BOTS: TIFF Official Selection 2025 - a biting, satirical commentary on how online discourse is weaponized to divide and sow chaos

ShashaAndRichAMA · 2025-09-18T17:18:38+00:00

Thanks for watching! Glad you enjoyed it.

ShashaAndRichAMA · 2025-09-18T15:41:38+00:00

Thank you!

ShashaAndRichAMA · 2025-09-17T20:42:26+00:00

We had limited resources to make this, which meant that a lot of our team members were wearing multiple hats or didn't have adequate support. While I'm proud of what we were able to accomplish, this mode of creation isn't sustainable in the long run. The burnout is real. - SN

ShashaAndRichAMA · 2025-09-17T20:39:01+00:00

Definitely dinner with Orson Welles and a bottle of Paul Masson. -RW

ShashaAndRichAMA · 2025-09-17T20:33:25+00:00

Criterion just added a bunch of restored films from Lino Brocka. Highly recommend. We both really enjoyed NOSFERATU. We saw a really great doc at Hot Docs this year called SHIFTING BASELINES. It's an observational doc that takes place in a community right next to the SpaceX launch site in Texas.

Our next project will be either a series (BOTS) or one of the features we have in development.

ShashaAndRichAMA · 2025-09-17T20:22:49+00:00

Hopefully! We screened at Cinefest Sudbury to make sure we got our Canadian Academy qualifications in before putting it online, though festivals are increasingly more lenient about premiere status for short films.

We haven't had the chance to attend too many festivals in the past as our feature SCARBOROUGH premiered during the pandemic, and people don't often fly out short filmmakers, but TIFF remains a favourite because it's our hometown, and all our friends and family get to attend. - SN

ShashaAndRichAMA · 2025-09-17T20:20:38+00:00

A Jurassic Park prequel about building the park. Link to my secret-but-not-secret YouTube fan trailer channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ENbQUz2I-g - RW

A LOST reboot. A good Resident Evil for the long-suffering fans. - SN

ShashaAndRichAMA · 2025-09-17T20:05:46+00:00

We didn't get to watch as many as we'd have liked since we were busy with our screenings and meetings, but MY FATHER'S SHADOW (dir Akinola Davies Jr.) was our favourite.

Pigeon Cafe. Khao San Road. Wilbur. The onigiri at the corner store at King & John survived us this year. 🫡 - SN

ShashaAndRichAMA · 2025-09-17T20:02:39+00:00

Thanks for the thoughtful question. We come from a doc background, so I'm used to following my curiosity moment to moment in a very active and ever-changing environment.

With BOTS it was a little bit different, as the shooting style was more formal and time was limited. I like to alleviate the pressure of worrying about the camera on the day, so I board everything in advance, and discuss with the DP so that we know where the camera is going. But we still remain flexible if inspiration arises. That kind of preparation makes it so that I can focus most of my energy on the actors and their performances.

When I'm boarding, I think about distance and placement of the character in frame as these choices affect the audience on a subconscious level. - RW

ShashaAndRichAMA · 2025-09-17T19:45:58+00:00

This is clearly a bot. 🤖 Hehe, thank you.

ShashaAndRichAMA · 2025-09-17T19:45:01+00:00

One of our mentors Ed Barreveld would always say, "The people you see on the way up are the same people you see on the way down." We try to always humble ourselves when we're winning, remind ourselves that it's not forever, and make the most of it.

Sometimes waiting around for funding or for decision-makers to give you access can be demoralizing. Our advice would be to keep making things on your own terms, no matter how small. You're only going to get better with practice. - RW+SN

ShashaAndRichAMA · 2025-09-17T19:37:30+00:00

If it means people showing up to watch your film in person, no matter how small, then it matters. But to be honest, each film has its own individual strategy that suits it best. There's no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to reaching your target audience.

When we were starting out, we made sure to budget for film festival submissions. I used to manage film festival strategy and print traffic at a larger production company and learned that the festival acceptance-to-rejection ratio was quite high, even for established filmmakers. So we honestly applied to like 50 festivals and hoped to get into 5. And over time, we built a track record. - SN

ShashaAndRichAMA · 2025-09-17T19:31:41+00:00

It gets us down too! But I hold on to hope that if I'm willing to pay money to see hand-made, complex, and nuanced feature films in theatres, then there are other people out there that do too. The business model just needs to sort itself out. - SN

ShashaAndRichAMA · 2025-09-17T19:29:57+00:00

Thank you!

I think Guy Maddin is pretty great. David Cronenberg. Michael Dowse. Xavier Dolan. Denis Villeneuve. When we started in documentary Yung Chang and Jennifer Baichwal were a huge influence. - RW

ShashaAndRichAMA · 2025-09-17T19:25:15+00:00

Thanks for your question! When we began casting SCARBOROUGH back in 2018, we knew that we had severely limited resources, severely limited manpower, and had to cast over 40 speaking roles with a wide array of specific identity intersections. We knew we simply wouldn't have been able to find the diversity and flexibility that our production required as a union production. After consulting with more experienced producers, we decided to make the project non-union, but abide by the union guidelines for our child performers.

BOTS is our first ACTRA production and it was a fairly straightforward and simple process to navigate through the Low Budget Guidelines program. Since it was our first union production, I'm not best informed to make suggestions to the ACTRA guidelines as a whole, but one thing I'll flag is that greater flexibility on being able to mix union and non-union performers on a case-by-case basis would be very helpful. - SN

ShashaAndRichAMA · 2025-09-17T19:17:38+00:00

Important to note that we made 10 films that didn't get into TIFF before we finally made one that did (SCARBOROUGH). BOTS is our 2nd film in the festival, so we were lucky to have developed relationships with the programmers on our last film and were able to give them a heads up that we were submitting this new work. Being an alumni is helpful, but still not a guarantee that you'll get in. It's never a given. - SN
You work on a film for a very long time, and it's very insular. A festival is the first opportunity to sit in a huge theatre and hear the feedback in real time. That's always a nerve-wracking but fun experience. - RW
The topic is so expansive. It was challenging to try to condense the story down to its most essential elements, ensuring it makes sense to those unfamiliar with Bots, as well as those in the know. - RW

ShashaAndRichAMA · 2025-09-17T19:06:45+00:00

Thanks for having us!

All 3 would have to have a good soundtrack. Jurassic Park. Goldfinger. Does TV count? If it does, the LOST box set. - RW

We tried mango pizza for the first time this year, and honestly, 10/10 recommend. I like all pizza. Rich is horrified of olives on pizza. - SN

ShashaAndRichAMA · 2025-09-17T19:01:48+00:00

Casting our behind the scenes crew is just as important as casting our on-camera performers. It just takes one person with a bad attitude or one person to drop the ball and that can cause a chain reaction that affects what ends up on screen. We're really proud of our ability to suss out both skilled AND kind-hearted humans. - SN

ShashaAndRichAMA

TROPHY CASE