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Yellowknife filmmaker Jennifer Walden awarded mentorship

Yellowknife filmmaker Jennifer Walden is the recipient of this year’s Whistler Film Festival mentorship for her project Elijah and the Rock Creature.

Photo courtesy of Whistler Film Festival and Women in Film and Television Vancouver
Yellowknife filmmaker Jennifer Walden was awarded a mentorship following the success of her film Elijah and the Rock Creature, filmed by a Northern cast and crew on location in the NWT.

The mentorship is an important opportunity to “even the playing field” for women in the film industry by giving them crucial experience, she said.

“In order to get the experience to turn it into a career where you’re self sustaining, you need to have that professional skill set and the way you have professional skills is by having those opportunities to create,” said Walden.

Through the mentorship, Walden will have personalized coaching sessions with Sepia Films producer and creative partner, Tina Pehme.
Gathering experience exposure and working with seasoned professionals can take a filmmaker to the next level, she said.

Pehme has worked extensively on Canadian and International co-productions in India, the U.K., China, South Africa, Ireland, Spain and Argentina.

Walden’s film Elijah and the Rock Creature first premiered at the Yellowknife International Film Festival in September. The film was shot in Yellowknife and Wood Buffalo National Park with a Northern cast and crew.

The story follows a boy and his mother visiting the dark sky preserve, when Elijah gets lost and a creature in a similar circumstance helps him find his way home.

Women in Film and Television Vancouver (WIFTV) teamed up with the Whistler Film Festival for the seventh year to support women’s equal participation in production and distribution of film and television.

“It’s an amazing opportunity to continue to meet professionals in the business,” she said.

With Pehme as her direct mentor, Walden will be looking at her film Elijah and the Rock Creature and learning more about packaging and pitching a finished project to sales agents.

Walden also has a new project and script in the works, which she plans to film in the NWT.

“I’m really hoping it will be a co-production and I’m really excited to be partnered with someone who works internationally,” she said.

“I’d love to do a coproduction where I could be working here in the NWT and potentially teaming up with people in different parts of the world,” said Walden.

WIFTV recognized Walden for her “aesthetic detail and captivating storylines,” and a “distinctive style explores Canadian and Northern life through people, wildlife and topography,” the release says.

Walden produced three award-winning short films, including Painted Girl, which found success as a CBC Short Film Face Off finalist.
Elijah and the Rock Creature will screen at the 2018 Whistler film Festival.