With a PhD in Education, she brings a fresh eye to film/television and podcast writing. Most recently, she was the creative producer behind the documentary Little Church about an underserved community in Toronto, and the short film The Assistant which looks at gender inequality in the film business. She has also authored the disability-forward Wiz Kids IP that has been developed into the Shaw Rocket Fund-supported live action kids series The Nothing Club. Her industry writing has appeared in publications like Chatelaine and Today’s Parent, and her most recent book was published with Brill Press in 2023. She is also the longstanding producer/co-host of the Reframeables podcast which just completed its 95th episode.
No matter how hard I tried, I could not book a direct flight to Cannes. And coming home was a mission (a la Tom Cruise). Case in point: the train ride from Cannes to Nice was followed by an 8-hour flight to Philadelphia and then another two hours home to Toronto. The complexity of the travel experience made for a great life metaphor to help me frame my three key takeaways from this year’s Marche du Films – Festival de Cannes: there is no direct flight to success.
For work I straddle the two worlds of filmmaking and academia; this metaphor rings true in both. I imagine it does for folks in most fields. I traveled to Cannes this year to do research on what it means to be a colleague in arts-based fields. What does a staff room or faculty lounge look like in a project-driven field where competition is so fierce? How does one make lasting collegial connections that are not underpinned by the transactional forces of quid pro quo?
While at Cannes actor Diane Kruger helped me think through these questions in a new way. Representing our company, Ceres Productions, I went to the premiere of Amrum in which Kruger was cast as an anti-fascist potato farmer. She had worked with director Fatih Akin eight years earlier and wanted to do it again. She told The Hollywood Reporter that she had promised Akin, “If you need me for anything, for one day, as an extra to stand in the background, I’m there.” And that’s what she did with this film. It wasn’t Kruger driving the story but 12-year old Jasper Billerbeck who takes us through the story of a family living on the island of Amrum during the end of World War II. Sitting a few rows away, I watched the cast interact at the premiere. Though the audience erupted into applause for Kruger and Akin, I was struck by the cast’s collective collegial energy. The takeaway for me was summed up in Kruger’s own words: “I’m there.” Through the eye of the camera success obligated that they all be there, fully present no matter the role or how one arrived to it.
Another takeaway emerged for me out of the festival’s immersive art competition. It was launched in 2024 at the Marche du Film, highlighting “immersive, collective, and interactive works that incorporate cutting-edge technologies such as VR, AR, artificial intelligence, and video mapping.” This year it was back, kinks worked out, highlighting the festival’s commitment to carving out space for innovative experiences that immerse audiences “in narratives that transport them across time, space, and into uncharted realms of artistic expression.” I saw how immersive narrative experiences are more than experiential marketing tools found at innovation conferences. And when our attention economy makes telling a slower, nuanced story more challenging, a successful pivot might require that a few more senses be tapped into to keep the audience engaged. A few more stops on the already indirect flight, perhaps, but with more sights and sounds to take in along the way.
Finally, one’s indirect flight to success must be curated. At the Villages International inside the Marche du Film I found myself popping into the Canadian pavilion not just to charge my phone, but to connect with creators and thinkers from all over the world. One of my favorite meetings was with a curator who, like me, did her PhD with an eye on interdisciplinary arts. The festival’s Curator’s Network is made up of top museum curators and cultural institutions in search of “groundbreaking immersive experiences” covering a range of themes including science and history, social impact, the environment, gaming, music, experiential art, and technology. My takeaway was this: Art-based works are powerful unto themselves, but when curated in conversation with other pieces and people world changing experiences are most possible. We already curate our wardrobes and social media feeds. What might shift for the better in the worlds we inhabit if intentional curation was adopted for the sake of critical and expansive thinking?
In the end, #MDF25 gave me insights into the power of the indirect flight. Whatever it looks like in whatever circles you move in, this year’s Marche du Film highlighted that the journey to success is made more possible when you’re not traveling alone.
