Calgary filmmaker Tank Standing Buffalo explores family trauma in SAVJ
A Calgary filmmaker is showcasing a highly personal animated film at the Calgary International Film Festival Sunday that features the voice of one of his Hollywood heroes.
SAVJ, a seven minute long animated film created by Tank Standing Buffalo, is being screened Sunday as part of Shorts: Alberta Spirit #1, then again Sept.30 at the Edmonton International Film Festival as part of Studio A: 5.0.
Standing Buffalo describes SAVJ as an autobiographical horror-fantasy that's a deeply personal project which builds on the success of his 2020 breakout film RKLSS.
What makes SAVJ a little more special for Standing Buffalo is the fact that his longtime movie hero Corey Feldman (Goonies, Stand By Me) voices Standing Buffalo's younger self in the film.
“It was such an honour he accepted voicing my character’s inner thoughts in SAVJ," Standing Buffalo said in a release.
"Corey Feldman was my favourite actor when I was a youth. I identified strongly with the non-conformist characters he played."
Corey Feldman voices the character of young Tank in the animated short SAVJ
"Stand By Me was a page ripped from my own life," he added. "Making SAVJ was a form of time travel. I was able to go back in time to heal my younger self, and say, 'Don’t give up, check it out, Corey Feldman voices you in a movie, and you’re going to be okay'.”
SAVJ follows Standing Buffalo and his seven siblings as they forage for survival in a forest, even as they sense an evil presence lurking in the unseen darkness.
Standing Buffalo wrote, directed and animated SAVJ during the pandemic. It features an eerie, haunting soundscape composed and performed by Cara Adu Darko and Brandon Smith that the duo recorded at the National Music Centre in Calgary.
It gives the animated short an unflinching look at the moment the family gets torn apart, when children's services split them up.
“The inspiration for SAVJ is my real life," Standing Buffalo said. "Events in the movie actually happened. That time we all lived in Rondeau Park (in southwestern Ontario) with no adults.
"It was the last time we were all together," he said. "We were completely free. (It was) the best time with my seven siblings, before children’s services split us up.
"I wound up in juvenile detention, a lot of terrible events took place, and I never lived with the family again."
Coming on the heels of the horrifying discoveries of human remains of residential school children across Canada over the past several years, Standing Buffalo's new film sounds ripped straight from the headlines.
"SAVJ speaks to deeper issues in Canadian culture and history," Standing Buffalo says. "There are more Indigenous kids in foster care than there ever were in the country’s shameful residential school system, just the latest version of the same colonial system stealing kids when assimilation won’t work.”
Standing Buffalo is a compulsive creator who paints, carves, tattoos and makes tiki mugs, props, puppets, movies and more.
Tank Standing Buffalo's next project MONSTR is part of an HBO Max program for animators
He's at work on his next project, the film MONSTR, which was chosen from over 1,000 applicants to be a part of the HBO Max X Warner Bros. Discovery Access Animated Shorts Program.
SAVJ screens Sunday at the Calgary International Film Festival and Sept.30 at the Edmonton International Film Festival
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
Stormy Daniels describes meeting Trump during occasionally graphic testimony in hush money trial
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
U.S. paused bomb shipment to Israel to signal concerns over Rafah invasion, official says
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Former homicide detective explains how police will investigate shooting outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
Northern Ont. woman makes 'eggstraordinary' find
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, who played spirited cheerleader Patty Simcox in 'Grease,' dead at 72
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Jeremy Skibicki has 'uphill battle' to prove he's not criminally responsible in Winnipeg killings: legal analysts
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
Bye-bye bag fee: Calgary repeals single-use bylaw
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Alcohol believed to be a factor in boating incident after 2 men die: N.S. RCMP
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.