Canadian landscape inspires a journey into the meaning of happiness with new short film The ___ Place

Over the course of several months, 28 artists and storyellersfrom the East Coast, Manitobaand Saskatchewan have imagined their own happy places as a creative antidote to the pandemic. The projects, produced by CBC's Creator Network which works with independent producers to tell their storieshave included audio essays,illustrations, videos, photos and this final short filmby Tyler Funk, dancer Emily Solstice Tait, poet and singer Michelle Elrick, and musician Michael Belyea.

Check out the 16other projects by clicking this link:

For Halifax poet and writer Michelle Elrick, happiness used to be child's play.

When she was young, her parents would play a game with her when company came over.

"They would say, 'OK, Michelle, do your happy face,' and I would do this happy face with a big smile. And then they'd say, 'OK, now do your sad face.' 'What about surprised face?'"

That experience helped shape the poem and video collaboration for The ___ Place.

"I wanted to try to complicate that idea and sort of acknowledge that happiness isn't simple: it's not an either-or thing between happy and sad," Elrick said. "Happiness is ... more subtle and experienced-based, I think, than that."

Through the writing process, sherealized her happy place comes from within and is connected to solace, contentment, security and safety.

"It's more a state of mind a sense of being awake and engaged with the experience of being alive," Elrick said. "But nature often brings me there."

Winnipeg filmmaker Tyler Funk first pitched the potential collaboration to Elrick. He wanted to do a visual take on the theme involving nature, but also wanted to include words.

Heworked with Elrick in the past when she lived in Winnipeg, and the twowon an award for best cinematography at the Suffolk InternationalFilm Festival.So Funkknew who to go to.

"And she's like, 'Well, I don't really do poems about happy things,'" hesaid with a laugh.

That sparked a conversation, and a plan deeply rooted in nature. Their co-directedproject started small and expanded to include original sound by Halifax musician Michael Belyea (with an audio mix by Michael Feuerstack), lighting and camera assistance fromRyan Hanson, and contemporary dance by Emily Solstice Tait.

Funk wasn't looking forfull choreography with a story arc. He wanted to splice up the movements, playing on the emotions. He'd filmed dance before, but never directed.

Solstice Tait was up for the task.

"What she brought to the projectisa whole other level," Funk said.

Video chats bridged the distanceand creative visions. Elrick gave notes on the emotions involved in parts of the poem. Solstice Tait experimented with that, and found outfits that would fit the movement and the cold, then filmed potential movements. Funk found three locations for filming during winter in Manitoba: astand of trees, Lake Winnipeg and a winding creek.

They filmed in one day.

"It felt likethree different streams were moving all at once, and then on the day ... it was a meeting point for all thosestreams," saidSolstice Tait.

She practised ahead of time, but left room to interact with the environment.

"You can't push something on nature," said Solstice Tait. "We do that already in our spaces."

The natural environment heavilyinfluenced Elrick's writing, too.

She wrote part of the poem in a spruce grove near her home in Purcells Cove, N.S. There's a spot there where the roots of spruce trees wrap around a large granite boulder. Overtop, there's a layer of spruce needles and moss.

"When I sit on this little root shelf and lean against the boulder, it's a wonderful thing because if the wind blows, I can feel actually the wind moving the trees, and moving the tree roots and the tree against the boulder sort of lift and shift," she said.

"It's like being rocked almost ina tree cradle."

When Elrick is present in the moment, taking in nature, something shifts.

"I can feel close to the world in a way that often I struggle to get to in regular life, with all of the stress and anxiety that regular life brings along."

The Creative Team

The dancer

Emily Solstice Tait's practice is rooted in contemporary dance. Her work crosses into theatre, choreographyand stage management. She was raised in Winnipeg and is of mixed settler and Ojibway ancestry (Berens River First Nation). Her dances have enlivened spaces like The Manitoba Museum and The Forks National Historic Site, and have found their way into indie film and theatre productions in Treaty 1 territory and beyond.

ForSolstice Tait, happiness is a bit elusive. Where we find joy can surprise us, or maybe we can't find it where we used to, she says.

"Happiness seems to come from the outside into your body," she said. "That is, for me, definitely an expanse of nature, like when we were on the lake. That was incredible. But usually for me, it's when I'm, like, with an animal."

The filmmaker

Tyler Funk is an award-winning cinematographer from Winnipeg. His goalis to work on emotionally charged, socially conscious and challenging content, while pushinghimself to deliver visually striking images.

"When I am out filming and fully consumed by the creative process, and specifically in nature with a camera, that is honestly my happy place," Funk said.

"It's almost as ifgetting this project going, and getting the opportunity to collaborate with Michelle and Emily, and having the opportunity to spend an entire day out in nature and film beautiful dance with beautiful lighting and beautiful locations, that really is [a] happy place for me to be in that moment, creating."

The poet

Michelle Elrick is an award-winningCanadian author. Her second collection of poetry, Then/Again,was released in 2017 to critical acclaim.In addition to her published work, she also writes and directs poetry filmsand performsas a spoken word artist with River of Diamonds. She is happiest in the woods, with time to kill. Find her on Instagram @michelle.elrick.

"It's just a wonder to me how much a project can really grow beyond itself, or grow beyond the initial concept of itself, when really talented collaborators are involved, and when everyone is given a chance to really see their personal artistic vision to fruition," she said.

The musician

Michael Belyea is a drummer, composer and producer. Drawing on his extensive experience as an international touring musicianand a session drummer in Montreal, Berlin and Halifax, Michael now primarily works out of his own studio, The Pentagong. (Note: this is also one of his happy places!)

Elrick and Belyea are married, and marry their poetry and music in the bandRiver of Diamonds. Belyea has watched the The ___ Placeevolve on the page, and onthe screen.

"It's like watching something sprout from the ground," he said.

• See more from CBC Manitoba's Creator Network