CHELLE TURINGAN
Director, Producer, Editor
Chelle Turingan is a Filipinx-Canadian filmmaker and video journalist based in Toronto, Ontario. They are a National Magazine Award-winning editor and cinematographer and their work has been featured in publications including Maclean’s, Chatelaine, Today’s Parent, and on Sportsnet. Small Town Pride is their first film.
I grew up as a closeted queer teenager in Scarborough in the mid-90s. The Toronto suburb wasn’t always the easiest place to navigate. But I was fortunate to live minutes away from downtown and Church Street’s Gay Village, with ready access to the LGBTQ2S+ community. I didn’t realize how much I took that for granted until I met my partner. She also grew up as a closeted queer teenager in the mid-90s, but in a small town nestled in the Ottawa Valley. This was before GSAs existed in high schools, and before the internet and social media made it easier for us to connect with each other. In 2018, her hometown of Smiths Falls celebrated its first annual Pride. The event moved my partner to tears. “I just never thought I’d ever see this day,” she says. That’s why Small Town Pride is special to me: it’s a love letter to all the queer and trans folks who grew up in small towns—past, present and future. The film offers a chance to reflect on where we are now and where we still need to go, and serves as a reminder that the LGBTQ2S+ community is so much larger than our downtown enclaves.
RILEY SPARKS
Director
Riley Sparks is a filmmaker and journalist from Vancouver, B.C., now based in Toronto. Previously, he covered international and Canadian news as a video and print journalist for publications including the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star, before focusing on making documentaries. Small Town Pride is his first film.
We often see Pride as it’s presented in big urban centres: colourful, loud, exciting and over-the-top affairs with hundreds of thousands in attendance. They’re an opportunity to be loud and visible on a large scale. There’s nothing wrong with that—but in small towns, that’s not the most important thing. When you take away the crowds, the concerts, the floats and the corporate sponsorships, what is Pride really about? With Small Town Pride, we explore what Pride means in places where the annual parade might be just a few dozen people. We hear from the people working to make their homes more inclusive, safe and open, and about the power of being out and visible in the community—whether it’s alongside a million people or just a few.
Rachel Giese is an award-winning journalist, best-selling author and the editorial director of Xtra. Her writing on politics, gender, sex and feminism has appeared in numerous publications in Canada and the U.S. She is the author of Boys: What It Means to Become a Man.
RACHEL GIESE
Producer
Tiffany Hsiung is a Peabody award-winning filmmaker based in Toronto, and was listed as one of DOC NYC’s 40 under 40 this year. She recently won the inaugural Toronto International Film Festival Share Her Journey Short Cuts Award after the world premiere of her recent film Sing Me a Lullaby (2020).
TIFFANY HSIUNG
Consulting Producer
Corey Misquita is a Bahraini-born filmmaker and artist based in Toronto. She recently worked as an editor on Shine True, a documentary series for Fuse TV. Her films have been showcased at the San Francisco Indie Fest and in Xtra Magazine and Fader.
COREY MISQUITA
Director of Photography
Tricia Hagoriles is an award-winning, Toronto-based filmmaker. In 2015, she received the RBC Emerging Canadian Artist Award at the Inside Out Toronto LGBTQ Film Festival for her first short film, Beat. Her most recent shorts include Huwag Mataranta (one of 10 cinematic tributes to the 2020 Polaris Prize Short List nominees) and Lola’s Wake, which garnered the WIFT-T Film Award at the 2020 Reel Asian Film Festival.
TRICIA HAGORILES
Colourist
Lisa Conway is a B.C.-born, Swiss-Canadian songwriter and sonic adventurer. She has collaborated with filmmakers, dancers, theatre directors and performance artists, been nominated for a SOCAN Songwriting Prize (as part of Del Bel) and completed creative residencies from New Brunswick, Canada, to Aubagne, France. An alumni of the Canadian Film Centre’s Slaight Music Residency, and one of two Canadians selected to be part of the renowned Red Bull Music Academy 2018 in Berlin.
LISA CONWAY
Composer