Telus Storyhive puts local project in the spotlight
By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on August 11, 2023.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com As part of Telus Storyhive’s ongoing celebration of Black Excellence on-screen, the Black Creators Edition Summer Premiere is now showcasing a Lethbridge project. The project was produced by local filmmaker Sammy Golom, who received $20,000 in production funding, one-on-one mentorship, and personalized training.
 “I have been a recipient of multiple of their grants, they are an amazing organization trying to help jumpstart people’s film careers. I’ve got nothing but good things to say about them, from the mentorship they provide, to the freedom they give you. They are good at understanding the artist’s journey,” said Golom Thursday.
 He explained that sometimes the idea an artist pitches changes while the project is being produced, sometimes the final product is not exactly the same as the original idea pitched, but they are very understanding about it.
 “Whether you are a complete amateur, you are part way through your journey, intermediate or professional, they’re not going to annoy you with all the red tape. They make sure you understand what you are doing, they get behind people that do and they let you do your thing,” said Golom.
 He said this helps reduce the stress associated with the project’s end result not being exactly the same as originally pitched.
 “They obviously want you to be able to conceptualize it as close as what you making as possible, but they also understand the impossibility of that,” said Golom.
 He said the project he produced is the pilot of a docuseries he wants to continue to produce.
 “Out of Frame” is an inter-generational portrait of African Canadians, who reflect on the struggle to preserve their cultural identity. In it, a married couple of a former freedom fighter and resilient mother of three, reveal a harrowing escape from war and starvation to build a life together in Lethbridge.
 “The gist of it talks about what’s lost, what’s gained, what’s preserved, who they were and who they have become. Some people have the perception of ‘oh you won the golden ticket, you came from refugee Africa, your life is so much better now,’ but sometimes is a looming life for a lot of immigrants and sometimes the cultural divide is too great to resolve in every way,” said Golom.
 He said that is why the general idea is to make it into a docuseries as a mosaic of different stories from people that immigrated from Africa. He said for now, he produced the pilot with the funding received.
 “The interesting thing about the pilot is that it is my parents’ story. This is basically an episode, but I hope to make more because it was a lot of fun to tell people’s stories like that. It was very personal because it was my parents, it was actually more difficult because it was my parents, but the exciting thing is that I want to continue making more of these. I love talking to people from Africa,” said Golom.
 He said he believes that talking about their story brings people together and helps them understand what was left behind other than those things that are obvious like being separated from loved ones.
 “I think it is a good time for people to connect on a level of humanity and find some similarities, but also understand our differences. I think the best way to tastefully talk about it is through stories,” said Golom.
 He said it was important for representation to be present in the project, to be able to highlight and elevate black people’s voices.
 “I think I chose a good story that elevates a lot of black people, so people can see that it is not only about me, but it is a unified thing,” said Golom.
 He said one interesting thing about the project is that the story is in part about the civil war between Ethiopia and Eritrea, and the actors portraying his parents, who are from Eritrea, are Ethiopian.
 “This is the perfect example of healing and the people being at a level of humanity that we all connect. Politically at the time, our countries were in opposition but not the people, the people shared a culture. So, it is interesting how that ended up happening, here we are telling the story where people are empathizing who were on two opposite sides of the war,” said Golom.
 He said that since the point of the grant was to elevate Black people’s voices, he focused on the collective stories. Follow @APulidoHerald on Twitter 4
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