Kamloops film director wins support for debut feature on homelessness

A well-known Kamloops film director has been recognized for her feature debut film Mary and awarded an opportunity to have the film polished and packaged by industry professionals.

Cjay Boisclair is the recipient of the 2025 Advantage Award by Women In the Director’s Chair, a national body providing professional development to Canadian women and non-binary directors of screen-based fiction.

Boisclair’s debut film Mary is based on an emotionally charged short film she created a few years ago called The Bench, which follows the uncertain and isolated life of a homeless teenager trying to survive a winter in Kamloops.

She infused her film with her own experiences of homelessness.

“When you’re living on the street and making those decisions, the world looks at you differently and it doesn’t matter what your background is, people view you through a certain lens,” she said. “I wanted to show that everybody has a story, everybody has a reason for being there.

“It was something really important for me to tell and something that was always inside of me. It’s a nod to my past but also a nod to where I am now.” 

While taking risks to find food and shelter, the main character Mary receives kindness from some strangers and cruelty from others and ends up trying to fall asleep on a bench in the cold.

In Boisclair’s first version of The Bench created in 2017, Mary starts on the same bench she ends up on.

“It speaks to the cycles of trying to survive, it’s literally a full circle because it’s this cycle you get into and it’s hard to get out and make changes,” Boisclair said.

The first 2017 version of The Bench was rejected by an editor of Boisclair’s for poor sound quality, but she kept it on her hard drive until she became a more capable editor herself and touched it up to produce the 2022 version as part of a 30-day filmmaking competition called the Musicbed Challenge.

She then wrote a script that expanded the piece from a short film to a full feature, which earned her the Advantage Award with the Women in the Director’s Chair.

Boisclair is receiving one year of personalized mentorship and career coaching, and a spot in the WIDC’s Story and Leadership program to get support in polishing and packaging for financing and production of Mary.

She also received WIDC’s official nomination to Telefilm Canada’s Talent to Watch Program that provides funding for emerging film makers.

“It doesn’t guarantee I get the money to film but it gives me a chance and a good boost in my success rate to get funding,” Boisclair said. “I also have people to help fund me privately.”

Women in the Directors Chair is helping elevate directors to continue their personal and professional growth, in what Boisclair said is a “tough, male dominated industry.”

“Being a female in a film directing role is tough, it’s tough to get people to give you a chance,” she said. “It’s still a male dominated industry, you really have to prove your salt. It isn’t just about being in the right place at the right time, it’s about being tenacious. It feels like women have to do extra and push harder.”

Filming for Mary is set to begin early next year.

“It will be a full-length feature film that will not only show in the film festivals but hopefully end up on one of the larger streaming services,” she said.

“I hope everyone will watch it. I just want to open the door to make people feel and to think. It’s for anyone who needs to feel in touch with humanity.”

Boisclair is the owner and producer at Askem Productions in Kamloops and the force behind numerous made-for-TV movies shot in the Kamloops area and founder of the YKA Film Society, a non-profit creating film industry opportunities in the BC Interior.

She is a multi-award-winning filmmaker whose short film Stood Up played at over 100 festivals worldwide, and garnered more than 75 awards and nominations. 

In March 2024, her company released a teaser trailer for Backburn, a documentary on the Bush Creek East wildfire that destroyed several communities in the Shuswap summer of 2023, which is currently in the editing phase.