While the Yorkton Film Festival has maintained its roots in Saskatchewan, 2020 offered a chance to grow them deeper: It鈥檚 the first year the hefty, bronze Golden Sheaf trophies were produced in the province, 30 kilometres down the road from Regina, in Pense.
Nephew of the late visual artist Joe Fafard, Phillip Tremblay cast the trophies, which range in weight from 2.5 to nearly seven pounds, at Pense鈥檚 Julienne Atelier Inc. Foundry. Fafard, well known for his metal sculptures, opened the foundry in 1985.
鈥淚t means a lot 鈥� It was pretty nice to hear we鈥檙e only two hours away and we could do their job just like that for them,鈥� Tremblay said.
Created in 1958, the Golden Sheaf Awards had first been produced at a Winnipeg-based foundry, the idea originating with a Winnipeg Free Press film critic attending the award show.
鈥淚t鈥檚 funny, because we always seem to sell ourselves short in Saskatchewan, thinking 鈥榳ell, there鈥檚 no one else that can do that, we鈥檇 have to go look abroad,鈥欌�� Tremblay, who manages the foundry, said.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 why Joe sort of did make this foundry, because he would have had to go somewhere quite far to be able to get his work cast 鈥� That鈥檚 what鈥檚 kind of neat about where we are; when we鈥檙e isolated in a way that we鈥檙e just able to do it here.鈥�
Prior to 2020, the trophies were produced by a bronze company in Pittsburgh, Penn., which outsourced the labour to Mexico.
When Tremblay first got the call in late 2019 from the festival鈥檚 organizers, he felt honoured. 鈥淚 grew up not too far out of Yorkton, and I remember (the film festival) being a big thing.鈥�
After recasting a new mould to model the trophies, Tremblay and the foundry team used it to create ceramic shells. The shells held the scalding-hot bronze that formed the wheat sheafs.
鈥�2,050 degrees fahrenheit,鈥� he said of the molten metal鈥檚 temperature.
Once hardened, with the ceramic shells chipped away, the sheafs were dipped into a patina-coloured liquid to give them a golden finish.
鈥淚 have a two-year contract to keep casting these for them,鈥� Tremblay said.
Another change for this year's festival, albeit unexpected, was the need to ship the Golden Sheafs by mail to this year鈥檚 winners.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, festival organizers had to host a virtual awards gala on June 18 with help from local telecom Access Communications. Award nominees participated by tuning in online to see if they won their respective categories.
Daniel Stark, based in Prince George, B.C., won the Best of Fest and the Best Documentary History & Biography awards for his short film Mr. Berry.
It鈥檚 about an elderly Indo-Canadian, who derives his life鈥檚 meaning from teaching young people the ins and the outs of mathematics, whether calculus, algebra or basic multiplication.
鈥淚 was completely floored by the fact that we were winning awards this year,鈥� Stark said of himself, producer Jason Hamborg and his 6ix Sigma production company. 鈥淭here was still a long way to grow to be able to have the same recognition as the films I watched the year before, but it was an incredible surprise.鈥�
He received his Golden Sheafs after they were shipped out of Yorkton on July 23.
鈥淚 was very excited to have this bundle of wheat in my hands, just because it's such an interesting-looking award. As soon as I got it, I needed to go and take this to Mr. Berry.鈥�
Stark said his film鈥檚 humble subject, Mr. Berry, accepted them with a condition.
鈥淗e is the least trophy-driven human being. He couldn't care less about awards. (But) he's happy to put (them) on his mantel and say, 鈥榣ook at what my new friend has won,鈥� and then he's happy to talk about the documentary. He's happy to talk about his story, but it has to be him bragging on somebody else's behalf.鈥�
Stark says he鈥檚 proud a film crew from a smaller, out-of-the way community can earn such recognition.
鈥淏eing from Prince George, you do sometimes feel if you're not in Vancouver, you're not going to be taken seriously.
鈥淭hen you find out that there's this very serious film festival in a place like Yorkton, and they're more than happy to watch films by people in small towns and give them the same respect that Yorkton feels like they deserve. You connect with that and realize there's amazing things happening everywhere,鈥� he said.
