Videos, Digital Mapping and More
Instructor Jeana McCabe, centre, helps with an interview in our SilverShorts project.
There’s no question, everyone has a great story — or many great stories — to tell. At Back Lane Studios, we want to encourage those of us of a certain age to record those stories on video and in other formats.
We have already collected many of them, which you can view in the video section of this website and on our YouTube channel. (The YouTube postings are in SilverShorts and SilverBullets playlists.) The topics are wide ranging: Greg talked about his life-long spiritual quest; Lois, 94, recalls the details of growing up in Toronto’s Junction neighbourhood; Colin delved into newspaper clippings and photographs to reconstruct the story of the extraordinary 1908 Olympic Marathon, in which his grandfather took silver; Gil talks about how he managed to achieve his goal of becoming a commercial pilot while raising his young son; and two German sisters recount how famous retailer Sam the Record Man generously helped them out after they came to Toronto in the 1950s. We have managed to put more than 40 stories on video and more are already in the works.
With new funding from Ottawa’s New Horizons for Seniors Program (NHSP), we have launched a new project Mapping our Memories to pin some of these memories to a digital map of Toronto. This new project was inspired by one of our SilverShorts Docs and its popularity — Lois Broad’s Growing Up in the Junction.
With this project, we will be incorporating information by many of the videos we’ve done. But we will be branching out in how we record these stories — whether in writing, audio or video. We also hope that participants in our September free portrait photography workshop will be interested in collecting stories to put with their photos.
We would like to thank the Government of Canada’s New Horizons for Seniors Program for helping us create these videos. The funding has allowed us to continue to expand our SilverShorts Doc Project, launched in 2017. We would also like to thank the Ontario Seniors’ Community Grant program for funding support.
Are you interested?
Would you like to tell a story on video or learn more about making videos? Please email us at info@backlanestudios.ca or call 647-313-1654.
We need volunteers!
Are you a filmmaker who might be interested in helping us out on this project? Are you a “senior” 55+ interested in taking part in our video-making sessions. Please email us at info@backlanestudios.ca or call 647-313-1654. We look forward to hearing from you! We will be posting the starting dates shortly.
Neighbours’ Stories on the Big Screen
Two of our SilverShorts Stars were interviewed on CBC Radio’s Fresh Air!
A big crowd turned up earlier in the year at the Revue on Sunday, March 3, 2019 at 11 a.m., to enjoy the big-screen debut of our most recent SilverShorts documentaries from our video-making workshops for seniors.
Some people attended the event after hearing two of our screen stars, Lois Broad and Bill Jermyn, on the radio. Nana Aba Duncan of CBC’s Fresh Air interview with them aired Sunday morning, March 3. Both Lois and Bill discussed their videos and what they got out of the workshops. Listen to the program here!
Production of these docs was supported by an Ontario Seniors Community Grant.
Watch earlier SilverShorts on the Our Videos section of
Seniors tell their stories!
With new funding from Ottawa’s New Horizons for Seniors Program (NHSP), we are continuing to offer free video-making workshops for seniors, 55-plus, providing an opportunity for them to explore video as a way to share their personal and family stories. The experience can be both rewarding and cathartic. We also find the process of working together to record these stories is helping to build a sense of community among our participants.
Over the long term, our goal is to build a team of volunteer senior videographers who can continue reaching out to more seniors and documenting their stories. There are so many to tell; so much work to do!
We would like to thank both the Government of Canada’s New Horizons for Seniors Program and the Ontario Government’s Seniors Community Grant program for helping us create these videos. The funding has allowed us to continue to expand our SilverShorts Doc Project, launched in 2017.
Are you interested?
Would you like to tell a story on video or learn more about making videos? Please email us at info@backlanestudios.ca or call 647-313-1654.
We need volunteers!
Are you a filmmaker who might be interested in helping us out on this project? Are you a “senior” 55+ interested in taking part in our video-making sessions. Please email us at info@backlanestudios.ca or call 647-313-1654. We look forward to hearing from you! We will be posting the starting dates shortly.
Stars on Screen — and in the Audience!
As part of our SilverShorts Doc Project, we hold public screenings of the videos at the Revue Cinema, as well as at our studio.
In the photo, Josephine Orsini, seated in the Revue lobby, was interviewed by her daughter Elaine for a SilverShorts Doc Project profile about Josephine’s husband and Elaine’s father Basil Orsini.The documentary was screened along with a dozen others at a celebratory event last June, 2018. Another series of videos were screened in March, 2019. Stay tuned for more!
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