VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA — (Marketwired) — 11/02/15 — TELUS, through its Optik Local community programming, is proudly awarding more than $3.2 million in funding to support more than 60 new local content projects in Western Canada this year.
Optik Local supports compelling, original storytelling in British Columbia and Alberta by providing funding and training to filmmakers, as well as a platform to share their content with new audiences. Content is distributed for free on TELUS Optik On Demand as well as online.
“Optik Local is unique in the Canadian content funding space. It–s an innovative model that enables diverse voices to be heard and local stories to be told,” said Blair Miller, vice-president of Content Solutions at TELUS. “Since 2013, we–ve funded nearly 100 local projects and this year–s group of established and emerging filmmakers, organizations and storytellers is particularly promising.”
Some of the 2015/2016 TELUS Optik Local supported projects include:
Other returning partners include the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, Whistler Blackcomb, the Calgary Drop-In and Rehab Centre Society, Air Canada enRoute Film Festival, the Vancouver Public Library, Crankworx Whistler, and many more.
For a full list of all new projects supported by Optik Local, click .
Previous Optik Local-funded projects have gone on to garner media attention, win awards and screen at film festivals and web festivals. “The Drive,” a dramatic web-series about the lives of a group of young adults who live on Commercial Drive, was called “the best TV show about Vancouver in a long time” by Vancouver Is Awesome. Acclaimed documentary series “Invincible,” featuring host quadruple amputee Daniel Ennett, won Best Web Series at the Edmonton Short Film Festival, and the Audience Award at the Top Shorts Film Festival. Experimental web series “Mythos” was invited to the Marseille Web Fest and won Best Direction Web Series at the 2015 Leo Awards.
TELUS awards Optik Local grants once a year, with an annual deadline for applications at the end of June. This year, TELUS received more than 220 applications for funding. This grant funding is in addition to the projects greenlit by the innovative STORYHIVE funding platform; bringing TELUS– support of local content creators to more than $4.2 million annually.
For more information and to view Optik Local programming, please visit optiklocal.com.
About TELUS
TELUS (TSX: T)(NYSE: TU) is Canada–s fastest-growing national telecommunications company, with $12.3 billion of annual revenue and 13.9 million customer connections, including 8.4 million wireless subscribers, 3.1 million wireline network access lines, 1.5 million high-speed Internet subscribers and 954,000 TELUS TV customers. TELUS provides a wide range of communications products and services, including wireless, data, Internet protocol (IP), voice, television, entertainment and video, and is Canada–s largest healthcare IT provider.
In support of our philosophy to give where we live, TELUS, our team members and retirees have contributed more than $396 million to charitable and not-for-profit organizations and volunteered and more than 6 million hours of service to local communities since 2000. Created in 2005 by President and CEO Darren Entwistle, TELUS– 11 Canadian community boards and 4 International boards have led the Company–s support of grassroots charities and will have contributed more than $54 million in support of over 4,800 local charitable projects by the end of 2015, enriching the lives of more than 2.1 million children and youth. TELUS was honoured to be named the most outstanding philanthropic corporation globally for 2010 by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, becoming the first Canadian company to receive this prestigious international recognition.
For more information about TELUS, please visit telus.com.
Contacts:
Ryan Bazeley
TELUS Media Relations
416-738-6063
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