A youth filmmaking initiative with international reach has its’ office in Mansons Hall, on Cortes Island.

In the second of a series of programs about Reel Youth, Mark Vonesch and Erica Køhn tell the story of how this initiative came into being. 

“I think I’m most drawn to the work because I see the impact.  Filmmaking and storytelling is a beautiful thing, but it is  really like providing a program  to young people and to communities that leaves them stronger and more resilient, no matter what career they take,” said Vonesh.

Køhn added, “Each film is so unique and has such a different flavour. There’s something immersive and deep and personal about the resulting films that draws us to doing them again and again, because they are so illuminating and the young people are so proud of what they do. 

Between 10% and 15% of youth that pass through their program pursue it as a career, but Vonesch said the skills they learn will be useful for whatever they do.

“If you can speak up about something you care about, and you can do it in a compelling way, you’re gonna be able to convince your dad to let you use this truck. You can convince your boss to give you a raise,” he said, by way of example.

Vonesch traced the origins of Reel Youth back to the day he spent $300 on a video camera. He found it in a pawn shop, in a dusty town in Saskatchewan. Vonesch was between semesters, planting trees to pay for his education. The treeplanting subculture was one of his first subjects and, after obtaining his business degree, made a little documentary about tree planting.

He also started volunteering with a youth arts empowerment organization called Power of Hope, which is what brought him to Cortes Island. He facilitated their summer camp at Linnaea Farm for a couple of years. That is where Vonesch started making films with young people.

“Then in 2003, I wrote a bunch of grants in Vancouver. I sort of over promised on them, said we do a lot with very little money. Got basically every grant I wrote and that was sort of the birth of Reel Youth,” he said. 

That was when Erica Køhn who was his girlfriend at that time, came into the picture. 

“I really encouraged him, if he wanted to do it, to make a commitment, not to tree plant and to do it as if his work depended on it,” she said.

The two have been working full time ever since them. 

Reel Youth started with 25 Claymation workshops in Vancouver, but moved to Cortes Island for the winter of 2003/04.

“We made a bunch of films, which I’ve just dug up here. I want to release these again. This is pretty funny stuff,” said Vonesch.

He describes those first videos as ‘blobs eating blobs,’ as the playdough gradually settled, yet they also showed that 12-year-olds care about the environment, social justice and the broader issues which are impacting the wider community. 

A lot of Cortesians who are now in their mid to late 30s worked on these projects.

“We did a video project with the Klahoose and just slowly started doing more stuff here and eventually moved here full time, bought land in 2008,” said Vonesch. 

Four of Reel Youth’s five staff members have a Cortes connection. 

“A lot of you will know Zoe Miles, who’s been with us for 11 or 12 years.  She lives in Vancouver right now, but she’s still a Cortesian. Her parents live here and she grew up here. Then Zane Burgess. We hired him from Montreal.  He’s been here for two years  and loves the island. Then Erica Køhn who’s been with us since the very beginning,” said Vonesch, who is the fourth staff member and lives on Cortes Island.  

“We’ve made  2,500 films since we started and we have a touring film festival that travels across Canada and have made it sort of my life, my livelihood. I just feel lucky to be able  to have an office here on Cortes and, and run it from here – but most of our work happens off Cortes.” 

They have worked in every province of Canada, as well as  Nepal, Morocco, India, and  Vietnam.

Top photo credit: Reel Youth film festival in Mansons Hall on March 5, 2012.

This broadcast was originally scheduled for December 6th, but delayed until December 7th due to a power blackout.

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