The Kerfuffle
Brooklyn Film Festival Coverage: Xstine Cook and the Bum Family
By Adam Yuster – June 2017
Lilly has to get home. Why? She doesn’t say, but as the friendly orange cyclops notes to her trusted pet Fluffle, it’s very important. At first, getting home seems like a simple task. All Lilly has to do is traverse the Canadian countryside in her tiny red car. But once Lilly is abducted by aliens, it becomes apparent that this is no ordinary road trip. To complete her mission, Lilly will have to escape the aliens and conquer such adversities as heavy traffic, suspicious hitchhikers, and even a brief encounter with Spock…
Kids show their stuff in CIFF's Youth by Youth competition
Louis B. Hobson – September 2016
Because the Calgary International Film Festival is all about the filmmakers and their films, age is never an issue when it comes to showcasing them. […] Here in our own backyard is the astonishing success of the Bum Family, a group of six cousins who have created what they call the Lilly Films…
The Bum Family
Kate Hutchinson – May 2016
Our city is full of talented kids…from sports to academics to the arts! And these next kids are no exception. Kate Hutchinson meets with Calgary’s youngest filmmakers.
Local kids animation featured at CIFF
Stephen Hunt – October 2015
“She’s a (three and a half meter) — 10 foot — tall, one-eyed orange monster who lives in a human world,” says Maisy Cook, 13, Xstine’s daughter and one of the filmmakers, “and does things kind of that a normal human would do, but in her own special way. ”
Calgary based Bum family creates animation
Nora Cruickshank – April 2015
The Bum Family got started on their animation journey in 2011 when Zaiyah Dennie’s mother recorded her talking when she was a child. Her sisters and two other members of the Bum family, Medina and Maezy Dennie then did the drawings to go along with Zaiyah’s voice in their first film called The Birthday…
