spotlight FILMMAKER
Zack russell

Toronto writer-director-documentarian Zack Russell is featured as this year’s Spotlight Filmmaker, an annual TOPS tradition that allows us to highlight local artists whose work we greatly admire (past Spotlight Filmmakers are Danis Goulet and Trevor Anderson).

Previously a creator of fictional sci fi short films (some of which have screened in past TOPS programmes), Zack Russell unexpectedly jumped into the documentary genre with his first feature film, Someone Lives Here. Winner of the Hot Docs 2023 Rogers Audience Award for Best Canadian Documentary, Someone Lives Here shines a light on the value of grassroots activism as it follows local carpenter Khaleel Seivwright as he goes about his work building over a hundred tiny shelters that offer a warm, private living space for Toronto’s unhoused citizens facing harsh winter conditions. What began as a compassionate side project turned into a vocation, a David and Goliath story as Seivwright finds himself the recipient of a City of Toronto cease and desist for his efforts. Someone Lives Here will screen at Christie Pits Park on July 21, 2024.

Zack Russell’s 2015 queer sci fi short She Stoops to Conquer will also screen as part of this summer’s programme on July 18 at Corktown Common, an opportunity for TOPS to showcase the breadth of Russell’s creative work (which also includes directing TV’s I Have Nothing, a very charming and funny mockumentary-style series written by and starring Canadian comedy giant Carolyn Taylor).

On his selection as the Spotlight Filmmaker of TOPS’ 2024 programme, filmmaker Zack Russell says, “Thank you so much to TOPS for screening both my very first film and my latest film. I've enjoyed TOPS screenings as an audience member for years. It's a real honour to share these films, and to see Someone Lives Here playing in a Toronto park – the contested setting of so much of the film. Truly a dream of mine ever since we finished our first cut.”