Amélia Simard
Directing
Biography
Amélia is an emerging French-Canadian filmmaker and interdisciplinary artist from the traditional and unceded territories of the Lekwungen and Songhees peoples (Victoria, BC). Now based in so-called Vancouver, they have completed their BFA in Film at Simon Fraser University where they have written, shot and directed short narrative dramas and documentary films. Their works have been featured in Vancouver Island Short Film Festival and the Small File Media Festival. They are also a theatre-maker, with the debut of their co-written and co-performed piece "Cracking The Nonbinary Code" as a part of Ignite! 2023. In their practice, Amélia explores themes of queerness, language through metaphors based in memory, nostalgia and the fantastical.
Known For
Four close friends, East, South, West and North, play a game of mahjong before dinner. Tensions rise as they all discover they have unique ways of playing, skill levels with the game, and differing attitudes towards competition. How will they navigate personal differences and learn to play with one another?
chattering of sparrows
Kyra and Amélia create short video capsules with a Polaroid digital camcorder; these are episodes of "Rascal News", a web show they wish to create one day. What starts in the same fashion as a news report usually ends in chaos. As they spy on their brothers and break into their neighbor's backyards, these home movies immortalize childhood friendship by offering insight into saturated vignettes that have become fond memories.
Rascal News
Amélia, an emerging non-binary filmmaker, has been given 2 months given and a research grant to find out more about francophone queer life in western Canada. As the only participant from (what is colonially known as) British-Columbia and with only 3 weeks left, the pressure is on: Amélia rushes to find any traces of francophone queer people in Vancouver before the year 2000, the year they were born. Amidst this chaotic research effort, they find André, an older French-Canadian gay man that lived in Vancouver for 25 years. Through their conversations, Amélia unlocks André's hidden personal visual archive, that proves that, indeed, francophone queers were alive and thriving years before they were born. This documentary shows how Amélia put together a presentation about their own queer ancestors through screen capture, archival footage, interviews and narration that ends up changing their own view of themself as a queer french-canadian in the west.
Retrouvailles inconnues: Les francoqueers à Vancouver avant et après l'an 2000
Groove, Slam, Work It Back gives a glimpse into Sayla and Ishi's grief, as they meet at Sayla's mother's for the new year. They prepare to watch the sunset by dressing in colourful outfits, having a dance party and poking fun at each other. However, when comes the time to talk about Sayla's late sister, simultaneously Ishi's late girlfriend, they have conflicting approaches. As Sayla continuously withholds information, Ishi prods to know more about the sisters' mystery tradition. When everything comes to a head, who decides the best way to grieve? Through their interactions, Ishi and Sayla learn to be more patient with each other and look ahead to this journey of mixed memories and shared joy.