Andres Landau, co-founder and editor at Victory Social Club in Toronto, watches Zach Cox, co-founder and colourist, work on a project in their studio.Melissa Tait/The Globe and Mail
If the Canadian film and television industry has a secret headquarters, it just might be tucked away in an unassuming west-end Toronto commercial building, sandwiched between a Portuguese bank and the ancient Soo Ling Beads & Beading Company.
It is on the second floor of this space near Ossington Avenue and Dundas Street, just up the unmarked stairs and then past the faded sign announcing the entrance to “Vitória de Setúbal Club of Toronto,” where an industrious group of artists – directors, producers, editors, sound mixers, designers, animators, photographers – have banded together to create a unique hub that has birthed countless movies and series over the past dozen years. Including four projects premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival next week.
Ali Weinstein (right), director of Your Tomorrow, a documentary premiering this year at TIFF, works with assistant editor Michal Heuston at Victory Social Club.Melissa Tait/The Globe and Mail
Welcome to the Victory Social Club, a home away from home for filmmakers that serves as a rebuke to the idea that creative storytelling must be done out of either hot-desking agencies or blandly corporate co-working spaces.
“It all started very organically as a bunch of us had finished working on a project out in Kensington Market, and the owner needed us out,” recalls Victory co-founder Andres Landau, a veteran editor and close collaborator of the late director Charles Officer (Akilla’s Escape, Unarmed Verses). “I found this place, which was an actual Portuguese social club, started talking soccer with the owner, and eventually we shook hands to come up with a deal to move in.”
Alex Kurina (centre), co-founder and graphic designer at Victory Social Club speaks to intern Ziwei Zhao while Ryan V. Hays, co-founder and VFX producer, works on a title project.Melissa Tait/The Globe and Mail
Initially, the space was a jumble, with windows covered by soccer trophies and memorabilia. And then there was the frequent odour of fried food that would waft up from the sports bar downstairs. But gradually, Landau and his fellow artists knocked down walls, built their own furniture, installed soundproof editing suites, took over the neighbouring social club next door and transformed Victory into an enviable destination for storytellers looking for that essential element in creativity: collaboration.
“Being among other artists operating at the highest ends of their specialty is the driving factor,” says Geoff Morrison, a Victory member and founder of Big Cedar Films who produced Ali Weinstein’s new Ontario Place documentary Your Tomorrow, which will have its world premiere at TIFF on Sept. 12. “I needed some colour-correction done on the doc the other week, so I just popped into the colourist’s suite here. I feel that I take it for granted that I have these people around – it becomes ingrained in your process.”
May Truong, photographer and member at Victory Social Club.Melissa Tait/The Globe and Mail
The space has also become a refuge for creative types who have found themselves increasingly pushed out of the city because of redevelopment and rising rents. Not to mention cafés that are already shouldering increasing loads of remote-work WiFi traffic.
“Working in this field, you’re either surrounded by strangers or you’re home alone, but not here,” says filmmaker and animator Luca Tarantini, who alongside BlackBerry cinematographer Jared Raab worked on the acclaimed new documentary Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story here. Steps away are such fellow creatives as photographer May Truong and VFX producer Alex Kurina, another one of Victory’s co-founders.
The dynamic has helped Victory’s occupants – 20 or so at the moment, each paying annual membership fees – develop an astonishing number of high-profile projects inside the space. In addition to Your Tomorrow, Victory’s TIFF-bound projects include Kazik Radwanski’s romantic dramedy Matt and Mara, whose sound was mixed by Victory member Gabe Knox; director Sofia Bohdanowicz’s drama Measures for a Funeral, whose sound was also mixed by Victory’s Lucas Prokaziuk; and Courtney Montour and Tanya Talaga’s CBC documentary series The Knowing, whose every step of postproduction was carried out inside the building.
Gabe Knox, sound mixer at Victory Social Club, works on a project in his mixing studio.Melissa Tait/The Globe and Mail
Technically, there are five TIFF contributions this year if we count the new romantic comedy Young Werther, given that director José Lourenço was a Victory member while developing the film, although production and post happened elsewhere.
“At every single major Canadian film festival, and beyond, we’ve had stuff come right from here,” Landau says, name-checking everything from the 2022 Oscar-shortlisted doc Nuisance Bear to director Chandler Levack’s hit 2022 Canadian comedy I Like Movies, whose colourist Zach Cox is another Victory co-founder.
Yet the Victory is not a bubble immune to the myriad challenges facing the country’s screen sector – up to and including the workspace sector, which suffered a tremendous blow after the collapse of Toronto’s non-profit housing and studio provider Artscape last year.
“We reached our peak right before COVID, and since then we’ve seen stories like the one at Artscape. We’ve been able to survive the shockwaves, and we’re trying to come up with solutions and rethinking ourselves in ways that can bring in funding or more collaborators over longer terms,” Landau says.
“But people see the value. The fact that I can turn around and show a 30-second cut of footage to the person at the desk next to me instead of sitting in a basement alone, that can make all the difference.”
Victory Social Club is a creative media and arts studio in the west end of Toronto with nearly two dozen multi-disciplinary members. The group takes a unique approach to business, with members sharing the co-working space to work independently and collaboratively on film, tv and commercial projects.Melissa Tait/The Globe and Mail