Saskatoon short film selected for Hollywood movie festival
It’s been a long journey since Travis Neufeld began writing the screenplay for his short film The Tinwife in 2014.
Set in a seemingly utopic 1950sstyle future world, The Tinwife tells the story of a human woman mistakenly arrested and sent to an internment facility for unwanted android housewives.
“Ultimately it’s a dystopia that presents itself as a utopia,” Neufeld explains. “It’s kinda like a journey from that idealistic 1950s sunshiny, optimistic feel and you just go down from there to what is kind of like the underworld of this society ... You can only shine a light on the dark areas of the story if you have that light part as well.”
He didn’t initially plan to take his story from page to screen — it was a lot more intricate than most short films. But after winning the best short screenplay award at both the Cinequest Film and VR Festival and the Manhattan Shorts Film Festival in 2014, he realized this project presented the perfect opportunity to see his work on screen.
It was filmed and produced over a two-year period, almost entirely in Saskatoon, with a volunteer cast and crew of around 60 locals. The days were gruelling — sometimes up to 20 hours — and funded mainly out of Neufeld’s pocket, along with some money from the National Film Board and the Saskatchewan Arts Board.
Neufeld said the biggest boost came from the film’s crowdfunding page — and without the nearly $9,000 donated to the project it would have been impossible to complete.
“It was critical. It’s advisable when you’re writing a short film that you stick to one or two locations and have two or three characters,” he said. “When I wrote this there were eight or nine locations, there’s scenes with full-on parties ... I mean, obviously fundraising was so important. We had to find the spaces, rent them, dress them and we had shoots with upwards of 15 to 20 actors and they all required costumes.”
Neufeld, who is from Moose Jaw but is based in Saskatoon, said it’s hard to pinpoint exactly where his inspiration came from. He was always interested in creating a short film focused on artificial intelligence, but it was his rediscovery of the classic 1960s TV show The Twilight Zone that cemented the inspiration, he said.
Having already shown The Tinwife at the Woods Hole, Cinequest and Imagine film festivals, his next stop on the circuit is in Hollywood for the HollyShorts Film Festival, which is counted among the most prestigious short film festivals in the world. A positive reception there might just mean an Academy Award nomination for best live action short film.
The Tinwife — clocking in at 27 minutes — is longer than most short films, so it’s harder for festivals to justify screening it because its length will mean nearly three fewer films will be programmed, Neufeld said.
“So honestly, I’m just happy to be there at all. These places, they do have award ceremonies, but that’s not on my radar — I’m just happy to get in; that’s an award in and of itself. The real reward for me is seeing how hard (the crew) worked on the project with me always telling them, ‘Hey, this will be worth it, it’s going to be awesome, it’s going to look really good.’ Just to have that come to fruition is really, really great.”
The film is scheduled to make its debut in Saskatoon at the Broadway Theatre on Sept. 30.