*Metro Shorts was a quarterly film competition hosted and curated by Mostly Water Theatre and produced by The Metro Cinema Society located in the historic Garneau Theatre. It gave Edmonton filmmakers the chance to get their work screened live, adjudicated by professionals, get paid, win prizes, and be forced to make more shorts. It ran for 10 seasons, screened over 400 shorts, and ended in 2019. These stories are a celebration of some of the filmmakers that crossed our paths.
Metro Shorts Memories:
Demmi Dupree
What some deem weird, others deem authentic. When it comes to Demmi Dupri, she is ensconced in authenticity (rhyme win).
When she first graced the screen at the Garneau Theatre, her little stop motion video was at first charming, then as it went on, it was abstract, but in the end, it all made sense, at least to me. That arch is hard to do but quite wonderful when it happens.
In her own words, written in the third person:
“Demmi Dupri is a stop-motion film artist and illustrator who uses an eclectic range of mediums and materials to create vivid, colourful, surreal worlds. Demmi uses repurposed and unconventional materials to show that ordinary objects can have magical lives too. She has a uniquely personal and hands on approach to her creative process and uses her background in puppetry and improvisation to bring dreams to life.”
The effort is obvious. While it will never be called polished, Dupri’s style is energetic and personal. It is jagged yet smooth. Jumpy yet calm. The depth of multi-medias used show a daring chance to try something new visually while still keeping the story alive. I could throw around another series of contrasting words (childishly mature) but I’m not going to because I’m a better writer than that.
As a side note, Dupri is the last champion that Metro Shorts ever had and a fitting filmmaker to represent the entire gamut of shorts shown over the years. Dupri is dead, long live Dupri.
The next chapter of MSM will be out as soon as I have the time to do it. Making my own deadlines and then breaking them is my new porn.
Special thanks go to The Metro Cinema Society and all the awesome people we (Mostly Water Theatre) worked with along the way. Without them all, none of these memories would be so vivid and brilliant. If you wish to support the Metro Cinema Society, visit their site and peruse their offerings. Here is the link HERE.
The Trent Wilkie 