Occasionally eccentric and always thought-provoking, Microcinema showcases new experimental films while sharing stories, ideas, and connections about Canadian identity and is one of the only permanent exhibition spaces for film and media in Western Canada. See film, video art, animations, and short documentaries, on three media monitors throughout Arts Commons. Through a curatorial selection process, Microcinema programs up to 24 local and national media artists annually in exciting micro-cinema exhibitions running three months in duration.
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Arts Commons invites media artists to submit their short films, animations, video art, media art, and short documentaries. Visit our Artist Opportunities page for more information.
Shooting in -27
Melanee Murray-Hunt
The Invisible Jason Garvey, inspired by the life and 2012 death of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, is a drama that combines a vision of a dystopian society dominated by surveillance drones and a traumatized population trying to find some emotional solace in a world gone crazy. It features an all-Alberta cast and crew and received its world premier at The Root Film Festival in Seattle and it's New York premier at the Kwanzaa Film Festival.
The Invisible Jason Garvey was shot in Calgary in November, 2021, during the heart of the pandemic, including one memorable day when cast-and-crew braved a windchill of -27 to shoot scenes behind Pages Books in Kensington. The film was co-produced by Paul Day, whose experience producing documentary films for Pyramid Productions proved invaluable during that unforgettable snow day.
"The project was something Melanee had been working on for years, yet it still felt incredibly pertinent to everything going on during filming—police brutality, lockdowns, technology,” said co-producer Paul Day of Night School Films. “The themes in her writing continue to resonate more deeply as time passes.”
The Invisible Jason Garvey was the fifth short film by Murray-Hunt, part of a body of work that includes the award-winning Race Anonymous, a dramedy about our contemporary addiction to race. The film won Best Drama at the Edmonton Short Film Festival.
Murray-Hunt’s films blend comedy with romance and social commentary to create a film conversation about race and contemporary society that are a blend of the films of Nicole Holefcenser, Spike Lee, Issa Rae, Sidney Pollack, Jenny Lumet and Ridley Scott.
In her debut, Da Hoodwink, an adaptation of her award-winning solo show The Hoodwink, Murray-Hunt wrote, directed and starred in a short about Albie Davis, a Black single mom and down-on-her-luck neo-soul singer who transforms into teenage gang banger named 10 Cent in order to get cast on a reality show in search of the next great gangster rapper.
In her most recent project, Finding Mother, Murray-Hunt goes home to Baltimore, where she grew up and attended the Baltimore School for the Arts. She retraces the footsteps of her family roots, which trace back to Haiti, Louisiana and Maryland.
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