This is our future? — animator Cam Christiansen is off to TIFF with Chris Demeanor’s tale of young ruffians on snazzy bikes

In January, Calgary wasn’t ready for Cam Christensen’s take on the future. Now that his animated short, I Have Seen the Future, is the only Albertan entry out of 43 films in the Toronto International Film Festival’s Canada Short Cuts series, local audiences should sit up and take notice.
    “We screened it in Calgary at the High Performance Rodeo through One Yellow Rabbit in January, and it was a cold, miserable night,” Christensen recalls. “I think everyone was depressed, it was dark. I was there and nobody laughed at all, and I was just sitting there thinking, ‘Oh my God, we’ve made a really bad short.’ So I was kind of like, ‘Oh well, I guess that was a great adventure. Who knows, maybe it’ll just sit on the shelf somewhere. No one will ever watch it.’”
    Bravo!FACT (Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent), which funded Christensen based on his pitch to animate local musician Kris Demeanor’s song “I Have Seen the Future,” wouldn’t give up on the short. The tongue-in-cheek commentary was inspired by Demeanor’s own experience on a tennis court in southwest Calgary. When three kids bike up to the chain-link fence to taunt and tease Demeanor and his father, Demeanor immediately berates “the kids these days,” only to recall the similar taunting and terrorizing he participated in during his own youth. Recognizing this universal tale of simultaneous exasperation and nostalgia, Bravo!FACT set up screenings and press releases, and Christensen credits the organization with pushing the short into the festival circuit. I Have Seen the Future’s acceptance into TIFF led to screenings in other festivals, including the Seoul National Film Festival in Korea and the Palm Springs International Film Festival in California.
    Still surprised at the burgeoning interest in his first cinematic foray, Christensen is wary of calling himself a full-time filmmaker. A graduate of the Alberta College of Art and Design, Christensen strikes a balance between work and play at the local advertising firm Anlanda. As one of its two-and-a-half staff, he only takes on projects that challenge him professionally as well as creatively. It wasn’t until he heard Demeanor perform the song “I Have Seen the Future” at the Wildwood Bar and Grill that Christensen found the inspiration he needed for a purely artistic piece. Demeanor, having previously collaborated with Christensen, had no qualms about offering his words and music up to the animator’s creative devices. When Demeanor played the closing of the Betty Mitchell Theatre in the Jubilee Auditorium, Christensen filmed live footage of the band’s set, colourized and formatted it, and sent it back to Demeanor as a gift. In the fall of 2006, Christensen created visual media for Theatre Junction’s Show 1: Archaeology, and he’s designed other pieces on the side of his corporate projects for Calgary artists such as Demeanor and Peter Moller.
    Advertisers need grants, too. With only two full-timers and one sub-contractor, Christensen describes Anlanda as a “boutique” that couldn’t have dedicated the time to create the film without Bravo!FACT’s support. Ironically, it was his day job that landed him the financial backing for this purely creative endeavour. The Banff Centre’s New Media Institute invited Christensen to attend its Interactive Screen, a meeting of investors and producers with artists and cultural researchers. There, Christensen pitched the animation of Demeanor’s song, and Bravo!FACT awarded him $20,000.
    The success of I Have Seen the Future led to Christensen’s subsequent invitation to Interactive Screen this year, where he pitched a new project called I Wanna Be Evil, and Bravo!FACT awarded him another grant. Even with his continued success, Christensen doubts he can make the same living as a filmmaker that he can as an advertising animator, so he’ll continue to alternate between art and commerce in the future.
    “It’d be great to be a full-time filmmaker. I’d love to see that happen, but I can’t imagine ever…” he pauses. “Well, I should never say never, but I can’t imagine it happening soon. It’s a process, you know. I’m sure I’ll continue to do commercial projects and then do artistic projects on the side, and who knows, maybe I’ll luck out and be able to do it full time.”