A natural storyteller

Storytelling comes naturally to Charles Wahl. When he first held a VHS camera at age 16, he thought about the potential stories he could make using this tool. Although his tastes in movies may have matured, the basic desire to tell a story remains. He was  introduced to movie making at York Mills Collegiate Institute when he took film and media classes.

“It wasn’t until I took those film classes that I thought about it as a career. I just thought about it as something that people in Hollywood did. I didn’t know it was something normal people could do.”

His film teacher, Mr. Polley, encouraged the teenage Wahl to pursue his passion for films. It was in Mr. Polley’s class that Wahl made his first film. It was, of course, a gangster movie. While at York Mills, Wahl built up a bit of a reputation as a film junkie. So whenever the school had big events, Wahl was asked to film it.  Through those events Wahl learned his way around a camera and experimented with storytelling.

York Mills was where he practised the basics of filmmaking. His skills were rough, but those early years were critical to Wahl and his desire to enter the film industry.

“Me and my friends made an awesome movie, and we had a screening. I was like, ‘OK, this is something I could do.’ I felt like I had a knack for it. It was the first thing that made sense to me.”

After high school, Wahl lived in London, England, working odd jobs.

It was his mother who drew him back to Canada. His mother wanted him to get an education so that he had something to qualify his skills. So he enrolled in Sheridan College’s advanced film and television program and turned his interest into a career.

Now, he is the film industry’s version of a triple threat — he directs features, commercials and music videos. His clients have included the Stephen Lewis Foundation, Pizza Nova, GO Transit and Nestlé.

“With commercials you get to tell cool, concise stories. You get to make these little products that people see all the time.”

His feature film, Webdultry, was just released in Japan. It will be released in the United States this spring.

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