Mayfly? shadfly? They made a movie?

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http://www.nugget.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2504140

 

 

Shadfly flic spreads its wings — Will be screened at Hot Docs

Posted By BRANDI CRAMER The Nugget

Updated 10:00am, March 26, 2010

 

 

ASIDE

The Freshwater Plague will be screened May 3 at 7:30 p.m. at The Royal Cinema, 608 College Street, Toronto, and again May 5 at 11 a.m. at the Royal Ontario Museum theatre at 100 Queen's Park.

His film will run in conjunction with the modern fairytale about ordinary people trying to catch the sun in the 85-minute film entitled The Mirror. The Shadfly is about to go international.

 

Thanks to the efforts of North Bay native Jake Chirico, the much maligned pre-historic insect which swarms our city every summer is the subject of The Freshwater Plague, a short documentary which will be shown as part of Hot Docs, a Canadian international documentary film festival in Toronto at the end of April.

 

 

"I was blown away," said the 22-year-old documentarian, who now calls Toronto home. "I had no idea I would actually get in. I thought it was worth a shot. I guess the programmers liked it and I got this opportunity."

 

Hot Docs is North America's largest documentary film festival. It runs from April 29 to May 9, presenting more than 170 films from more than 35 countries and welcoming hundreds of international filmmakers and industry delegates to Toronto.

 

"Its popularity has been really significant in recent years," Chirico said.

 

"A lot of industry people from around the world will be there as well as a huge cross-section of the general public."

 

In The Freshwater Plague, Chirico explores the shadfly's physical identity, life cycle and behaviour before delving deeper into the poetically tragic life of the fly. Finally, the video touches on how people interact with the species and what we may be able to learn from them.

 

Chirico, who was a student of Sheridan College's media arts program at the time, spent the summer of 2008 working at the North Bay Marina, when he shot the footage for his cinematic debut.

 

"I really wanted to do a film before I left town for good and moved to Toronto," he said. "After stepping on hundreds of them on my night shift patrol, I thought this wasn't a normal thing for cities."

 

"And I thought that it might be able to make some outsiders cringe."

 

The Freshwater Plague was shown as part of the Toronto International Film Festival's student showcase in 2009 and will also be shown in this year's Future Frames program during Sprockets TIFF for Children April 20 and 21.

 

"The goal of the Sprockets festival is to educate and inspire young talent at the high school level," he said. "It's a great opportunity."

 

Now pursuing a bachelor of fine arts degree at York University, Chirico will use his film festival exposure to make contacts to further his career.

 

While the shadfly's life is a short one, Chirico hopes his career in documentary filmmaking is only in its infancy.

 

"It's an exploration of tangible things — interacting with an environment and people in professional fields. I find I learn a lot more like that."

 

His next planned documentary, Rhythms of Light, currently in post-production, deals with the effect of artificial light and the consequences of introducing it into our natural habitat.

 

"Basically I got the idea through artificial light and how it has completely changed the way we operate as a species . . . I read a lot about evolution," he said.