BiTS Deadly Exposure

HELPING ADVANCE DIVERSITY IN GENRE

Blood in the Snow Film Festival was created to push the envelope with Canadian genre film, specifically, and has dedicated the last ten years promoting our independent genre cinema. This niche film festival also strives to be the leader in supporting diversity in genre films. We have showcased films representing diverse folklore and culture, including Indigenous and French-language films and actors with disabilities. It’s our goal to represent as many communities as possible in the already underrepresented genre film arena. The programming team makes a concerted effort to select based on content, representation, and quality of films so that our diverse audiences feel represented.

Blood in the Snow has also made diversity a priority by hosting panels with esteemed guests from the Black, Asian, Indigenous, and Latinx communities during the Deadly Exposure Industry Market, a well-received and sought-after industry event connecting filmmakers to industry professionals and opportunities to promote their work. They have become areas where frank discussions with filmmakers and industry insiders take place to incite change. Topics at past panels included: “Kickass Women in Canadian Horror,” “Diversity in Genre Film,” and “Undoing Tropes with Cultural Sensitivity.” These discussions are essential to expanding Canadian filmmakers’ views to become more inclusive with their stories and casting and encourage those who may not have felt there was a space for them.

We have also partnered with other festivals in the community to boost the visibility of diverse genre films to different audiences. Recent collaborations include partnering with the Toronto Black Film Festival to present the South African horror The Tokoloshe and the ImagiNATIVE Film Festival midnight horror shorts program, which we have co-presented for several years.

As much as we advocate for diverse genre films in Canada, there is always a need for more representation within the Canadian genre film spectrum. As a part of the 2021 Deadly Exposure Industry Market, Blood in the Snow will start a new initiative by creating a development lab to boost BIPOC, LGTBQ+, women and other underrepresented creators in genre film across Canada. With this program, the festival will facilitate the advancement of filmmakers from these communities in the filmmaking process to ensure their projects are taken from script to screen with the help of industry professionals.

BITS HORROR DEVELOPMENT LAB

The BITS Horror Lab is designed to be a development program focused on facilitating business and production opportunities for genre (horror, sci-fi, action, thriller) scripted projects and shorts films by traditionally underrepresented BIPOC, women, and LGBTQ+ Canadian filmmakers and content creators. This project will support up to 12 to 15 projects with short-form film concepts or web series in development into a feature film or digital web/TV series project.

This program is less aimed at mentorship and more about access to business development. Accepted participants will meet with top industry professionals during the Blood in the Snow Film Festival from November 18 to 23, 2021. Participants and industry professionals will follow up on projects and initiatives in early 2022. Horror Lab participants will have scheduled workshops with established industry professionals focusing on the development of their projects. All participants will also have access to the Deadly Exposure Industry Market during the last four days of the festival. The cost to apply is FREE.

The Horror Lab participants will receive the following:

Filmmakers will receive advice and feedback from established directors, producers, and broadcasters.

Industry leads and will challenge the participants to push their vision through to the very end by identifying and navigating through any development obstacles and changes.

A curated itinerary including a focus on marketing and distribution, scheduled market meetings with attending industry advisors and leads, and short film screenings and pitch feedback.

Each participant receives a minimum of three scheduled post-festival industry advisor sessions from January to March 2022 with a program “Industry Leader.”

Participants will leave with advice on how to revise their package and move forward with it.

Participants will leave with important film business insights and connections.

Industry/peer networking opportunities.

Participants will receive a free Industry pass to attend the 2021 Blood in the Snow Film Festival + Deadly Exposure.

Who can apply?

Black

Indigenous, Metis or Inuit

Person of Colour

LGBTQ2IA+*(Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Two-Spirit, Intersex, Asexual, and other identities that fall outside of cisgender and heterosexual paradigms.)

Women*

Disabled*

* For all applicants, priority acceptance will be given to projects with BIPOC representation in front and behind the camera.

The lead Lab particpant also must:
Must be a Canadian citizen

Must plan to shoot their film project primarily in Canada

Must have completed at least one polished, completed short film (3 to 30 minutes in length)

Must feel that they are ready to make a feature film (or multi-episode web series)

This is a HORROR development lab, so the film needs to be some type of “genre” project that is horror, sci-fi, action or thriller

What do you need in your application?

At least one previous completed short film that is either its own project or short done as proof of concept.

A brief online application (available at deadlyexposure.ca)

A 3-page proposal for a feature film (that we will provide to you fill out)

Other important details:

The attendee can be the Producer/Director and/or primary writer of the project and have the full rights to the proposed project.

All rights remain with the filmmaker, and BITS has no proprietary interest in any of the projects.

Application details and information are available at deadlyexposure.ca.

Although the mentor lab will be in English, Francophone, Indigenous language, and other language projects are welcome and encouraged.

Applicants must be able to commit to attending the program online in October 2021, as scheduled from November 18 to 23 and January to March 2022, for a minimum of three online meetings.

Applicants must be Canadian citizens and reside in Canada.
Applicants must demonstrate ownership of or option on all underlying rights (if any) to your film project.

Up to two people per project will be allowed to attend the program (budget permitting).

You DO NOT need to be alumni of the Blood in the Snow Film Festival to be a part of the program.

KEY DATES

SCHEDULE

Accessibility at Blood in the Snow + Deadly Exposure

We will be doing everything we can to be as fully accessible and meet everyone’s needs to be inclusive as possible. We have hired an Accessibility Advisor as a consultant for the festival this year (who will also be helping on selection jury). If selected to the program we will be asking what needs you might have in the acceptance form and we’ll do our best to accommodate. Our full accessibility strategy document will be available on our website later this year.

Possible changes due to COVID-19

As we write this (in April 2021), we are still in the middle of the Pandemic but we are optimistic that this will be behind us by November 2021. However, if it is deemed still unsafe to have events in person then we will move the festival and Deadly Exposure online again this year and have the horror development lab done virtually. We expect to have a better idea of the situation before final acceptances are sent out for this program.

Schedule of Horror Development Lab

Subject to change. Full schedule will be announced later this year.

Items with an *are open to regular Deadly Exposure pass holders but will include Horror Development Lab participants. Screenings are scheduled to take place each night and will be announced at later date.

Wednesday, Nov 17

Flight arrivals / Horror Development Lab welcome cocktail (evening)

Thursday, Nov 18

Horror Development Lab Day 1 (all day)
10 am to 6 pm

Friday, Nov 19

Horror Development Lab Day 2 (all day)
10 am to 6 pm

Saturday, Nov 20

10 am to 11:45 am - Horror Development Lab discussion with a special guest
* 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm - Industry Panel #1
* 3 pm to 4 pm - Industry Panel #2

Sunday, Nov 21

10 am to 11:45 am - Horror Development Lab discussion with a special guest
* 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm - Industry Panel #3
* 3 pm to 4 pm - Industry Panel #4

Monday, Nov 22

10 am to 12 pm - scheduled one-on-one meetings (Development Lab participants)
* 2 pm to 5 pm - Power round table #1
* 5 pm to 6:30 pm - Industry Cocktail

Tuesday, Nov 23

10 am to 12 pm - scheduled one-on-one meetings (Development Lab participants)
* 2 pm to 5 pm - Power round table #2
* 5 pm to 6:30 pm - Industry Cocktail

Wednesday, Nov 24

Return home

OUR SPONSORS

HORROR DEVELOPMENT LAB TEAM

Kelly Michael Stewart, Festival Director and Founder

Kelly Michael Stewart (he/him) began his career as a contributing film writer to Fangoria Magazine and has more than 250 reviews, interviews and articles published online and in print for various websites and publications. As a filmmaker, he wrote and produced the short film “One More For the Road” and co-wrote and produced the horror anthology feature film “Late Night Double Feature”. Kelly founded both Blood in the Snow Film Festival in 2012 and the Deadly Exposure Industry Conference in 2018.

Carolyn Mauricette, Development Coordinator and Programmer

Carolyn Mauricette (she/her) is a Toronto-based film writer and programmer for the Blood in the Snow Film Festival. She has written pieces on diversity, women in sci-fi, and film reviews for Graveyard Shift Sisters and Cinema Axis; both online and print editions of Rue Morgue Magazine and Grim Magazine, and is a Rotten Tomatoes approved critic.

Mariam Bastani, Development Advisor

Mariam Bastani (she/her) is a writer/producer based in Toronto. She is the operations coordinator of Rue Morgue Magazine and co-founder of QTIBIPOC focused multimedia horror creators Audre's Revenge Film. Mariam has curated Canadian, US and International horror screenings and was the Editor-in-Chief of Maximum Rocknroll Magazine. She has been on a number of academic speaking tours regarding PoC in punk culture and several Women in Horror panels.

Alison Lang, Development Advisor

Alison Lang is a writer/editor based in Toronto. She has written for Rue Morgue, ByNWR.com and Art of the Title, among others. Her book Women with Guts, a collection of essays and interviews with women working in horror, is available via the Rue Morgue Library and she has also contributed to Satanic Panic: Pop Culture Paranoia in the 1980s (Spectacular Optical) with a chapter on Geraldo Rivera's Devil Worship special. She has presented on topics related to horror and gender for the Ax Wound Film Festival (Vermont), Final Girls Film Festival (Berlin) and the DePaul University Pop Culture Conference (Chicago).

HORROR DEVELOPMENT LAB - JURY MEMBERS

Ophira Calof

Ophira Calof (she/they) is an award winning Disabled artist with credits including Generally Hospital and Literally Titanium. Ophira also works as a curator, educator, and consultant with projects including COVID-19 through a Disability Lens: Storytelling and Filmmaking Project, and Making Space: Stories of Disabled Youth in the GTA.

Thirza Jean Cuthand

Thirza Jean Cuthand (she/her)(b. 1978 Regina SK) makes short videos and films about Indigiqueer issues. She completed her BFA at ECUAD in 2005, and her MA at Ryerson University in 2015. She is Plains Cree/Scots, and a member of Little Pine First Nation.

Katherine Connell

Katherine Connell (Katie) is a critic, programmer, and educator. She is a staff writer for the London-based feminist film journal Another Gaze and her writing has appeared in various publications including Bitch Media, Canadian Art, Cinema Scope, Hyperallergic, MUBI Notebook, Reverse Shot, Tor.com, and POV Magazine. Katie has participated in film programming for both Pleasure Dome and Inside Out. She writes most frequently about queerness and spectatorship, literary adaptation, horror, and the subversive pleasures of fandom.

Alex Hall

Alex Hall is a writer based in Toronto, Ontario. She is the creator of, Lezzie Borden, an Instagram account that examines and archives depictions of queer women in horror. Her work specializes in the interplay of hauntings, queerness and theory. You can read her work in Room, Feels Zine, Gayly Dreadful, Anatomy of a Scream and Neon Horror. Most recently, she has contributed a chapter to a forthcoming book of essays on Queer Horror.

Petula Neale

In the beforetime, Petula hosted her podcast at In a TIFF http://inatiff.com/ about films and the Toronto International Film Festival.Now she is the co-host for Back Issue Bloodbath, a podcast about comic books. You can enjoy those alone at home. https://geekhardshow.com/category/podcasts/bib/

Victor Stiff

Victor Stiff is a Toronto-based film critic who has written for POV Magazine, The Playlist, Film School Rejects, Screen Rant, and the Canadian Academy and hosts and produces the YouTube series Dope Black Movies. Victor is the current news editor and senior critic at That Shelf, where he has covered TIFF, Sundance, Hot Docs and the Montreal Festival du nouveau cinéma. In 2020, Victor received the Toronto Film Critics Association’s Emerging Critic award.

NEWS

BITS Horror Development Lab Announced: Nov 18-23, 2021

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BITS Horror Development Lab Announced:
Nov 18-23, 2021

Blood in the Snow Film Festival announces new groundbreaking Canada-wide Horror Development Lab (April 26, 2021 - TORONTO) Blood in the Snow Film Festival (BITS) is proud to announce a new Horror Development Lab starting in November 2021. The program’s goal is to facilitate the production of projects by previously underrepresented filmmakers in Canada. Approximately 12-15 filmmakers and their projects will be selected Canada-wide to be coached by industry leaders from November 18 to 23, 2021 in Toronto*.
The Horror Development Lab will occur in Toronto during the BITS 2021 over six days in conjunction with their Deadly Exposure Industry Conference.
All applicants must be a Canadian citizen and identify as a woman, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, Metis or Inuit, Person of Colour) and/or LGBTQ2IA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Two-Spirit, Intersex, Asexual, and other identities that fall outside of cisgender and heterosexual paradigms) and/ or disabled. Projects must have BIPOC representation in front and behind the camera in their project proposals.
The Development Lab’s core team comprises of Development Coordinator/Programmer Carolyn Mauricette and Festival Director/Founder Kelly Michael Stewart, Lab Advisors Mariam Bast and Alison Lang, plus a diverse team of jury members.
Part of BITS’s mandate is to push boundaries and evolution in Canadian film, so the Development Lab was created to ensure this also applies to inclusivity. Since the festival was seeing an underrepresentation of submissions with BIPOC/LGBTQ2IA+ themes, cast and crew, it acted to implement an inroad for those groups within the genre film industry.
“With recent statistics showing how undervalued projects from Black and underrepresented groups still are, it’s our goal to create a space to put filmmakers who may not have a chance to create their vision in front of the people who can make things happen.” says Mauricette. “We plan to change the perspective of the industry bit by bit.” Stewart adds, “The Development Lab will help facilitate access to industry leaders, giving way to opportunities for underrepresented groups to produce horror and sci-fi content with their own unique perspectives and voices. With this input, they will hopefully have the chance to reach Canadian audiences with a finished feature film project.”
It is free to apply, and applications are open from April 15 to August 15, 2021. Details are available at www.deadlyexposure.ca or visit www.bloodinthesnow.ca.
The 2021 Blood in the Snow Film Festival will take place on Super Channel Oct 29 to 31 and in person from November 18 to 23, 2021 at the Royal Cinema in Toronto.
BITS 2021 is presented in partnership with Super Channel and with the support of Ontario Creates, Telefilm Canada, Independent Production Fund, IndieCan Entertainment, Raven Banner Entertainment, Marquee Insurance, Michael Jari Davidson Cinematography, Landed Entertainment, EDA and William F. White International Inc.

David Miller, Vortex Media

We are absolutely shocked and saddened by the sudden passing of David Miller. David was a titan of the Canadian film industry and a great colleague. He was a huge supporter of BITS over the years and we have played a film that he produced almost every year of the festival. David was a guest on our panels and was always a kind person to catch up with at networking events. He will be greatly missed.

Norman McGlashan joins BITS Programming Team!

We are thrilled to to welcome Norman McGlashan as a new Programmer joining the Blood in the Snow team for our upcoming 2021 season.

Film Submissions for BITS 2021 are OPEN!

The 2021 Blood in the Snow Film Festival will be a hybrid event broadcast on Super Channel October 29 to 31 and in person at the Royal Cinema in Toronto November 18 to 23, 2021. We are now taking Film Submissions for BITS 2021- Submit your short/fearture film, web series!

BITS 2021 Recruitment

Do you have what it takes to join the Blood in the Snow crew? We are always looking for a variety of different skills. We value hard work, dedication, reliability and passion over experience. We want to hear from you! Please fill out the following form to tell us a little more about yourself.

Apply

Jerri Thrasher joins BITS Programming Team!

We are thrilled to announce Jerri Thrasher has joined our programming team joining the Blood in the Snow team for our upcoming 2021 season.
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Jerri Thrasher joins BITS Programming Team!

Jerri is an award winning Inuvialuit film director and television producer from the Northwest Territories of Canada. Her work is often centred within the Inuvialuit Settlement Region preserving language and culture with the Inuvialuit Communications Society since 2014. Outside of television she has co-produced films internationally working various roles on-set. In 2015, she joined the Arctic Film Circle consisting of circumpolar Indigenous film directors, this collaboration was created by the International Sami Film Institute (ISFI). Currently, she is working with ISFI on a second circumpolar anthology, Arctic Chills.

Bloody BITS Volume 1 and 2

You can order both volumes of our BLOODY BITS DVDs, highlighting some of the best short films to play Blood in the Snow.

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BITS Radio

Check out the BITS Radio podcast hosted by Robert Belamy - Interviews with BITS Alumni film makers throughout the festival.

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