It’s been a few weeks since Rendering Visions officially premiered on the big screen at the Suncor Energy Centre for the Performing Arts - in the town where it all started - right here in Fort McMurray.
Pre-show kicked off with an Artist Alley market, showcasing a few local artists - including Carmen Wells - who has multiple art pieces in the film, Hexwave Media - whose visual effects work brought our local art pieces to life on screen, and our friends from Northword to spread the word about their incredible quarterly literary magazine.
Steve Reeve finally receiving his Citrus Belt after 26 years.
With over a hundred of our dear friends, neighbours, and art enthusiasts, we opened the show with a heartfelt speech and Citrus Belt Taekwondo ceremony with Mayor Bowman - for our very own Steve Reeve (it’s a long story).
Steve, Matt and I sat in the front row and took in the film with an audience for the first time.
Almost 3 years from the inception of the idea of this film - pre-production, planning, hiring production assistants, actively filming, intiating artist calls, lugging gear, scheduling interviews, working on securing funds from multiple sources, among many many other things… Across sixteen interviews - filmed through +35° heat and -20° snow, with 23 locally created art works (many just for this film), and months spent sifting through over a hundred hours of raw footage with a small but mighty team - it was finally time to show it to the world.
Did we render the final cut that hit the screen, days before the premiere? Absolutely, yes, we did.
Every other time we watched this piece was critical - remove this, move that, tweak the sound here, work on colour corrections there. Make sure those bugs sound creepy crawly - can you remove a frame from here? Fade to black here instead of cutting. There were so many moments I questioned having in the film - will this make them laugh? Is this moment to harsh, too sad? Moments I questioned whether we should have cut.
A heartfelt moment with interview subject Renee Manners during the post screening Q&A
Is this film enough to portray what incredible work our artists do in this region?
Does it do our artists and subjects justice?
Sitting in a crowd with people who deeply care about the arts in our community, hearing their reactions to every moment, I finally was able to see the project for what it is - a complete piece.
For so long, it’s been ingrained as a work-in-progress, needing to be done, but earlier this month, we were finally able to sit and enjoy the show with our peers.
For me, it was a perfect night, filled with so much emotion, and I am grateful to every single person who joined us.
For those of you who don’t know the story behind Rendering Visions:
This project began nearly three years ago, when I ran into the Arts Council Wood Buffalo office just as STORYHIVE opened applications for community-focused documentaries and pitched the idea of a doc that would follow along the Arts INC project from start to… finish.
We started with a very croaky pitch video to TELUS STORYHIVE (after I lost my voice due to illness) – and we still joke to this day that they must have felt sorry for me and given me the money. But really, what we pitched to them was the idea of a documentary that would capture the artists of our region. Not the oil sands, not industry, but a film that explores the roots of our community – and thankfully they were on board, and we were awarded the funding.
Two years ago, almost to the day, we picked up cameras and began asking artists: Do you consider yourself an artist? What do artists need? What struggles do you face here? As we listened, the need for space, resources, and connection proved even greater than we ever imagined.
The need to capture not only our incredible interview subjects, but to also integrate locally created art pieces became pretty evident too, and after too many late nights crying into front of grant applications – we were one of the first ever Alberta Foundation for the Arts grant recipients for film in our region. We also received the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo Arts, Culture, and Heritage grant – and with them combined, we were able to commission and license twenty-three works and create the visual effects renderings as part of the film.
Rendering Visions became more than a documentary. It is a snapshot of a defining moment - where artists in our region are defining who they are and what they need to thrive. The visual effects work - a metaphor for transformation itself: how imagination and collaboration can render something entirely new into being.
We always imagined it as a kind of time-capsule, that future artists in the region could watch one day, and see our stories, and the Arts INC project unfold.
It has been the honour of my life to get to know my fellow artists as part of my directorial debut - their inspirations, what keeps them going, and their hopes for the future of the arts in our region. I am endlessly grateful to everyone who opened their homes, studios, and hearts to us so we could showcase their incredible talent and the urgent need for a dedicated creative space in Fort McMurray. I will be forever changed, and endlessly inspired by the wealth of knowledge, creativity, and pure passion and drive for the arts in my fellow artists, who were kind enough to give me the time of day to interview them all.
While we are not able to release the film online just yet - it will eventually be available to watch online - as well as at film festivals across the world.
So far, we have been accepted into Film festivals in the US, Japan, Macedonia and Germany, with 3 Semi-Finalist placements and 1 Honourable Mention.
Film Festival Laurels for the Film Festival run for Rendering Visions
To those who missed the show, or were interested in some of our merchandise - we have all the Rendering Visions merch on our store now (including a very limited amount of remaining VIP Bags…). https://www.mguphynn.com/store
And for those who are looking for more in the future - with Rendering Visionaries, our in depth look at each of the artist subjects - sign up for our mail list for future M’Guphynn Media updates. https://www.mguphynn.com/newsletter
Thanks for watching,
Ashley Laurenson
Director (for the first time)
Rendering Visions