2 Canadians get Sundance honours

Short films by Canadian directors Michelle Latimer and Jerome Sable have won honourable mentions at the Sundance Film Festival.

Jury prizes for short filmmaking at the Park City, Utah-based festival were announced on Thursday.

Latimer, a Thunder Bay, Ont.-born actress who starred in TV series Paradise Falls, got an honourable mention for Choke, which was entered in the aboriginal filmmakers showcase.

The short tells the story of a man who, when he leaves his First Nations reserve, encounters the lost souls of the city. The film serves as a reminder that you cannot escape who you are.

Sable, of Montreal, screened his movie The Legend of Beaver Dam in the international short film program. The horror-musical is about a group of campers threatened by an evil monster after a ghost story told around the campfire awakens it.

Sable said he and fellow screenwriter Eli Batalion set out to redeem the musical genre with their campground tale.

"The perception of musicals nowadays seems to be dominated by some very, very cheesy stuff and, to us, that's really too bad," Sable said.

"With Beaver Dam and with [planned feature film] Stage Fright, we want to try to bring some balls back to the musical."

The jury prize for short filmmaking went to Brick Novax pt 1 and 2, directed and written by  U.S. filmmaker Matt Piedmont. It follows a man trying to preserve his legacy as the coolest guy in the history of the world.

The international jury prize went to Deeper Than Yesterday, directed and written by Ariel Kleiman. The Australian film is about a submarine crew who become savages after three months submerged underwater.

Both winners will be presented their awards at a ceremony Saturday evening.

Other honorable mentions announced Wednesday were:

• Diarchy, directed by Ferdinando Cito Filmomarino (Italy).
• The External World, directed by David O'Reilly (Ireland).
• Out of Reach, directed by Jakub Stozek (Poland).
• Protoparticles, directed by Chema Garcia Ibarra (Spain).