Cliffside movie shoot

Steven Hoffner, left, shooting the film "Cliffside" with DOP Steve Whitehead

A young filmmaker who grew up in Cliffside has returned to the neighbourhood to shoot a movie.

The director is Steven Hoffner, a 29-year old graduate of Birchmount Collegiate who studied film at the University  of Toronto and now works as a producer for the National Hockey League.

Following the adage to “write what you know”, Hoffner’s short film is about young people growing up in the suburbs facing the choice of what to do with their lives.  Do they stay in the neighbouhood or step outside of their comfort zone in an effort to realize their full potential?

The gritty side of Cliffside

Although Cliffside is a lovely community on top of the Bluffs, the short film is set in the gritty strip malls and low-rise apartments that everyone in Scarborough knows all too well.

“I don’t want this film to come off as a judgement of the area.  I love this area.  This is home to me,” says Hoffner.  “But I really also want people to find their true calling.”

Steven Hoffner directing Bipin Patel, owner of the Coffee Dome

Hoffner says he grew up riding the Kingston 12 and the Cliffside 20 every day, which he describes as character building, but an experience he hopes to not  repeat.

He says he’s not coming home to try to make “The Grapes of Wrath”, but notes that Cliffside definitely has an “underbelly”.

“When you walk in and see a guy with a baseball hat sideways and he’s pushing a stroller and he’s 18 years old.  There’s a story there.  There’s no judgement there, but there were some choices made.”

 

Stars Cliffside native Kearston Lyon

Kearsten Lyon

The lead character is Wendy, considered in high school to be the “Meryl Streep of Scarborough”, who finds herself in her late twenties working in a donut shop and living with a small-time drug dealer.

A chance encounter with an old friend presents her with an opportunity to get out and  follow the road not travelled.

Wendy is played by Kearsten Lyon, another Cliffside native who went to R.H. King Academy and met Hoffner at U of T.

“I think it’s a story line a lot of people can relate to, wanting to be emancipated from your community.  It’s hard to leave home and its hard to take those chances and leave your loved ones behind,” says Lyon.

Cliffside plays itself

Pell Street, Cliffside

Striving for authenticity, the film is being shot entirely on location, using extras from the neighbourhood.

Bipin Patel, owner and manager of the Coffee Dome for 14 years, plays Wendy’s difficult boss and says “…they want to bring the real thing and that’s why it looks good.”

“Cliffside has a very raw aesthetic,” says Director of Photography Steve Whitehead.  “You can look at movies like Half Nelson, or Fight Club or something like that.  Almost like a documentary style.  It’s all hand-held and very visceral as opposed to a movie that would have a glossy look.”

Kearsten Lyon says she thinks the script is true to life in Cliffside and she hopes people appreciate the honesty of it:

Kearsten Lyon and Steven Hoffner

“There are some areas of Cliffside that are gritty.  That’s just the reality of it.  Like any community there’s definitely class divides.  And I think you have to show all of it. You can’t just show some parts, you have to show it all.  Because that’s the truth of the matter and it’s the truth of the neighbourhood too.”

The film is being funded with a grant from the Ontario Arts Council, but Hoffner is also using his own money and has done some fundraising.

He says the film is a labour of love because “you don’t really make a short film to make money.”

Although shooting documentaries for the NHL is a dream job, Hoffner’s long term goal is to direct feature films and he hopes “Cliffside” will make it to the film festival circuit.