(2023)
Adagio
Written and Directed by Emma Zuck
When 16 year-old Faye's complicated relationship with her mother manifests as feelings for her middle-aged ballet teacher, she must confront her own shame and desire as she prepares for her final ballet solo.
The Adagio Crew
Emma Zuck is a film student at TMU, with a focus on screenwriting and directing. Storytelling, to her, is a means for reflection— both inwards and outwards. Emma’s work reflects her soft spot for the sentimental, her childhood of prairie antics, her attention to pain, and love of the poetic. It reflects all she longed to see on screen while growing up; queer love, mentally ill folks, Asian stories. She hopes to create films that are loving odes to life’s subtleties, its details, and to the nuanced, complicated, people who fill it. And through those films create community both on set and in the theatre, as filmmaking should be an ever-evolving practice of healing, reclaiming, and carving space for those to come
Writer & Director
(She/Her)
Emma Zuck
Hanna Gulzar
Producer
(She/They)
Hanna Gulzar, studying film at TMU, is currently delving into the world of directing, screenwriting, and producing. She realizes her art reaches soon to be friends and collaborators because of her emotional sensitivity that she brings to the screen and her practice. Her work is a tribute to her friends; being supported by and exposed to the different ways they share and express their love has been the reason why everything she creates is always done with purpose and gratitude. As of late, being able to express herself as openly queer, she finds herself latching onto the intimate care put into conversations of love, heartbreak, loss, careers, identity and everything in between, leading her to focus on the nuances of the mundane with a hope that her work exudes a celebration of life, living, and people!
Ollie Coombs
Producer
(He/Him)
Ollie Coombs is a documentary filmmaker based in Toronto, Canada. As a mixed race and trans artist, his work explores the complicated grey-zones of the human experience. Passionate about community and film culture, Ollie has had the opportunity to collaborate with TIFF and the NFB, and aspires to continue making work that gives voice to the diverse population of Canada.
Hayden Salter
Director of Photography
(He/Him)
Hayden Salter is a Chinese-Canadian queer trans cinematographer based in Toronto, Canada. He is passionate in exploring themes of Asian culture, queer identity, growing pains and parental relationships. Hayden has experience shooting a number of narrative shorts with fellow indie film makers and student thesis projects.
Hayden draws much of his technical experience from his commercial and indie work lighting background where he has worked on numerous projects from music videos, high budget commercials and feature to short films among other formats. He is skilled in shaping light and working with industry standard lamps in addition to having shooting experience on Arri, Red and Sony cinema cameras.
Hayden seeks to work collaboratively in capturing evocative storytelling that resonates with the view on a humanistic level as well as provide a stunning visual experience.
Steph Sakaki
Production Designer
(She/Her)
Shaping the world surrounding a narrative through cinematography and production design is a beautiful element of filmmaking that I love focusing on in my work, accentuating the spaces and character interactions captured in moments of introspection. Steph believes that there is an element of specificity in storytelling that allows films to become a mirror of our own experiences. She always find stories that capture the subtleties of individuality and the nuance of connection deeply inspirational, and aims to emulate the empathy in that attention to detail.
Why Adagio?
Our mission with Adagio is to create a nuanced representation of queerness that is grounded in the quieter details, moments that require a true closeness to appreciate. Adagio is a story that challenges the idea that queer expression only ever exists through overt angst and struggle. It is much more the case that the small, private moments are as revealing to one’s inner turmoil.
The aesthetics of ballet and queerness compliment and contrast one another. By exploring Faye’s longing for connection through the tense, intimate, and strict world of dance, we hope to show our viewer that art gives us the power and freedom to choose ourselves.
Faye’s story is one that is personal to all of us. Growing up with immigrant parents, we as Producers and as a Director intimately know the conflict, hurt, and fear that hide between our parents’ perspective of love and the difficulties that come with finding yourself, especially when that clashes with who your parents want you to be.
- Emma Zuck, Hanna Gulzar, Ollie Coombs