Fresh Meat
Toronto, Canada | Film Short
Horror, Satire
Now more than ever, conversations around the world of media and its all-consuming nature live at the top of the zeitgeist. Fresh Meat joins the conversation by telling a horror story about a media agency that gets its best ideas by consuming their employees. In the literal sense.
Fresh Meat
Toronto, Canada | Film Short
Horror, Satire
Green Light
This campaign raised C$8,365 for post-production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
63 supporters | followers
Enter the amount you would like to pledge
Now more than ever, conversations around the world of media and its all-consuming nature live at the top of the zeitgeist. Fresh Meat joins the conversation by telling a horror story about a media agency that gets its best ideas by consuming their employees. In the literal sense.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
We are a group of QTBIPOC filmmakers who came together despite the odds stacked up against us. What are those odds? Well, other than societal bias, there was a raging pandemic, a shifting socio-economic and political climate, and the actual climate.
Recently, stories like that of Maria Taylor and Kayla Grey have shone a spotlight on how Black media employees are treated in the workplace and the anti-Blackness they experience. These stories spoke to me, to my experiences and the experience of so many others that I know and love. It inspired Fresh Meat and all of the iterations that came before it and created an opportunity to examine a media industry that always seems ready to boil creators down to their most digestible parts and throws away the bones.
A butcher cuts meat.
When I began working on "Fresh Meat" I was intrigued by the thematic possibilities of cannibalism, and what it could represent for me as a Black queer woman. I’m expected to make a particular kind of film for an imagined homogenous audience. But my communities are made up of unique, diverse people craving richer, more authentic stories. And honestly, aren't we all sick of just getting coming out stories? During the mass media layoffs of 2019, the connective tissue between cannibalism, capitalism, and media became apparent, exposing an industry always ready to cannibalize itself. Important conversations about creating equity, especially in the media space, have been a constant thread over the last three years and this conversation and work will never stop being timely. Together, we can create an equitable world which wholly represents all of us. Fresh Meat boldly examines this relationship intimately while reconciling how it consumes us.
Here’s what we need and not to be blunt but it's money. It makes the world go around and we know that asking directly, serves us all better. More than that though, we need your support and cheers, and we need you as part of our community. Filmmakers often create from a deeply personal space, Fresh Meat was that for me and when one other person resonates with the stories I create alongside some of the best filmmakers I’ve ever known it makes us feel heard and validated. Sometimes stepping out on the ledge means not knowing if there will be anyone to catch you at the bottom. Fresh Meat is exploratory in a way that exposes the world of media and what we know (and might not know) of it. By contributing to our campaign, you provide a landing place for us to create a broader conversation through art.
Composer Alexander Arntzen cooks up creepy vibes.
Your pledges will move the dial and secure the last pieces that’ll get Fresh Meat to the finish line. Here are a few of the important pieces:
- We need to pay for music licensing (don’t want to be sued).
- Festival fees add up at 40-60 a pop so it'd be nice to have festival fees money
- Bring our film to digital platforms to make it further accessible for our community.
- Amplify the film's message through digital and traditional marketing avenues.
Together, all of these elements will set us up for success, and create a reality in which the hard work that our team put into our film is recognized and celebrated. I'd be honored if you were part of that journey.
Over the last 2 years that I have crafted this story, I’ve been lucky enough to receive the support and funding to bring our proof of concept to life. Part of that work was applying to lots of competitions and contests, and pitching relentlessly. Fresh Meat was a winner of the BIPOCTV + Film and Vinay Virmani’s Reel Work initiative, Charles Street Video’s Media Creation Grant, as well as placing as a finalist in the Screencraft Film Fund 2020 and winning the Regent Park Film Festival’s Emerging Directors' Spotlight & Pitch Competition which awarded us a CBC Development deal. We even got some funding from the Toronto Arts Council. It’s been a busy few years and we plan on having many more.
To date, Defar Media has received industry acclaim as we work towards premiering Fresh Meat. Now my team and I are turning to you, the wider community, to raise funds for post-production, marketing, and distribution and help complete an uncompromising vision. The amplification of this work creates the opportunity for everyone to experience the incredible storytelling and craft expertise displayed by a group of talented filmmakers and actors.
We got together and we shot a film.
Photo credit: Roya DelSol
We created a new world, exciting characters, and an unsettlingly juicy story. And we did it together. Despite the circumstances (and brutal feedback).
Take a look at our perks and benefits, each level compounds on the next, and more than that brings you into the fold of our community. If you can’t contribute to our campaign right now, you can share our work, follow us on social media, tell a friend, a family member, or someone on TikTok about this film.
To be specific here is how you can help:
- Contribute.
- Do you have goods or services to share with us? Send us a message!
- Collaborate with us in other ways through services in-kind, articles, or reviews to help get us to the finish line.
- Share our campaign with anyone in your life that might like to see this film.
Help us spread the word. Below you’ll find a pre-crafted message ready for Twitter, Instagram, or wherever you social media. We’d love it if you’d share this out during the campaign, your message could help us tenfold!
Defar Media is crowdfunding for their short film; Fresh Meat. If you believe in supporting Black filmmakers, genre-bending horror, and an incredible telling of the horrors of a media agency, give them a boost. You can contribute to their campaign, here: seedandspark.com/fund/fresh-meat
Nia meets Jamal
Photo credit: Roya DelSol
Fresh Meat is an investment in a larger world, as a feature film script following Nia’s cousin as she tries to find out what happened to Nia, has been written and begun making the rounds. We’re in it for the long, slow, deep braise, and trust us you don’t want to miss it.
It’s going to be a delectable journey.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Music & Sound
Costs C$1,500
Music and sound are crucial in horror, and this amount will cover the composer and licensing fees.
Festivals & Marketing
Costs C$3,000
What's the point of making a film if no one sees it? This will cover marketing and festival costs.
Share this update!
About This Team
Lu Asfaha | Writer & Director
Lu Asfaha is an award-winning filmmaker from Toronto, Canada. Her films combine and bend genres to explore themes of identity, belonging, and how things fall apart. In 2018 she released the short documentary 'Freedom Summer' on CBC Gem, won the CineFAM script competition to make fantasy short 'Paladin' and was part of the post-production team on CSA-winning documentary 'Mr. Jane and Finch.' In 2019, she was honoured to be a Doc Accelerator Fellow at Hot Docs Film Festival and won the RBC Emerging Director Award at Regent Park Film Festival. She is currently in post-production for the short horror film 'Fresh Meat,' which was a ScreenCraft Finalist, and trying not to get distracted by every new streaming release.
Fonna Seidu | Producer
Fonna Seidu is a producer that swoops in to keep teams on-time and on-budget. Her slate of narrative projects are diverse, commercially viable, and cater to niche audiences. Fonna’s first producing credit was on 'Promise Me,' which was directed by Alison Duke and won the Winston W. Moxam Best Black Canadian Shorts Award and Best Short Film at Columbus Black International Film Festival. Since then, she’s worked on over 25 commercials and short films. Fonna has a slate of films in development and production, including “virgins! the series” with creator/showrunner, Aden Abebe, co-producing Carolyn Wu’s short film “Toe The Line” which won Breakthroughs FF pitch contest; and Kiley May’s romantic comedy short “Disclosure” supported by ImagiNATIVE and Charles Street Video; and working alongside NSI alumni, Lora Campbell and Daniel Beckerman, on a queer comedy heist feature film called “Let’s Do This”.
Ashley Iris Gill | Cinematographer
Ashley Iris Gill is a queer cinematographer from Toronto, Canada. She has shot music videos, documentaries, shorts and commercials and worked with clients such as Mercedes Benz Canada, Absolut Vodka, Sprite, NBA, Toyota, Walmart, Fiat, Rogers, and Sleep Country. She is currently a commercial DP at Video Nerve, a division of Publicis, and is repped by Sesler. Ashley plans to continue capturing the world through her emotive and unique gaze. She's continuously growing, exploring her craft, and wants to focus on scripted work in the future.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
We are a group of QTBIPOC filmmakers who came together despite the odds stacked up against us. What are those odds? Well, other than societal bias, there was a raging pandemic, a shifting socio-economic and political climate, and the actual climate.
Recently, stories like that of Maria Taylor and Kayla Grey have shone a spotlight on how Black media employees are treated in the workplace and the anti-Blackness they experience. These stories spoke to me, to my experiences and the experience of so many others that I know and love. It inspired Fresh Meat and all of the iterations that came before it and created an opportunity to examine a media industry that always seems ready to boil creators down to their most digestible parts and throws away the bones.
A butcher cuts meat.
When I began working on "Fresh Meat" I was intrigued by the thematic possibilities of cannibalism, and what it could represent for me as a Black queer woman. I’m expected to make a particular kind of film for an imagined homogenous audience. But my communities are made up of unique, diverse people craving richer, more authentic stories. And honestly, aren't we all sick of just getting coming out stories? During the mass media layoffs of 2019, the connective tissue between cannibalism, capitalism, and media became apparent, exposing an industry always ready to cannibalize itself. Important conversations about creating equity, especially in the media space, have been a constant thread over the last three years and this conversation and work will never stop being timely. Together, we can create an equitable world which wholly represents all of us. Fresh Meat boldly examines this relationship intimately while reconciling how it consumes us.
Here’s what we need and not to be blunt but it's money. It makes the world go around and we know that asking directly, serves us all better. More than that though, we need your support and cheers, and we need you as part of our community. Filmmakers often create from a deeply personal space, Fresh Meat was that for me and when one other person resonates with the stories I create alongside some of the best filmmakers I’ve ever known it makes us feel heard and validated. Sometimes stepping out on the ledge means not knowing if there will be anyone to catch you at the bottom. Fresh Meat is exploratory in a way that exposes the world of media and what we know (and might not know) of it. By contributing to our campaign, you provide a landing place for us to create a broader conversation through art.
Composer Alexander Arntzen cooks up creepy vibes.
Your pledges will move the dial and secure the last pieces that’ll get Fresh Meat to the finish line. Here are a few of the important pieces:
- We need to pay for music licensing (don’t want to be sued).
- Festival fees add up at 40-60 a pop so it'd be nice to have festival fees money
- Bring our film to digital platforms to make it further accessible for our community.
- Amplify the film's message through digital and traditional marketing avenues.
Together, all of these elements will set us up for success, and create a reality in which the hard work that our team put into our film is recognized and celebrated. I'd be honored if you were part of that journey.
Over the last 2 years that I have crafted this story, I’ve been lucky enough to receive the support and funding to bring our proof of concept to life. Part of that work was applying to lots of competitions and contests, and pitching relentlessly. Fresh Meat was a winner of the BIPOCTV + Film and Vinay Virmani’s Reel Work initiative, Charles Street Video’s Media Creation Grant, as well as placing as a finalist in the Screencraft Film Fund 2020 and winning the Regent Park Film Festival’s Emerging Directors' Spotlight & Pitch Competition which awarded us a CBC Development deal. We even got some funding from the Toronto Arts Council. It’s been a busy few years and we plan on having many more.
To date, Defar Media has received industry acclaim as we work towards premiering Fresh Meat. Now my team and I are turning to you, the wider community, to raise funds for post-production, marketing, and distribution and help complete an uncompromising vision. The amplification of this work creates the opportunity for everyone to experience the incredible storytelling and craft expertise displayed by a group of talented filmmakers and actors.
We got together and we shot a film.
Photo credit: Roya DelSol
We created a new world, exciting characters, and an unsettlingly juicy story. And we did it together. Despite the circumstances (and brutal feedback).
Take a look at our perks and benefits, each level compounds on the next, and more than that brings you into the fold of our community. If you can’t contribute to our campaign right now, you can share our work, follow us on social media, tell a friend, a family member, or someone on TikTok about this film.
To be specific here is how you can help:
- Contribute.
- Do you have goods or services to share with us? Send us a message!
- Collaborate with us in other ways through services in-kind, articles, or reviews to help get us to the finish line.
- Share our campaign with anyone in your life that might like to see this film.
Help us spread the word. Below you’ll find a pre-crafted message ready for Twitter, Instagram, or wherever you social media. We’d love it if you’d share this out during the campaign, your message could help us tenfold!
Defar Media is crowdfunding for their short film; Fresh Meat. If you believe in supporting Black filmmakers, genre-bending horror, and an incredible telling of the horrors of a media agency, give them a boost. You can contribute to their campaign, here: seedandspark.com/fund/fresh-meat
Nia meets Jamal
Photo credit: Roya DelSol
Fresh Meat is an investment in a larger world, as a feature film script following Nia’s cousin as she tries to find out what happened to Nia, has been written and begun making the rounds. We’re in it for the long, slow, deep braise, and trust us you don’t want to miss it.
It’s going to be a delectable journey.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
Music & Sound
Costs C$1,500
Music and sound are crucial in horror, and this amount will cover the composer and licensing fees.
Festivals & Marketing
Costs C$3,000
What's the point of making a film if no one sees it? This will cover marketing and festival costs.
Share this update!
About This Team
Lu Asfaha | Writer & Director
Lu Asfaha is an award-winning filmmaker from Toronto, Canada. Her films combine and bend genres to explore themes of identity, belonging, and how things fall apart. In 2018 she released the short documentary 'Freedom Summer' on CBC Gem, won the CineFAM script competition to make fantasy short 'Paladin' and was part of the post-production team on CSA-winning documentary 'Mr. Jane and Finch.' In 2019, she was honoured to be a Doc Accelerator Fellow at Hot Docs Film Festival and won the RBC Emerging Director Award at Regent Park Film Festival. She is currently in post-production for the short horror film 'Fresh Meat,' which was a ScreenCraft Finalist, and trying not to get distracted by every new streaming release.
Fonna Seidu | Producer
Fonna Seidu is a producer that swoops in to keep teams on-time and on-budget. Her slate of narrative projects are diverse, commercially viable, and cater to niche audiences. Fonna’s first producing credit was on 'Promise Me,' which was directed by Alison Duke and won the Winston W. Moxam Best Black Canadian Shorts Award and Best Short Film at Columbus Black International Film Festival. Since then, she’s worked on over 25 commercials and short films. Fonna has a slate of films in development and production, including “virgins! the series” with creator/showrunner, Aden Abebe, co-producing Carolyn Wu’s short film “Toe The Line” which won Breakthroughs FF pitch contest; and Kiley May’s romantic comedy short “Disclosure” supported by ImagiNATIVE and Charles Street Video; and working alongside NSI alumni, Lora Campbell and Daniel Beckerman, on a queer comedy heist feature film called “Let’s Do This”.
Ashley Iris Gill | Cinematographer
Ashley Iris Gill is a queer cinematographer from Toronto, Canada. She has shot music videos, documentaries, shorts and commercials and worked with clients such as Mercedes Benz Canada, Absolut Vodka, Sprite, NBA, Toyota, Walmart, Fiat, Rogers, and Sleep Country. She is currently a commercial DP at Video Nerve, a division of Publicis, and is repped by Sesler. Ashley plans to continue capturing the world through her emotive and unique gaze. She's continuously growing, exploring her craft, and wants to focus on scripted work in the future.