CineVic, Victoria’s media arts centre, has just announced its DYNAMO program that will fund new locally-produced films with grants of up to $2,500 in cash and $5,000 in equipment rentals.

One of the goals is to increase equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility (EDIA) in local independent film productions. An EDIA commitment to engage, collaborate with, and hire a diverse cast, crew, and community partners from underrepresented communities represents up to 20% of the assessment criteria.

“DYNAMO will support artists and filmmakers currently residing on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands, at all levels of skill and experience from beginner to established. The program aims to foster collaborative partnerships with individuals from underrepresented communities and equity-seeking groups, including but not limited to those who self-identify as Indigenous, First Nation, Metis, Inuit, Black and persons of colour, LGBTQ2+, persons with a disability, low income, or unemployed.”

I asked Arnold Lim for his feedback:

Q: Given your background, can you comment on the DYNAMO goal of increasing equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility in local independent film productions?

A: “The filmmakers of Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands are among the most caring and hard-working people I know — and as a Korean-Canadian filmmaker I’ve felt like I have been treated well by the film community here. Having said that, funding has always been challenging for me. Even though I have been making narrative films since 2011, the very first film featuring a Korean-Canadian on screen that I have been able to get funding for will be released later this year. I couldn’t get anything else funded before and only now do I feel like I could try to fund films that I’ve written and come from my perspective. As a minority filmmaker I see DYNAMO as an opportunity for equity and an opportunity for amazing artistic relationships to be formed.”

Q: As a long-time CineVic member and award-winning filmmaker working with budgets from $20 to $200,000, in your opinion can folks actually make a decent film for $2,500?

A: “It’s absolutely possible to make a great film for $2,500! I have seen films that make my heart explode that had no budgets at all and there are countless Hollywood films with multi-million dollar budgets that I couldn’t watch for longer than five minutes. As clichéd as it sounds, at the end of the day it really comes down to imagination, perspective and execution. I have said this before and I will say it again, Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands hit way above their weight class in terms of the number of amazing artists we have here and I am really pumped to see what projects grow from this great opportunity.”

The first deadline is October 31, 2022.

My take: I’m also looking forward to a crop of fascinating films from this worthy program. Let me know if you want to bounce ideas around.