Liz Cairns
Writer and director
Liz will describe some of the circumstances she has inserted herself into in order to gain a better understanding of her characters and subjects. Prior to writing the script for her feature film Inedia, Liz attended a week-long Pranic Living Workshop where the participants were initiated into the concept of Breatharianism - surviving solely on light and air. In this workshop you will discuss how to shape your personal experiences into impactful stories, or even to seek out specific experiences that can help broaden your depth of understanding and inform your work. Liz will guide you through her own process from scriptwriting to development, will also discuss her "character channeling" strategy as a pathway away from your thinking/analytical mind that may help you to gain a deeper understanding of your character's motivations and personality, or even as a source for significant story ideas.
Liz Cairns is an award-winning writer and director from Vancouver, BC and a graduate of the Director's Lab at the Canadian Film Centre. Her short films have played at festivals internationally, including TIFF, Austin Film Festival, Interfilm Berlin, Female Eye Film Festival and VIFF, among others. Programmer Curtis Woloschuk commented on Liz's ability to "elicit remarkable performances." In 2017, she was invited to the Berlinale Short Film Station at the Berlinale, one of ten participants selected out of thousands of applicants, to develop her short film Animals Don’t Commit Suicide (currently in post-production). Her latest short film The Horses is currently making its festival run, playing at festivals around the world including Palm Springs ShortFest, HollyShorts, Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, and the Vancouver International Film Festival where it won Best BC Short Film. Commenting on the award, the jury wrote: “Like many of the best realist filmmakers, Liz Cairns works with immediacy and verisimilitude, allowing the audience the opportunity to be taken into a new landscape not often explored”.
Liz is currently in prep for her first feature film, INEDIA, being produced by Experimental Forest Films, Scythia Films and Stellar Citizens. The script was short-listed for the Sundance Screenwriters Lab in 2019, and will go to camera in August of 2022.
Liz is also an in-demand production designer, working on a wide range of projects. She was the production designer on Never Steady, Never Still (TIFF 2017) and The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open (Berlinale 2019). She has been nominated for a Canadian Screen Award and won a Leo Award in 2019.