‘Salty and sweet’ pays off for Jordan Canning

“Both salty and sweet” is how filmmaker Jordan Canning describes her favourite way of storytelling; mixing tragedy and comedy, humour and heart.

It’s also a good way to describe the kind of week she’s been having.

On Tuesday, a thief stole Canning’s laptop — and a camera and two bottles of homemade wine — from her Toronto apartment, in the middle of the day, while her roommates were upstairs.

On Wednesday, she learned she’s the winner of the national 2012 RBC Emerging Filmmakers Competition, which comes with a purse of $15,000, for her short film, “Seconds.”

“I feel pretty great, especially considering the kind of day I had yesterday,” Canning told The Telegram after the announcement was made by RBC and the Toronto International Film Festival. “I’m honoured and excited and proud and grateful.”

“Seconds” was filmed over three days this past winter, in St. John’s and Toronto, with $500 in funding from RBC and the film festival and a given theme: time.

Canning came up with a list of life moments that were important or memorable for her, and put them together in a beautifully-shot and narrated sequence, flashed before the eyes of character Peter Grimsby, who is choking on a piece of meat.

Five finalists were selected earlier this summer from the 17 competitors, and their films were posted online.

The honourable mention prize of $10,000 went to Johnny Ma of Toronto for “Dec 32,” while the Fan Favourite award, voted on by the public, went to Nimisha Mukerji of Vancouver for “The Arrival Hour.” Apart from buying a new laptop (Canning had all her files backed-up, thankfully), Canning plans to use the money to complete her first feature film, “Almost 30.”

“It’s a ‘Reality Bites’-style comedy about a group of 29 year-olds trying to figure out their lives. Vaguely familiar,” Canning, 29, said, laughing.

Canning’s first animated short film, 2009’s “Not Over Easy,” is still earning her accolades.

It recently won the Shaw Media Fearless Female Director Award, the A&E Short Filmmakers Award, and the Bite Comedy Award at the National Screen Institute Online Short Film Festival.

“Seconds” is set to be screened at the Atlantic Film Festival later this month, and Canning has also submitted it to the St. John’s Women’s International Film Festival, to be held in October.

tbradbury@thetelegram.com

Twitter: @tara_bradbury

This is a corrected version