I LIVE HERE

World Premiere at Aspen Shortsfest
2022 · 10m · Drama · Black-led

Logline: After coming home from a late-night study session at the library, a black university student realizes he is locked out of his apartment building where he has a confrontation with a skeptical white man.

Writer/Director: Tyler Evans
Producer: Malachi Ellis
Executive Producers: Lindsay Blair Goeldner & Shant Joshi
Featuring: Emidio Augusto Lopes, Bruce Novakowski, Rashaana Cumberbatch
Funders: Ontario Arts Council, National Film Board of Canada
Distribution: CBC Gem

DIRECTOR BIO
Tyler is a director and screenwriter based in Toronto, Ontario. During his childhood, to escape the mundanity of the suburbs in Mississauga, he would go to the theatres weekly, which is where he discovered his love for storytelling. Tyler’s first short film Teething (2019) was accepted into 2019’s Reelworld Film Festival. He wrote, directed, produced and edited the film. He has just completed his second short film, I Live Here, which he has received funding from Ontario Arts Council, NFB and CBC. It will be streaming on CBC Gem in 2022.  Tyler’s main goal is to create original stories centred around Black people and people of colour. He is currently writing his first feature film.

DIRECTOR STATEMENT
Three years ago I stumbled across a video of a white woman calling the police on a Black family for having a BBQ at a public park. It was hilarious and utterly ridiculous all wrapped into one, then I noticed more and more videos similar to it pop up of white people calling the police on Black people for existing in public spaces. If you search “white person calls cops” on Youtube you’ll find hundreds of videos, all with different occurrences. I was inspired by not only these videos but my own life going to white-majority school. I began to write I Live Here by mixing these two settings together. I wanted to shoot this as soon as I could but then the pandemic hit. During the pandemic, there were two viral videos that came out the same day. A white woman calling the cops on a black man after he asked her to put a leash on her dog at Central Park and the infamous George Floyd video. Both were horrific and infuriating in their own ways, to think that any of these Black people would have very well ended up like George Floyd. I Live Here is for everyone that has experienced these traumatic events and to those who would like to be put in the shoes of someone that has.

We acknowledge that we work, live, and exist on the traditional territory of many Indigenous Nations.
The area known as Tovaangar (the Los Angeles basin and So. Channel Islands) has been caretaken by the Gabrielino/Tongva peoples. We pay our respects to the Honuukvetam (Ancestors), ‘Ahiihirom (Elders) and ‘Eyoohiinkem (our relatives/relations) past, present and emerging.
The area known as Tkaronto has been caretaken by the Anishinabek Nation, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Huron-Wendat, and the Métis. It is now home to many Indigenous Peoples such as the current Treaty 13 holders, the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. This territory is subject to the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement to share and care for the Great Lakes region.