"Please make yourself comfortable....take a deep breath, let it out, and focus on your senses.” These are the soft, yet strangely chilling words you hear at the beginning of the short drama, “The Logging Road”, winner of the Spacefy Award for Best Online Short at T.O. WebFest 2019. 

Prince George-based director Daniel Stark’s beautifully crafted short film opens with an RCMP officer patrolling at night, alone on a dark and remote road, and listening to a guided meditation to try to calm his nerves. Tension is created from the opening seconds, and continues to build as the officer encounters a suspicious vehicle and must face his fears. 

The Logging Road explores an aspect of what has become known as the “Highway of Tears”, an important and tragic Canadian story that continues to unfold. Since 1969, dozens of women, mostly Indigenous, have been murdered or gone missing over a 750 km stretch of road between Prince George and Prince Rupert in central British Columbia. As the film’s prologue explains, only one of these cases has been solved in over five decades. 

The 6ixSigma Production was just one of many strong entries showcased at the 6th annual T.O. WebFest, held at TIFF Bell Lightbox from July 11th - 13th, where hundreds of podcasters and web series creators gathered to support, connect, promote, and celebrate independent digital creators from all over the globe. 

Watch “The Logging Road” - Spacefy Best Online Short Award Winner, T.O. WebFest 2019

Besides the many screenings, the festival offered a number of workshops and seminars, including fireside chats with Colin McRae and Jason Ford of Shopify Studios, Aron Levitz of Wattpad Studios, and Gave Lindo of CBC GEM, as well as a fundraising discussion that featured panelists from the Canadian Media Fund, Independent Production Fund and Bell Fund. 

The celebration concluded with the T.O. WebFest 2019 Awards Show on Saturday, July 13th. 

Spacefy is proud to celebrate and support emerging talent.