"Excitement grows for city film-maker"

Brantford artist Shelly Niro is definitely underwhelmed - for someone who's film is showing at one of North America's top film festivals.

At least, she's trying to be. "I'm trying to remain detached," the 39-year-old Chatham Street woman said Tuesday night.

But with only a short time to go before It Starts With a Whisper is screened at the Festival of Festivals in Toronto, a bit of excitement is creeping in.

"It feels great."

The film, which she completed in 1992, was accepted in the festival's Canadian Perspective Series and will be screened at the Cumberland theatre on Bloor Street, Thursday night and Friday afternoon.

It's a short movie, that she co-produced with Toronto film-maker Anna Groneau, about an Iroquois girl going through adolescence, Ms. Niro explained.

The 27-minute film has had showings in Ohsweken and Brantford as well as Toronto's Euclid theatre, but this is different.

It will screen with professional quality sound equipment to people who appreciate films.