Boxcutter is a funny and real feature film about making it as an artist. It had its International debut screening at South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas on March 8th, 2025.
We subsequently had a chance to talk with Director Reza Dahya.
HNMAG: Congratulations on screening at SXSW. Did you, decide on different festivals to enter?
Reza Dahya: Yeah, definitely but SXSW was one of our dream festivals. It was one of the two main festivals that we wanted to get into from the start. It’s amazing that we’re here.
HNMAG: Are you heading back to Toronto after SXSW?
Reza Dahya: Oh, actually, I live in New York right now.
HNMAG: Did you grow up in Toronto?
Reza Dahya: I grew up between Vancouver and Toronto.
HNMAG: Oh, you went back and forth?
Reza Dahya: No, sorry, I grew up in Vancouver, then I moved to Toronto and stayed in Toronto.
HNMAG: Why did you move to Toronto?
Reza Dahya: I moved there to study radio and television at Ryerson.
HNMAG: You really got to know the city because Boxcutter shows Toronto as Toronto more thoroughly than any other film.
Reza Dahya: Oh, wow, really?
HNMAG: Yeah, you see the street cars, you see downtown, you see different neighborhoods.
Reza Dahya: It really has a good visual representation of the city. Often, when productions are shot in Toronto or Vancouver, they’re always trying to make it look like the United States. That breaks my heart because how many years have we seen that?
We should have a hundred Boxcutter’s by now.
HNMAG: Hopefully, this will lead to that. Will you have a theatrical release?
Reza Dahya: Yeah, we have Canadian distribution. So, we will have a theatrical release. We’re aiming for this summer. We’re currently working on trying to get sales in other territories, too.
HNMAG: When you were in Vancouver, were you interested in radio or some other type of artistic endeavor?
Reza Dahya: Vancouver was where I learned about putting together the first pieces of what I might want to do, which was music.
That’s why I first went into radio and television arts. It was to learn about radio, learn about audio, learn about editing. I also learned about studio production and working with artists, mixing, and mastering.
HNMAG: Where did your studies take you?
Reza Dahya: I was always a studio person, and I was on the radio in Toronto on Flow 93.5.
HNMAG: Were you a DJ?
Reza Dahya: I was a host and a producer.
HNMAG: What was your show about?
Reza Dahya: Our show was on Flow 93.5; It was Canada’s first Black-owned station and first hip-hop station. They went through three different applications with the CRTC and finally got it. They went on air in 2001. We started our show in 2005. It lasted till 2011, so it was on the air for five or six years.
We had the number-one hip-hop show in the city. It was a hub of activity for the local scene.
HNMAG: Did you talk to Drake?
Reza Dahya: We did, yeah, in 2006. We gave him one of his first big radio interviews when he was coming up.
HNMAG: That Kendrick Lamar beef with Drake, is that real?
Reza Dahya: That is real, yeah. The competition element in hip-hop is the main part of it. It was rooted in the competition between MCs. Then it just spiraled and became this larger beast of a beef.
HNMAG: When someone is pursuing a creative career, there’s that almost impossible struggle, where you have to do whatever it takes to make it. In Boxcutter, that’s what Rome is fighting for in a way, right?
Reza Dahya: That’s a theme. That’s something important for anyone who’s watching this movie to realize. You have to go for it and then have faith. As long as you have something honest to share. Hopefully, someone will pick up what you put down.
HNMAG: It’s a difficult pursuit.
Reza Dahya: It can be really challenging, and it takes a certain type of person. Artists need to live in this weird dichotomy of incredible self-doubt on one side and incredible self-confidence on the other. Both of those things are happening at the same time.
HNMAG: For performers, often, the audiences don’t realize how difficult it is to get up on stage in front of them and then go live on television. It’s terrifying!
That’s what’s happened with Rome; he’s terrified, and maybe that’s his relationship with social media and putting himself on the Internet. What if it doesn’t go well? How do you make a movie interesting where the big decision is the big change in this character, such as starting an Instagram page?
Reza Dahya: Putting out a song might seem so small, but there’s so much going on inside before that moment, before that choice.
HNMAG: Another thing that happens a lot in Vancouver as well as Toronto is gentrification. We see that in the movie, too. That affects people, and it’s pushing them out of their neighborhoods.
Reza Dahya: Yeah, totally. It’s so much change, often not fair for a lot of people. It makes people feel they’re not welcome in their own home. We didn’t want to hammer it. We wanted it to be in the background.
Reza Dahya grew up in Vancouver, BC, and was passionate about radio and music. He continued his pursuit of that passion in his studies in Toronto. That journey continued with a hip-hop radio show, and now he has made his first feature film. Boxcutter is a poignant and authentic movie about artists trying to make it in Toronto and fight for their integrity. Hopefully, it will be seen around the world and will lead to a lot more successful films that tell Canadian stories.