For over 20 years, Farhan Umedaly has been working in the film business.
With experience in the visual and audio side of filmmaking, Umedaly describes himself as a self-taught run-and-gun style solo filmmaker who specializes in documentaries. After working with the David Suzuki Foundation, he said he became connected with Reconciliation Canada and became more engaged with indigenous communities.
After producing a documentary called A Last Stand for Lelu in 2016, he began thinking of what impact he could have if he could still his techniques and knowledge for filmmaking in Indigenous communities. This eventually became the impetus behind the creation of the Telus STORYHIVE Empowered Filmmaker program.
"I applied for a grant with STORYHIVE (in 2017). It was a five-day program where I would teach them filmmaking and they would have a film at the end of it," Umedaly explained. "Now we train 100 participants a year and last year we made 35 films in a month, the year before 42 and we're up to 180 films and 545 participants trained."
Umedaly said he goes to smaller communities with state-of-the-art cameras, drones, film gear and MacBook Pros with video editing software, everything they need to shoot a short film. From Monday, May 19 to Saturday, May 24 Umedaly was in 100 Mile House teaching a class of 15 aspiring filmmakers, a mix of locals and visitors. He guided them through the process of scripting and storyboarding their films, filming and collecting footage to go with them and then editing everything together.
The STORYHIVE Program was invited to the community by the District of 100 Mile House and the Tsq̓éscen̓ First Nation. After 100 Mile House, Umedaly said he was hitting the road to travel on to Prince George, Lethbridge and Fort McMurray. He noted it's a four-community 4,500 kilometre road trip he, his crew and their emotional support dog are on.
"I always try to form a partnership with the place we're going to be going to with the local community and the Indigenous community. We want to be welcomed and serve the community," Umedaly said. "We do whatever it takes to make these films really amazing for (our students) and make sure their stories are being portrayed the way they want."
One of the local students of Umedaly's program was 100 Mile House's Mia Lum, a Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School grad currently attending the University of Alberta online. Lum, a lifelong dancer, said she has had some prior experience making films, appearing in a few commercials and short films, but never as the one behind the camera. When she found out about the free program being offered, she decided to give it a try for fun and to gain a new skill.
"I was looking to grow my knowledge on different types of media and I recently found more interest in posting content on social media," Lum said. "They told me they were going to teach me how to edit things properly and all the different tools and cameras they use. I'm kind of that gal who just goes for random things because I just like trying new things."
Lum said she enjoyed taking the class, noting she found the storyboarding and filming part of the process to be easy. Her challenge came in the editing, where she noted she needed a little convincing everything would turn out the way she wanted.
For her project, Lum said she wanted to create a film that showed the different ways people can communicate through the medium of dance. Lum remarked that while she can and does talk a lot, when she dances, she's safe to express any emotion through her movements.
"I thought that resonated with me the best because it's what I actually do. I wrote a poem that kind of goes along with it," Lum said.
One of the people helping Umedaly teach Lum and the others was Red Deer's Tyler McKinney, a Two-Spirited filmmaker with Cree, Metis, Chinese and Vietnamese heritage. McKinney runs his own media company, Nomadic Wildwing Media, and took part in Umedaly's program last year. Their film Walking Between Two Worlds won a few prizes and helped McKinney explore his connection to his heritage.
"STORYHIVE takes these films and broadcasts them throughout Canada through Optic TV, Stream Plus and YouTube. It gives (the students) a huge amount of exposure to share their stories. A lot of these stories are based around the Indigenous perspective, so they're very heavy," McKinney said. "They're based around history, they're based around trauma. It's all within the idea of raising up these community voices as strong as we can and hopefully giving them inspiration to take that strength forward."
McKinney said when he was making his film, he only had to focus on his universe. As a facilitator, however, he's required to focus on a dozen different universes from the different filmmakers and help them bring their visions to life.
"It's been very grounding. This will teach me how to be a bit more of a role model within this sort of avenue for other people who are starting off for the first time," McKinney said. "I feel like I'm enjoying what I'm doing more than anything else in my life because it means something to these people."
Umedaly's favourite part of the course is seeing his students and their community react to their finished projects at a screening held on the Saturday after the week. He said it motivates him to keep going and share his craft. He noted short films produced in his program have gone on to win awards at film festivals.
"It's an honour to be able to do this work. I make my own documentaries and films, but I feel that is the training for me to keep advancing myself to be good enough to teach," Umedaly said. "I think storytelling is in the blood and what we're doing here is just giving that technical piece which allows the films to be so beautiful, powerful and deep."
As an Indigenous person herself, Lum noted she enjoyed the focus on Indigenous culture during the course. She also remarked she enjoyed getting to know her classmates, many of them from outside the South Cariboo, and helping one another out. Lum said she hopes to use the skills she learned in the future for her own future projects.
"I can do this all myself, if I want to. I'm hoping, maybe this year, that I could do something with people. Maybe reach out in 100 Mile and maybe create films for other people because I think that would be cool," Lum remarked.
