STORY BY DYLAN PAISLEY
PHOTO BY MEHREEN SHAHID
Cory Trépanier fought Arctic wolves, kayaked around glaciers and climbed mountains just to be back at Sheridan.
Last week Trépanier returned to his alma mater to screen his film Into The Arctic II as part of his film tour.
Into The Arctic II, the sequel to Into The Arctic, features Trépanier travel- ling into the north of Canada to paint vast and incredible landscapes. The film screened in the SCAET lecture hall to more than 80 students and alumni registered for the event.
“We wanted to see something new and he used to be a student at Sheridan. He was an Illustration student,” said students Hilary Leeane and Noelle Anne. “He was in Illustration, and we are in Illustration so it was like, we can relate to you.”
“We heard of him beforehand. He was guest speaking,” said Anne. “He showed us some of his first video, Into the Arctic, the first one, so we were interested.”
Once people were let inside, there was a quick introduction about Sheridan’s alumni program, and how many awards alumni have won this season.
In the past two months Sheridan graduates have won two Academy Awards, two Emmy awards, two An- nie awards (animation) and 14 Canadian screen awards.
The film shows Trépanier going deep into the Canadian Arctic wil- derness and showed him having to face things like Arctic wolves, po- lar bears and the elements all while he was painting great landscapes. During the movie, a pack of Arctic wolves came into his camp and he had to shoo them away. They also had to put up an electric fence to keep the polar bears away.
“I know there are dangers out there but you do what you can, no reason worrying. He’s pretty careful, I mean he doesn’t do anything that puts his life at risk,” said Cory’s wife Janet Trépanier.
After the film ended Trépanier had a Q&A with the audience and was
asked questions about how he planned this trip, health concerns and precautions he took to make sure he didn’t get sick and advice for following your dreams.
“You’ve got to be passionate about what you want to do. You have to create work that you believe in and if you don’t believe in it why would anyone else,” he said. “You also have to find what you really want to do, you have to be willing to sacrifice, and you have to work.”
Trépanier also talked about how you need to market yourself.
“You need to learn how to be friends with the word marketing,” said Trépanier.
“Any famous singer, any famous artist, anyone who is famous or that you’ve heard of it’s because of mar- keting. So embracing the business side of art is as critical as the creative side, to actually being able to pursue what he really want to do.”
Trépanier also showed a teaser for his next film TrueWild, then the presenters raffled off copies of Into The Arctic I&II on DVD and four tickets to the next Raptors game.
Trépanier lingered to talk to the au- dience, take pictures and sign DVDs.