Theatregoers and film-lovers gathered to “support the arts and get drunk,” at Arts Court on April 2.
“Even if you have to go to work tomorrow, no one expects you to do well,” Ottawa actor and director Tony Adams told the beer-imbibing crowd.
They were there for the third annual Stiff Quickies, a short film screening fundraiser for the 2015 Ottawa Fringe festival.
Stiff Quickies is more than just a fundraiser—it’s a chance for Ottawa theatre artists and filmmakers to collaborate, said Greggory Clark, Fringe Festival media relations officer.
Since its first year, many filmmakers have returned to and even premiered their work at Stiff Quickies, according to Clark.
While most of the submissions are from artists involved with Fringe, every year there are more films entered from people outside the theatre community, he added.
“I’d love to look at ways that Stiff Quickies can grow and maybe even become two nights, three nights, multiple screenings,” Clark said.
He said there’s potential for future collaboration with the Independent Filmmakers Cooperative of Ottawa, the Animation Festival, and SAW video.
The films ranged from short humorous snapshots to longer, more psychologically complex narratives.
Joel MacKenzie’s Lumberjacked was a crowd favourite. The exuberantly animated short is about a lumberjack who uses his strength to vanquish an 8-bit wasp monster.
Alex Alexander’s The Observer Effect made the audience squirm a little. In the film, an obsessively voyeuristic woman takes photos of an amorous couple, first through their window and then from right inside their bedroom.
Alexander’s film wasn’t the only one to explore uncomfortable sexual situations. In Cory Thibert’s Trois, a man tries to orchestrate a strange threesome with his best friend and his girlfriend. The film earned Thibert a nomination for best director under 25 in the Ottawa Independent Video Awards.
Thibert, who runs the May Can Theatre Company with fellow actor and friend Tony Adams said Trois was inspired by an actual conversation.
“[Tony] was like, ‘Would you fuck my girlfriend?’ And I was like, ‘Dude, don’t ask me that’ and it was like a long conversation, really long and I was like, ‘No, I’m not gonna answer that, no I feel weird,’ and then eventually I was like . . . ‘Yeah.’ And he was like, ‘She said she would fuck you too!’”
After joking about it for a while, Thibert and Adams wrote a script that took their conversation to a more extreme and uncomfortable conclusion.
“People are like, ‘Oh, threesome,’” Thibert laughed. “What I hoped to achieve is the awkwardness of that ideal situation.”
The film stars Adams, Thibert, and Adams’ girlfriend, actress Chelsea Young.
The three performers will be working together again on a Fringe Festival production. Young and Adams will act in it and Thibert will direct.
“It’s about these two kind of roaming . . . characters that have left their homeland in search of something new,” Adams explained.
Thibert said it will be an outdoor interactive event.
“It’s about them going through the worst times of their life together and how love brings them through.” he said.
Ottawa Fringe Festival will feature 57 shows and will run from June 17-28.
