B&E, 12min., Canada
Directed by Jamie Robertson
When his ex-con brother, Chris, enlists his help on a break-in, Duncan Fitzpatrick doesn't know what to do. He'd agreed to run away with his brother, but only under the belief that he had turned over a new leaf. Now stuck, waiting in the car for his brother's return, Duncan grows restless as his brother breaks into a mysterious suburban home. There's only one problem with Chris's plan; someone else is in the house. As the hour grows late, Duncan enters the house, only to discover how truly lost his brother has become.

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Get to know the filmmaker:

1. What motivated you to make this film?

The biggest motivation for this film was really just proving it was something I could do. Humber gave me an excellent opportunity, greenlighting this film with myself as Director and I didn't want to take that opportunity for granted. Entering the independent filmmaking landscape, it may be some time before I am afforded the budget and resources these capstone films received and so I really wanted to make the most of it and show the world what I'm currently capable of, and what I'm going for with my films. Throughout my time at school, I'd met a lot of great people and filmmakers as well and so, not squandering an opportunity to work with all of them provided excellent additional motivation that I think was felt throughout our year and really brought the lot of us together.

2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?

As part of this project at school, all the films we wound up making in November (we made eight) began in their early creative stages around January of 2022. We were all as students individually charged with writing scripts for our script class that would then be voted through to a pitch stage and, while I did write a script of my own it did not end up being selected by my classmates so, knowing that I wanted to Direct, when the eligible scripts were announced I began to hunt for the project I thought I grabbed me most. I already had a pretty good relationship with Denzel Noylander, our scriptwriter, he and I had actually already worked together on a project previously, he produced my documentary in second year, and so when I went to look at the potential scripts, his was one of the first that I read. I was really struck from the outset by the environment and the ability to play in this dark and ominous setting. The noir dark sneaking through the house feel was something that immediately gripped me and I was really excited by the idea of trying to bring to life the story of the brothers as well, as it was something that hit quite close to home having brothers of my own. I began to get involved in May 2022, right around the end of our second year. After the film was selected by our pitch panel, we began pre-production almost immediately working on the script and the story, really trying to mold it into something that was both Denzel's and my own. Things really started to pick up around September when we resumed classes and began selecting the rest of our crew. The project was shot in early November 2022 and was finished post-production in late February. All in all, it took a little over 13 months for the whole thing to come together, and it wasn't until April of 2023 that we premiered, so 15 months in total from page to screen.

3. How would you describe your film in two words!?

Well to avoid the tongue and cheek response of "Breaking" and "Entering", I think for me, two words for this film would be "family ties". A lot of what gets Duncan into trouble in this film is his tie to his brother, his hope that he has changed, and his desire for a connection. I think a lot of us get into situations we don't want to be in for a loved one or a family member and I think these connections can be very influential in both positive and negative ways. Obviously in this case his loyalty and his trust in his brother really winds up hurting Duncan in the end and it's this connection that Chris is really banking on for his plan to ultimately work. It can be both a blessing and a curse, family ties and this film is an example of that.

4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?

For me the biggest obstacle for this film was myself. There were a lot of roadblocks that we came up against in production. This was a student film, it wasn't made for very much money, collectively we all didn't have much experience, but those kinds of hurdles kind of make your film what it is, and I was actually quite open to that. The biggest thing for me that I struggled with, was my own confidence. This was the first time I had really done anything like this. I directed a very simple short in my first year at Humber College and a documentary in my second year but this was the first time I'd worked with professional actors, the first time I'd worked with a crew larger than three or four people and I put a lot of pressure on myself to prove that this was something I was capable of doing. I wanted this film to be good, I felt like, considering it was our final major project, it was important for myself and for my future career that this film be this great exhibitor of my "talent", but at the same time, I was hyper-aware of my potential ignorance. All of the great directors that I look up to have this wealth of knowledge about film and film history and I was just afraid that I potentially didn't know enough, that I hadn't seen enough, or internalized enough, or that I somehow wouldn't be able to live up to their example. It was hard sometimes to just let go and make the film but luckily I had a fantastic support network around me, an amazing crew and by the time we got to our premier it was just an incredibly rewarding feeling. I'm very proud of the film we wound up making and I was able to build a great deal of confidence through this process that helped tremendously on the short I wound up making second semester.

5. What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?

It was very exciting. I had a documentary that was lucky enough to go through a similar process a summer back and so I've already had the opportunity to sit through this kind of thing once, but it was a great experience again, and very informative. It's always wonderful to hear people speak positively about your work and to be able to see firsthand the effect the film has on an audience, and what they might be picking up or interpreting, helps tremendously in gauging how I as filmmaker am communicating with an audience. You learn a great deal this way, and these audience reactions were no different. That my film has found an audience, that it has been seen by more than just myself, my classmates, my immediate circle, it's a dream come true really, and I want to thank this festival again for their efforts in making all that possible.

6. When did you realize that you wanted to make films?

Films have always been a really big part of my life. Moviegoing has always been a really big part of my life. My mother used to work at a movie theatre when we were growing up and so it was a place that became kind of like a second home in many ways for me. Being involved in movies is something that's always really been on my horizon. Even when I studied engineering the end goal was to try and apply that degree to something in the realm of film, I thought I'd make animatronics, so it's always been something that I've been focussed on. However, I really started to get serious about it in 2019. 2019 was obviously a fantastic year for films you have 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' coming out that year, 'The Irishman', 'Jojo Rabbit', 'Parasite', obviously and so it was a deeply inspiring year and with 'Endgame' coming out as well, and what that meant for an entire generation of fans, that filmgoing experience, it was just the perfect storm that year of entertainment and artistry. The most important film or at least for me personally the most altering film that came out that year was the A24 black-and-white film, 'The Lighthouse' by Robert Eggers. That film for me was like nothing I'd seen before. I didn't know you could make movies like that, and I found myself immediately caught by all the little details that made that movie what it was. The acting, of course, Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe were both incredible, the cinematography, Egger's staging, and the aspect ratio which was both unique for me seeing a film of that ratio at the theater, and unique for the art form, with its slightly more narrow look than the classic academy 4:3 providing that extra little sense of claustrophobia. It was all very specific and created the sense of timelessness, of being pulled straight from the history books, and I just knew, after watching that film that this is what I wanted to do with my life, to "make movies", as Tarantino once put it, "that make people want to make movies".

7. What film have you seen the most in your life?

In terms of the movie I've seen most, I think there's a bit of a battle here. To start off, I'm a huge fan of 'Raiders of the Lost Ark', it's a film that no matter where it is in its runtime, no matter where I begin watching it, I just know I'm going to have to sit down and watch whatever's left to the end. To me, 'Raiders' is a movie that is both fiercely entertaining and masterfully crafted and it's something that I find myself revisiting a lot both to simply sit back and have a good time with and to really study. Spielberg obviously is a genius, I'm not the first to say it, I'm not the last, but there's something about 'Raiders' specifically where I think he just brings it all together and I've seen it so many times I've lost count. All this being said I was a really young kid, my favourite movie, bar none was 'The Wizard of Oz'. I watched that film daily, it was something that I was obsessed with for quite a while so in terms of sheer volume I think 'Oz' likely beats out 'Raiders', but it's close. It's a movie I find myself revisiting as well quite a bit, for the style, and just for sheer nostalgia. There are a lot of problems associated with that production, but the film is undoubtedly a classic and it is something that's engrained deep within my DNA.

8. What other elements of the festival experience can we and other festivals implement to satisfy you and help you further your filmmaking career?

The only thing I can think of is perhaps more interaction with the community. Whether it be Q&A's or the ability to connect further with the audiences watching our films, the feedback was excellent, but a good dialogue where maybe a bit more of a discussion could be had would be a nice extra step, on top of the great work you're already doing.

9. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway. How has your experiences been working on the festival platform site?

So far it's been great. No complaints.

10. What is your favorite meal?

I'm a big fan of Thai and Vietnamese food. There's this dish "Bún thịt nướng" that's pork, bean sprouts, cucumber, and carrot on a bed of rice noodles with fish sauce and it's really great. There's a restaurant back in Kingston, Saigon Delights, that's just the best.

11. What is next for you? A new film?

Next, I actually have another short coming out, that should begin entering festivals in the Fall. Set in North Korea, the film is about a family trying to escape the country through a human trafficking ring based out of China. Very heavy material, the script was written, and the film was co-directed by my classmate Yeonsu Shin. The film is performed entirely in Korean and was filmed on blue screen using motion tracking and the unreal engine. It was a very interesting, extremely informative project to put together and I'm excited for audiences to see it soon.