enRoute Air Canada Short Film Festival 2013 Awards night.

If you fly Air Canada you are familiar with the enRoute magazine and inflight entertainment but did you know Air Canada holds an enRoute annual short film competition for Canadian filmmakers. The enRoute Air Canada Short Film Festival now in its 7th year is growing rapidly in popularity. Something very special happened to me at this year’s event.

It was my first time attending the enRoute Air Canada Film Festival, and what an evening it was. Luckily I showed up 30 minutes early and managed to get a seat at the sold-out, free public screening event at Toronto Varsity Cinemas on Bloor St West. The screening was a selection of some of the best short films submitted to the festival, followed by an awards ceremony and after party at Panorama on the 52st floor.

Michael Kennedy and Éric Lauzon present Best Short Film Award to filmmakers Andrew Moir and Miriam Levin-Gold for their Documentary 'Just As I Remember'.

As I was eating my popcorn, I noticed a mother and her three young children entering the cinema. Her face seemed familiar. I wondered “who would bring 3 young children to a 7:00 pm enRoute screening?” The theatre’s light were turned off and the shorts start rolling one after the other until Andrew Moir’s Just As I Remember began. There on screen, was the familiar face of the mother and three children I had noticed in the theatre. I thought to myself, I know her, I know her, and suddenly it clicked: “Deecla”, a co-worker from my previous employer, we used to lunch together. I smile at the discovery but my feelings are quickly realigned by the sombre content of the documentary.

Eileen Peng reciepient of the award for achievement in animation for her short, Godfather Death

Deecla’s husband Brad Katz is the topic of the short documentary ‘Just As I Remember’, examining how Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, affected his life. I did not know Brad but my emotions ran high as I realised that Brad is no longer with us. There were mixed feeling as I connected with Deecla after the screening at the award ceremony. We embrace and chat for a while. She predicts, “we are getting an Award tonight” and, indeed, Andrew Moir’s Just As I Remember won “Best Short Film” with a prize of $5000 & an all-inclusive trip for two to the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.

Winners of the 7th annual Air Canada enRoute Film Festival:

Andrew Moir for Just As I Remember (best short film),

Sophie Jarvis for The Worst Day Ever (achievement in direction),

Roman Tchjen and Vaishni Majoomdar for Walk the Moon (achievement in cinematography)

Eileen Peng for Godfather Death (achievement in animation).

@AirCanada @enroutemag #justasIremember #theworstdayever #walkthemoon #godfatherdeath

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Christophe Chanel