“Never a Straight Path” Justcarlo (Canada)
──What inspired you to create this film for GIFF 2025?
I have always enjoyed telling stories through the medium of video. I first found out about GIFF in 2021, which was the year I started geocaching. I attended my first GIFF event in 2023 and watching those films in a community setting was very inspiring. I wanted to create a film myself. In fact, I have a youtube channel where I post my geocaching adventures and thoughts about geocaching. The GIFF was a chance to try a different kind of storytelling that I have been thinking about for some time now.
──How many people worked on your film, and how long did the production take?
It was just me! Lol. I’m pretty much a solo film maker, but that’s only because I didn’t reach out to others or try to find additional resources. I didn’t have a long-term plan to film anything. I had a lot of ideas, but they required more people and resources than I had available. I shot the footage in January of 2024, and it was originally for a different video project–something for the Youtube channel, and not really for GIFF. But I didn’t do anything with the footage for a long time, and then in July of 2025, I took another look and decided I really wanted to make something out of the material I had. I began editing around the first week of July, and writing the voiceover at the same time. The voiceover went through a few changes, which affected the video edits. I can’t remember exactly how much time it took, but I submitted the film on the last day of the deadline!
──What was the most memorable or challenging part of making your film?
Because I shot the original footage in 2024, I couldn’t go back and correct anything or record additional footage. Also I recorded in winter, and when I was editing it was summer over one year later so of course the park I filmed at looked very different. I had to be creative in the writing and editing to fill in some parts that might have been missing, but I enjoy that!
──Is there a moment in your film that you hope geocachers around the world will notice or appreciate?
The overall message is to appreciate the small moments of happiness that we find in geocaching (or any other hobby we enjoy for that matter). After watching the past GIFF films, I knew I couldn’t film epic adventures, or design costumes or elaborate props. I didn’t have actors or a film crew, or even lighting. So I chose instead to focus on the emotion of geocaching, of the satisfaction of finding even the small hides, and still enjoy the adventure that brought us there.
──Please share a message for geocachers in Japan.
Hello geocachers of Japan! Not every geocache has to be epic to be fun. I hope you all find moments of happiness when you go out geocaching (sometimes even if it’s a DNF).
出演：Justcarlo、tonitta2199、Jin Kakino