Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Alyssa Kuzmarov. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alyssa , appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about serving the underserved.

For the past 5 years, we have been working on a docu-fiction, Resilience, with youth in the protection system and under the Young Offenders Act with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. Originally, this film was entitled: “My Place in This World is Small,” and was based on the writing of Zachary, 17-year-old boy involved in the child welfare or foster care system.

He writes: “My place in this world is small. Most foster homes treated me like a dog and never really cared about me, so I went from foster home to foster home. I grew up wanting to be a cartoon character, wondering what it would have been like if I would have lived with my mother. How is a kid supposed to understand that his mother is not able to take care of him? And, everybody just assumed that at age 6, I would get over it and be ok with other people, strangers, trying to take care of me.”

We hear about the system, but we rarely hear from the youth themselves, unless the stories are extremely sensational and then we hear about them in a dramatic sequence in the news or on TV. In fact, these youth are not allowed to tell their stories. Legally, the youth protection system does not allow them to be seen or heard telling their stories. They are silenced. Often locked away.

Their place in this world is small.

So, how to make their place in this world larger? How do you tell the stories of people who aren’t allowed to tell their stories? That was the artistic challenge and the social mission.

To meet this challenge, 15 youth who were involved in the youth protection system were recruited, to help develop material for a medium-length script that combines fictional sequences with documentary. The process was quite incredible as we brought together 15 youth from all different cultural, linguistic and experiential backgrounds. Within minutes of the first workshop, the youth were relating shared experiences of group homes, being locked up and foster families and were talking in a common language (despite linguistic differences). They understood each other in a way that no one else can. It was very powerful. A very intimate dynamic was quickly established and we lead discussions and had the youth do writing exercises about painful experiences, funny moments, people who made a difference to them, anger, parents, loss, abandonment and many other topics.

From the material of the workshops with the youth, real life moments were then interwoven with narrative, obscuring one from the other, to the point that we no longer know what is fiction and what’s not. We took parts of the stories of one youth and parts of the stories of another youth and created composite fictional characters but all based on real life experiences.

With this process, we are purposely creating a situation where the spectator does not know if the youth are acting or not. What part is pure storytelling and what part tells their stories? This purposeful confusion will be what in fact allows the youth to be able to tell their stories. Storytelling is a way to free people. For people whose stories are stifled, fiction becomes their way of existing. We have made the youth participants’ worlds bigger through fiction.

At each step of the scriptwriting process, we brought the material back to the youth and asked them if we had honoured their stories, if we had captured the essence of that they wanted to share as a message. We asked them to write dialogue that was closer to what they’d actually say and we asked to make changes that made more sense to them. Because the youth felt a sense of empowerment throughout the process, they became more and more engaged in the film.

Ultimately, the title was changed to RESILIENCE to better reflect the message the youth wanted to share and we finalized a 45-page script.

During the production phase of the project, each scene was an experience, bringing new and exciting challenges: working with vulnerable yet resilient youth and asking them to be transparent in front of the camera, evoking emotion and empathy for the youths’ journeys; provoking deep-rooted memories in the youth and having them re-live moments of their lives long since buried. We added an additional 30 youth to the process for the documentary sequences, adding more stories to the mix for even more diversity of experiences.

The community support we received was both moving and extremely helpful. We worked in a high school, in the youth court, at a closed lock-up unit (juvenile prison), and in a group home, to name a few. Our partners were generous as they understood the deep impact of this project on the youth involved and also they appreciated this powerful film with far-reaching potential.

This film touched everyone involved.

For me, artistically, this film enabled me to bring this very meaningful project to fruition, pushing my work to a new professional level, as this is my first medium-length film.

And, in the words of 2 of our youth, this is what the project means to them:

“This project means to me that I can have a voice, not just for myself, but for the other Indigenous kids lost in the youth protection system, who have lost their culture, their families and their identities. It is only through representation that our stories are real and we can make change and then we will be able to heal. This project helps me find what has been lost for years. This is my way of healing.”
-Destiny

“This project is important to me because not only is it raising awareness of what life might be like for some, it also provides a message of hope that life can get better. To me, this is extremely important because there is so much stigmatization around youth with less and who grow up in care (the foster care system). We are so much more and we deserve to know our worth too. If this film can give hope to just one person, then we did our job!”
-Hope

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My background is in social work and I have been working with youth for over 25 years. My strength is creating a nonjudgmental space where youth or anyone I work with feel they can share authentic moments in their lives. I am passionate about storytelling and about authentic sharing and I think this comes across in the workshops I run and the videos I direct.

My partner, Jean-Michel Sauri, comes from Marseille and has many technical strengths in addition to the same qualities as me ie, deeply caring about the people we work with and wanting to honour people’s stories in visually beautiful ways.

Productions Oracle fulfills our mission in many different ways – documentary filmmaking, storytelling workshops, employability programs, social intervention, group work with youth and adults, consultation, event and conference planning.

In addition to our youth programs, we offer video production services specializing in social and educational videos. We produce, as well, high quality promotional and corporate videos.

Our strength is in our deeply human approach and our spirit of collaboration.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I met Jean-Michel on the set of the film, The Point (2006), directed by Joshua Dorsey. This film was a really powerful model of collaboration as I was a storywriter on the film and helped the director recruit 40 youth who assisted in the creation of the script of the film and were consulted at every stage of the production. Joshua Dorsey is a mentor for me and I was definitely influenced by his collaborative filmmaking style. The Point was an outstanding experience, filmed on the streets of Point St. Charles, a very vibrant community. Our film crew experienced many trials and tribulations, including having youth from the neighbourhood throw rocks at our cameras. Jean-Michel, being from the tough city of Marseille, was recruited to go and speak to the youth and he quickly connected with them discussing french rap music and even ended up inviting them to be extras in the film. The issue was related to language territories ie, we were an English film crew filming on a territory of the neighborhood that was deemed francophone.
After many long hours on the film set discussing language issues as well as issues affecting youth, the seeds for Productions Oracle were planted. Both Jean-Michel and I had a deep passion for youth and also for film. And, after experiencing the power of filmmaking on the youth we worked with on the film set of The Point, we felt strongly about wanting to bring this same type of opportunity to as many youth as we possibly could, both in English and in French.
We have achieved this mission since 2006, producing and directing over 40 short films, leading hundreds of workshops in schools and community centers all over Quebec, and directing the docu-fiction, Resilience, which won awards and was presented in 7 film festivals as well as many social and educational events and venues, starting with the Premiere at the Maison de la Culture du Plateau in Montreal to a sold out audience in October 2021. We have recently received another development grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to continue our work with youth in the foster care system for a follow up film to Resilience.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

The goal and mission of Productions Oracle is giving people a voice, specifically youth. Having worked with youth for so many years, it is clear to me that they have so much to say and so often nobody who wants to listen. Our society can be very alienating, with people in their bubbles and individualism heightened by the rise of social. media and technology. From my experience, youth are really craving authentic interaction. They are bubbling with worries and confusion and excitement. They need outlets to release all the energy they have and they need to form meaningful relationships with caring adults.
My own teenager years were very turbulent and troubling and I have set out to become the person I wished I had when I was younger. Writing was my outlet as was theatre and without that, I would have been really lost. Those creative outlets truly saved me and I strive to create those types of spaces for as many youth as I can.
Our society also encourages quick fixes and instant pleasures, and yet, youth need to learn to express their feelings and needs, to share their experiences, to talk about real things. Things like racism and homphobia, the abuse of power, feeling anxious, body image issues. There is so much that gets brushed aside by adults who should be there for youth but who are caught up in their own issues, stresses and pains. Youth need skills and tools to learn to express themselves and spaces where they don’t feel judged and can be themselves. That is the real mission of Productions Oracle and all the work that Jean-Michel and I do.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.productions-oracle.com
• Facebook: Productions Oracle Montreal
• Youtube: productions oracle