Who’d have ever thought that inner city youth would look to a member of Toronto Police Service’s Emergency Task Force as inspiration?
A few months ago Calum deHartog, who also moonlights as a commercial director, created The City Life Film Project with Toronto-based Temple Street Productions and The Remix Project, a Toronto charity employing arts and culture to engage young people mostly from “priority neighbourhoods.” It partners inner city kids with industry professionals, providing them with guidance and resources to bring their stories to life.
“[The goal is] to inspire future filmmakers,” says deHartog. “It also reinforces my view that arts and culture are an important component of society in creating dialogue and understanding the world, or city, we live in. One of the finalists shook my hand and said, ‘I would have never shaken the hand of a cop until now. Thank you.’ That pretty much sums it up.”
Leo Burnett, through one of its producers, Jackie Bellmore, an acquaintance of deHartog’s, jumped on board to develop a pro-bono promotional campaign set to launch this month. It includes a fake movie trailer, showing in theatres and on Thedownfallmovie.com, and wild postings throughout Toronto touting The Downfall, a film that never got made because the young man who would have made it was killed outside of his apartment thanks to a stray bullet.
The films will be featured on Citylifefilmproject.com, at a special screening at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, the Canadian Film Centre’s Worldwide Short Film Festival, on select Corus TV stations and at high school and community centre screenings.