Five School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design (AMPD) students will be working on-set with Fae Pictures’ newest feature film, Queen Tut, at the York University Motion Media Studio at Cinespace Studio.
The news comes after the studio’s Framing Agnes, directed by Chase Joynt (MA ’11, PhD ’16), took home multiple awards in the 2021-22 season, including Sundance Film Festival’s NEXT Innovator Award.
Queen Tut is a queer immigration tale directed by Egyptian-Canadian Reem Morsi. It is based on the script by Abdul Malik, Kaveh Mohebbi, and Bryan Mark, starring actress Alexandra Billings, who will also produce the feature.
AMPD undergraduate third-year dance student Grace Sokolow, fourth-year film production student Alise Rosemin, fifth-year film production student Emily Jong, second-year theatre student Natasha Advani Thangkhiew and first-year film production student Anmol Dhillon were selected from a highly competitive pool of candidates.
Each student will get an immersive experience creating in a professional setting with industry giants. On set, Sokolow, Rosemin and Dhillon will work respectively in the costume, script and camera departments.
“I’m excited to experience being on a real set for the first time and the ins and outs of being on a camera crew,” said Dhillon. “From this experience, I hope to understand how a feature film is produced and maybe produce my film one day.”
Behind the scenes, Advani Thangkhiew and Jong will support the production and post-production offices.
“I’m super excited to go on set and learn more about sound, DIT and picture editing, and be part of the team,” said Jong.
Based in Los Angeles and Toronto, Fae Pictures is an award-winning media production company on a mission to decolonize Hollywood by creating cinematic content for, by, and about queer, trans, and BIPOC people. The placements offer students a chance to learn about their specific areas of interest and a rare opportunity to participate in industry activism and equity trailblazing early in their careers.
“I am looking forward and grateful to be learning from people who share similar values of diversity and decolonization in the storytelling process and to witness how they lead by example,” says Advani Thangkhiew.
In Queen Tut, an Egyptian teenager leaves his home in Cairo upon losing his mother to live with his estranged father in Toronto. Parachuted into the underground queer nightlife in Toronto, he confronts his mother’s death, much to his father’s disapproval, by taking up the ways of drag and becoming Queen Tut.
Produced and financed by Fae Pictures in association with Crave and Toronto’s Hawkeye Pictures, with the participation of Telefilm Canada and Ontario Creates in partnership with the York University Motion Media Studio at Cinespace Studios.
Filming is underway in the studio at the York University Motion Media Studio at Cinespace Studio and on location at Nathan Phillips Square, The Village community on Church Street, the Danforth, East Chinatown and York University Motion Media Studio at Cinespace Studios and will continue until Sept. 2.
Read more on AMPD’s website.