New Filmmaker Jacob Stefiuk Aims to Follow Telluride Alum Barry Jenkins

Jacob Stefiuk from Montreal had a transformative experience as part of the 2023 Telluride Film Festival student symposium intake, the same program that helped shape the talents of Barry Jenkins 20 years ago.

Telluride, Colorado, with its picturesque peaks, parks, waterfalls, and river walks, provided Stefiuk with a serene environment to write the most personal section of his first film, a 22-minute short titled “The Clearing.” “It was the first film that didn’t involve school,” says Stefiuk, who studied film production at Concordia University in Montreal.

During last year’s Telluride, Stefiuk found peace and inspiration while sitting by the lake in Telluride’s Town Park. His mind weighed heavy with thoughts of his ill grandmother, compelling him to pen poetic monologues. These thoughts coalesced into the opening line of his film: “The people we love, the things we care about, they’re never far away from us.”

Upon returning to Canada, Stefiuk completed his screenplay, which revolves around an estranged stepson summoned home by his stepfather due to the illness of their shared maternal figure. He then assembled a small, versatile crew, mostly comprising friends and colleagues from his university days. Financial constraints necessitated this makeshift approach, with crew members often doubling up on roles.

Stefiuk financed the project in part through personal savings accumulated from jobs like bike repairs, a hobby he enjoyed. He estimated the pre-production and production costs at around CAD 7,000, with another CAD 2,000 for post-production, generously provided by a Montreal arts foundation.

The film was a non-union production due to budgetary reasons, with cast and crew compensated modestly at CAD 500 each. Despite the low pay, the spirit of camaraderie and mutual support among recent graduates drove the project.

For casting, Stefiuk found his main actors through various unconventional means. Ingunn Omholt, cast as the mother figure Elaine, responded to a Facebook casting notice and was hired after a coffee meeting. Frédéric Lavallée, an actor known in the Quebec short-film scene, played the stepson, Aaron. John, the father figure, was portrayed by Bob Eichenberger, an environmentalist with no prior acting experience but discovered by Stefiuk in a chance encounter during an outdoor shoot.

Although “The Clearing” did not make it into this year’s Telluride lineup, Stefiuk plans to submit it to short-film festivals across North America and Europe.

Looking ahead, Stefiuk is already formulating his first feature film, inspired by his great-grandfather’s immigration journey from Ukraine to Canada in the 1930s. His great-grandfather worked on an Alberta farm for 20 years before moving to British Columbia to raise a family. The narrative touches on the loss of Ukrainian cultural heritage among immigrants, symbolized by abandoned Ukrainian Orthodox churches.

Stefiuk seeks funding from cultural organizations in Canada to support the research and pre-production of this deeply personal project, aspiring to premiere it at Telluride one day. The journey is reminiscent of Barry Jenkins’ odyssey with “Moonlight,” which won the Best Picture Oscar after its Telluride debut in 2016.

Source: Deadline