Nicky A Black Screen Too |
WHAT’S SCREENING THIS WEEK?
CARBON ARC CINEMA THE HERMIT OF TREIG | 
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The Disability Screen Office wants to hear from everyone in the Canadian film and television industry! Take ten minutes to fill out this survey that can change the industry for years to come. |  |
UPCOMING OPPORTUNITIES & SUBMISSIONS
 Digital Arts Resource Centre (DARC) Indigenous ResidencyDARC is proud to once again partner with the Hnatyshyn Foundation to present the DARC Indigenous Residency. New this year, the DARC Indigenous Residency will be open to Indigenous artists from across Canada! This one-month intensive on-site artist residency is offered to mid-career Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit, and Métis) artists who are seeking to develop their current practice, experiment with a new medium, or continue an existing project. | Artists in residence are provided with access to DARC’s facilities, including the DARC Microcinema, Soundstage, Digital Edit Suite, and Recording Studio. Artists also have access to an array of audio-visual equipment and up to 16 hours of advisor time for the duration of their residency. Additionally, artists in residence are provided with an artist fee for their work as well as for an artist talk or presentation following the residency period and free access to cultural events and workshops with DARC and partnering organizations. Out-of-town artists will receive subsidies for both housing and travel expenditures. Learn more about the residency by going to DARC’s website. Deadline to apply is June 30th, 2025. |
Screen NS Diversity Mentorship Program: Call for Applications
To accelerate the development of our young, diverse talent in the province, Screen Nova Scotia is offering paid internship opportunities, each lasting four weeks. Selected participants will be placed on a professional film/television set in a crew trainee position and paired with a designated mentor for the four-week period to gain hands-on experience in the department of their choice.  2024 participant Suzy Turner (Scenic Paint/Art Department mentee on feature film Place of Ghosts) |  2024 participant Eunice Abaga (Assistant Director mentee on This Hour Has 22 Minutes) The deadline to apply is May 19th. Please visit our website HERE for important details on eligibility criteria and application requirements. If you have any questions after visiting the website, please contact Danya Knowles, Industry Services Coordinator: [email protected] / (902) 229-1499.  |
The Parrsboro Film Festival [PFF] is inviting Atlantic Canadian filmmakers to submit films for the 15th Annual Parrsboro Film Festival short film competition.
There are two categories of films to choose from:
Films must have been completed within the past 24 months. All genres of film will be accepted.
| The short film competition will take place Saturday morning, October 4th, between 9am and 1pm. The audience will vote for their favourite film at the end of each category. Cash awards for The Audience Favourite in each of these two categories will be presented Saturday at the end of this portion of the Film Festival. Submission deadline is Monday, August, 4th, 2025. Applicants will be advised by Monday, September, 8th, 2025 if their submissions were selected or not. Short films will be jury selected. |
Mosaic International Film Festival: Call for Submissions
Submissions close May 31, 2025—don’t miss your opportunity to be part of this vibrant celebration of independent cinema! Why Submit? A forum for bold, unique storytelling A global stage connecting filmmakers and audiences Nova Scotia residents: Email [email protected] for submission vouchers! |  Founded in 2019 as a local showcase, Mosaic has grown into an international festival, uniting cultures through film while fostering education and creativity in the industry. Submit today and be part of the mosaic! |
SENDING FILM FOR PROCESSING?
AFCOOP mails a package to our partner lab on the first Tuesday of every month!
You can drop the film off anytime to our technical coordinator, Cody at anytime! The next mail day is June 3rd!
For more information on getting your film processed, email Cody: [email protected]
AFCOOP’s Filmmakers Job Board is a place to connect with filmmakers and film crews looking for work, or volunteers looking to gain experience in Nova Scotia and Atlantic Canada.
Submitting to the AFCOOP Job Board is totally free! All posts are subject to approval by AFCOOP staff and will be reviewed before they appear on the site.
Note: You don't have to create an account to post a job. If you wish, simply enter your email to sign up at the time of job submission.
See it all HERE!
ABOUT AFCOOP: Established in 1974 the Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative (AFCOOP) is a non-profit, community organization dedicated to supporting the production and presentation of independent film and moving-image-based work in a collaborative, learning environment.
AFCOOP acknowledges that we are located and operate in Kjipuktuk, in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People. This territory is covered by the “Treaties of Peace and Friendship” which Mi’kmaq, Wəlastəkwiyik (Maliseet), and Passamaquoddy Peoples first signed with the British Crown in 1726. The treaties did not deal with surrender of lands and resources but in fact recognized Mi’kmaw and Wəlastəkwiyik (Maliseet) title and established the rules for what was to be an ongoing relationship between nations. We are all treaty people.