People think that being a film producer is just about writing cheques, says Tony Lau, but he has learned better.

“It’s a lot of work,” says Lau, a UWindsor professor of communications, media and film. He is producing the feature Stand Up Man with director Aram Collier.

The project received $120,000 in seed funding from the federal agency Telefilm Canada. Its Micro-Budget Production Program provides monies for the development, production, distribution and promotion of a first feature-length film.

“I know that $120,000 sounds like a lot of money, but it really isn’t for a project of this nature,” Lau says. “My job is to maximize the use of the budget.”

He has marshalled resources available to him in his adopted home of Windsor. The film’s crew, which combines professionals with 25 of Lau’s students, has spent about a week shooting at locations across the city—including on the University campus.

“We really want this to be a love letter to the city,” says Lau, who came with his family to Windsor at age 12 from his native Hong Kong. He attended Dougall Avenue Public School and Kennedy Collegiate before graduating from the University of Windsor with a BA in communications in 2004. “I gave Aram all the input about when I grew up here.”

Once he had seen what Windsor has to offer, Collier was determined to have the setting play a major role in the film.

“Windsor as a city has something unique that you can’t get in Toronto,” he says. “Even though we’re on an extremely tight budget, it’s worth every penny to shoot here.”

Stand Up Man follows a young Korean Canadian as he reluctantly returns to his hometown of Windsor to take care of the family restaurant and his immigrant teenage cousin, who dreams of musical stardom. The filmmakers describe it as Silver Linings Playbook meets About a Boy with elements of stand-up comedy and K-pop.

Lau is proud to have involved students in the production, where they have the opportunity to assist outstanding professionals.

“It’s important for my students to see that they can create content in their own backyard,” he says. “We pay them, and they get a chance to work as part of this awesome tech crew.”

The filmmakers will relocate to Toronto later this week for additional production work. Lau and Collier hope to host a private screening of the film for Windsorites this fall.

Heading up a team that worked with entrepreneurs launching food-related businesses made for an amazing year, says Srushti Thaker.

“It was one of the best experiences I have had with the team, while learning a lot along the way,” Thaker said. “I only wish I could do it all over again.”

The third-year business major was recognized as best project leader by Enactus Canada at the student leadership development organization’s national exposition last week in Toronto. Her project, CookStart, provides one-on-one mentorship to entrepreneurs seeking to start new enterprises in the food industry.

“It has to be individualized because every start-up is different,” said Thaker. “One-on-one mentorship provides clients with business knowledge as well as emotional support throughout the program.”

The project won two additional awards for Enactus Windsor:

• the Walmart Women’s Economic Empowerment Project Partnership for educating and empowering female entrepreneurs; and
• the Tim Hortons Making a True Difference Project Partnership for addressing specific and unique needs and opportunities in communities.

CookStart helped 37 participants—31 of them women—launch 16 new food businesses.

“Empowering a woman empowers her entire family as well as her community,” said Nicole Almond, Enactus Canada president. “We are proud to recognize the Enactus Windsor team who dramatically changed the lives of 31 women and their families.”

Thaker praised the 17 students who worked on the project, saying the experience deepened their appreciation of their business education.

“You’re helping real people get their businesses off the ground,” she said. “It makes an actual impact.”

Working on AUTO21 was the “adventure of a lifetime,” scientific director and chief executive officer Peter Frise said Thursday during a reception to celebrate the 15-year run of the Network of Centres of Excellence.

Based at the University of Windsor, the organization wound up its operations recently. It brought together researchers from almost 50 Canadian universities, including the UWindsor faculties of engineering, science, human kinetics, nursing, business, arts and social sciences.

“Starting something new isn’t easy, and that is particularly true of something as big and complicated as a national research network operating within a large federal program,” Dr. Frise said. “Most people never get that opportunity and so it was a tremendous honour to be asked in the spring of 2000 to lead the proposal writing team of what became the AUTO21 NCE.”

Frise, a UWindsor professor of mechanical and automotive engineering, said that the team came from across Canada representing industry and academe to develop a productive, efficient, trusted and transparent organization. He praised its staff, supporters, researchers and more than 2,400 students who worked with AUTO21.

One of the largest of Canada’s Networks of Centres of Excellence, it resulted in more than 320 patents, licenses and commercialization agreements and generated nearly $2.6 billion in economic benefit. From improving vehicle safety and fuel economy to advancing manufacturing processes and vehicle connectivity, its research has saved lives, reduced greenhouse gas emissions and saved industry millions of dollars.

K. W. Michael Siu, UWindsor vice-president, research and innovation, called it a tremendous success.

“Thanks to the hard work and dedication of Dr. Peter Frise and his team, we are delighted to have been able to leverage AUTO21 support to the immense social and economic benefit for the nation, the region and the University of Windsor,” Dr. Siu said.

“Auto21 was one of the longest running and best managed NCEs thanks to the leadership of Peter Frise and the great work of Auto21 staff,” added Merhdad Saif, dean of engineering.

Read a report detailing the legacy of AUTO21.

A class assignment has turned into a great opportunity for Faith Lauzon-Collins. The communications major is one of two UWindsor students among eight finalists in the Council of Ontario Universities’ annual Innovative Designs for Accessibility (IDeA) competition, which focuses on removing barriers for people with disabilities.

Tasked by professor Brian A. Brown in his new media studies course with finding applications for Google Glass, Lauzon-Collins proposed an app that can read American Sign Language and display a real-time translation.

With some updates to her paper, she took third place in the UWindsor’s internal IDeA competition, and went on to qualify for the provincial final. She will present the concept, “I Saw the Sign,” at the Ontario Centre of Excellence Discovery Conference at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on May 9 and 10.

Windsor’s first-place finisher, Laura Pineault, also made the cut. The behaviour, cognition and neuroscience student launched a campaign to educate businesses and their employees on aphasia—a language impairment that affects the production or comprehension of speech—giving them the ability to better serve customers affected by it and other disabilities. Pineault recruited five local enterprises to participate in her Aphasia Friendly Business Campaign.

COU president David Lindsay said the competition challenges students to come up with creative solutions to improve access for all Ontarians.

“It’s incredible to think of the lives that could be improved as a result of the remarkable ideas featured here today,” he said. “This is a great example of the value our universities place on encouraging students to think about barriers faced by people with disabilities and to take that awareness into the world with them in order to help make our province more accessible.”

All 21 Ontario universities participated in the contest. The winner and two runners-up will receive prizes of $1,500, $1,000 and $500 respectively. A bonus prize of $1,500 will be awarded to the IDeA that best addresses a barrier in business.

Tamlynn Bryson will perform in four Fringe festivals this summer and says she is thrilled to start in Windsor with her solo comedy (in)decision.

A recent grad of the BFA acting program, she co-wrote the play with Kyle Kimmerly and premiered it under the title Working Title: Undecided in 2015, when the two were both drama students.

Bryson plays Tess, who finds herself torn when her boyfriend unexpectedly proposes marriage. Using any decision-making device that she has at hand, along with the varied opinions of the audience members, Tess goes on a hilarious and frantic journey to determine the one word that will change the rest of her life.

The show opened on the weekend at the Windsor-Walkerville Fringe Festival and will enjoy two more performances: Wednesday and Saturday, May 11 and 14, in the Olde Walkerville Theatre, 1564 Wyandotte Street East.

Find more information on the festival’s website.

The United Way/Centraide of Windsor-Essex County has conferred its Youth Changing Lives Award on Lina Chaker, a senior student in the communications, media and film program, in recognition of her volunteer work establishing a community kitchen at UWindsor and a community garden.

Chaker is also the focus of a new short documentary by local filmmaker and UWindsor alumnus Dan Brown that highlights her work helping welcome Syrian refugees to their new home in the city.

One Home includes narration by Lina Chaker’s father, Ahmad Chaker, who co-founded the Syrian Canadian Council. One Home was also a semi-finalist in TVOntario’s Short Doc Contest. Watch it here:

UWindsor alumni and friends are eligible for discounted tickets to select preview performances at the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake this summer.

Canada’s second-largest repertory theatre company, the festival applies certain restrictions on this offer. Find more info, including the discount code, on the alumni office website.