Every year, six talented, new filmmakers are chosen from hundreds of applicants to make a short film for Crazy8’s.
Crazy8s provides filmmakers with a significant boost to their projects. Six finalists receive $2000 each, plus an in-kind production package and post-production service valued at up to $50,000. This includes professional equipment, mentorship, and access to locations, helping them complete their short film within eight days.
There is a huge gala screening at the Vancouver Centre. You can read Nick Wangersky’s March 31st article, where he interviews all six filmmakers.
We met again with Jackie Hoffart for a more in-depth conversation about their movie The Reveal.
HNMAG: When did you first get interested in film?
Jackie Hoffart: I definitely have always been a TV kid. I remember when I was seven years old when Family Ties had its series finale, I cried and cried because my favorite TV show was gone forever.
HNMAG: Oh my.
Jackie Hoffart: For movies, as a child, I liked Fried Green Tomatoes, The Bodyguard, Sleepless in Seattle…. I am a certain generation and not really an action-adventure kid.
HNMAG: It’s Ok.
Jackie Hoffart: Comedy and drama. As a kid, I was bullied a lot, so if I could stay home from school, I would watch movies. Movies and TV really helped me through. It’s a comfort.
HNMAG: You were older when you started your trans journey. How did that happen?
Jackie Hoffart: I’ve been out as queer since I was 20.
HNMAG: Ok.
Jackie Hoffart: Living in Vancouver and being involved in the comedy scene. I developed a lot of trans or non-binary friends and they helped make it safer for me to explore those questions within myself by talking about their experiences on stage.
HNMAG: Right.
Jackie Hoffart: I was inspired by brave friends I have in the comedy community and my friends in general. It was a gradual process that led to surgery and then taking testosterone. I am continuing to evolve. I’m not a finished product just yet.
HNMAG: You went to Langara College when you were 30. What were you doing prior to that?
Jackie Hoffart: I went to Germany on an exchange in high school then went back after high school for half a year. Then I went to UBC, where I majored in Modern European Studies and German and then did an exchange in Germany in university. After that, I worked in Berlin for a few summers. Then, after I graduated UBC, I moved to Japan for four years.
HNMAG: Oh, that’s amazing.
Jackie Hoffart: I didn’t set out to live there for four years, but one year turned into one more, then another…
HNMAG: Were you teaching English?
Jackie Hoffart: I was an assistant language teacher for two years then I ended up getting a job as a copy editor for an English-language newspaper in Tokyo.
HNMAG: You worked all over the world.
Jackie Hoffart: I even worked in marketing in London but I then realized that I could no longer do the corporate life. Being in an office made me crazy. Thankfully at that particular job, we had great benefits, including the ability to take classes for whatever we wanted, so I used those funds to take some filmmaking classes.
HNMAG: That’s an amazing perk.
Jackie Hoffart: I came back to Vancouver and I found this great condensed program at Langara called Film Arts, it’s a conservatory-style program where you work with actors and writers to make a film each term. I highly recommend it.
HNMAG: After Langara, you worked on set, did some volunteer work, and made contacts. What did that lead to?
Jackie Hoffart: I made a short in 2015 called Kiss & Tell. Then several years later, kind of during COVID-19, I decided to try out Telus Storyhive. I made a documentary series called YVR Funny. I did two seasons of that through their Voices program, which I also really recommend. It was a straightforward, low-budget concept. They don’t own your material. They just license it from you, so that’s really nice.
HNMAG: Did you perform stand-up prior to making that documentary series?
Jackie Hoffart: Yes, I’ve been doing stand-up since 2013.
HNMAG: That’s a long time.
Jackie Hoffart: I’m not out there every single night, pounding the pavement.
HNMAG: Right.
Jackie Hoffart: My sweet spot was producing a show. I inherited a venue and an existing show called Foxhole Comedy in 2017. And then changed the name to New Moon Comedy in 2020, and we still operate out of the Projection Room.
HNMAG: Where is that?
Jackie Hoffart: The Fox Cabaret, but in the projection room upstairs.
HNMAG: That’s a creative use of space.
Jackie Hoffart: It’s a beautiful small room for about twenty-five people.
HNMAG: For Crazy8s, how did that whole application go?
Jackie Hoffart: I worked with my friend Jillian Beausoleil on BFG and then again on a terrible film that shall remain nameless in 2024. She suggested doing a pitch together. So, we got together and just looked at both of our lives. I had just started taking testosterone and it was terrifying to tell my parents. At that time in her life, she was pregnant. She was considering having a gender reveal party. We just realized that together the kind of merging those two streams of our lives for a short film would work pretty well. So we developed the idea together.
HNMAG: Have you ever been to a real gender reveal party?
Jackie Hoffart: No, I haven’t. I don’t think people would invite me to be honest. I think I could probably ruin it. I don’t know anybody who’s had one, to be honest. I was very surprised that Jillian was even considering it. The conversation generated conflict between us, which informed a lot of the dialogue that ended up in the film. Especially between the main character and their sister.
HNMAG: Moving forward, for a gender reveal party, in addition to the pink and blue, there can be white for non-binary.
Jackie Hoffart: We did that in our film, quite intentionally, creating a blue, pink, and also white world, which is actually just a nod to the transgender flag.
I also sent a draft to my friend from school who lives up in the Yukon, as well as a small group of peers. I worked quite hard on writing and rewriting the script. Once we had something that felt like we could really sit down and pitch, Jillian and I sat down and put the video pitch together and that’s the first step.
HNMAG: The characters weren’t as stereotypical as you anticipate in a comedy. They had more nuance. Was that something that you initially conceived or did that develop?
Jackie Hoffart: It’s probably a bit of both. As the script got developed, so did the nuance. But the actors were phenomenal. I got to work with such incredible people. It was important for me to not make caricatures of the family. They needed to be real people. It’s really a challenge that was pulled off so well by the talent because it’s a delicate balance. The family has to try and understand but still not really get it.
HNMAG: Jenn Griffin has been doing stand-up for years but did Emilee or any of the other performers have a background in stand-up comedy?
Jackie Hoffart: Emilee has a background in spoken word. There’s definitely some experience with a microphone-based performance but not stand-up. Their audition video was so fantastic. They wrote more jokes than were in the script. Emilee, I came to discover, is also a little bit of a ham. And you need that for the role.
HNMAG: Are you submitting this to other festivals?
Jackie Hoffart: I want to go on a festival run with this film as long as we possibly can. I am super excited to show this film as much as possible.
HNMAG: What is the biggest takeaway after making The Reveal?
Jackie Hoffart: There’s so much attention that goes into the film itself. It’s a piece of art you consume in thirteen minutes and forty-nine seconds. But the bigger part of the process is the experience of making it together with a crew, it’s the kind of job that is very collaborative. So, bringing people on who really felt connected to the story was really important for me. Filmmaking isn’t brain surgery, it’s art and so it’s a privilege. I just really wanted to make sure that everybody else was on the same page about that. We accomplished that and I’m very proud.
The Reveal is a comedy that has high stakes in anticipation of a very uncomfortable situation that the audience knows is coming. It’s a wonderful ride with great twists and turns. That is what Jackie Hoffart’s experience has been. Their live has had bold and courageous events and decisions. We are all excited to see where they go next.
