Clermont Jolicoeur and Danny Gilmore
Ages: 30 and 31
Residence: Montreal
Agencies: Ginette Achim and Premier Role
Buzz: Their no-budget feature Bonzaïon has found fans in Quebec

Things can go really wrong when your girlfriend has been kidnapped by a witch doctor and you have to raise $60,000 fast to win her release. That’s the starting point of Bonzaïon, a wacky $10,000 French-language feature written and directed by Quebec actors Clermont Jolicoeur and Danny Gilmore that also incorporates subplots about a marijuana farm and stumbling upon one’s biological father.

‘We were just sitting on the balcony talking about doing a movie, and Clermont took the idea so seriously that he started writing a script,’ Gilmore recalls. ‘We showed it to our friend, actress Jacinthe René, and she really liked it. That’s how the three of us ended up producing and starring in the film.’

With no funding to speak of, the trio got a miniDV camera and started shooting in Montreal.

‘We basically did it ourselves, along with three others who served as our technical team,’ Jolicoeur says. ‘After we completed it, we sent the tape to all of the distributors. They didn’t know what to do with it, given that we had signed a special agreement with L’union des artistes that allowed us not to pay our actors until the film makes money.’

Eventually, boutique distributor Locomotion picked up Bonzaïon and got it into five Quebec theaters in May. The film saw a decent return, averaging nearly $5,000 per theater in its opening week, one of the highest averages across the province. The film struck a chord with young viewers, some of whom have likened its loose style and general irreverence to the spirit of the French New Wave.

As an actor, Jolicoeur’s credits include the Quebec crime drama series Fortier and the feature Maelström, while Gilmore has starred in the series Temps dur, the feature Gaz Bar Blues and the miniseries Dice. He was nominated for a Genie for the 1996 feature Lilies.

Bonzaïon might have been an overachieving lark, but, with the film behind them, it will be fascinating to see what these talents come up with next.

Gilmore is currently acting in the locally shooting Lifetime MOW Platinum Rush and is looking to shoot a documentary on ‘minors who commit crime,’ he says. Jolicoeur, meanwhile, plans to focus on singing with his band Beluga this summer, but adds that Bonzaïon’s success has shown that ‘I am now more than just an actor. I can now participate in the creative aspects of making a feature film.’ James Careless

Julia Kwan
Age: 39
Residence: Vancouver, BC
Agency: The Characters
Buzz: Debut feature ready for the festivals

Julia Kwan says she’s always been interested in making films that reflect her cultural reality, and now her first feature, Eve and the Fire Horse, about a Chinese girl who wrestles with the weighty issues of religion and superstition, is ready for festival season.

Distributed by Mongrel Media and produced by Yves J. Ma, Erik Paulsson and Shan Tam, Fire Horse benefits from a cast that includes Vivian Wu (Joy Luck Club), a score by Mychael Danna and a sound mix by Daniel Pellerin.

Kwan has journeyed a long path to find the success she is now enjoying. Having wanted to be a writer from a young age, she attended Toronto’s Ryerson University for film studies. During that time, she wrote and directed a short film called Inflamed (1993), which garnered her the best experimental film award at the Canadian Student Film Festival in Montreal and the Chairman’s Award at TVOntario Telefest.

The director continued her output of short films after Ryerson, making Prized Possession (1997) and 10,000 Delusions (1999), which won her the Lumiere Award at the New Orleans International Film Festival. She continued her filmmaking education at the Canadian Film Centre, and during her time there wrote and directed Three Sisters on Moon Lake (2001), which screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, the CFC’s Worldwide Short Film Festival and many other international fests.

Her success in shorts led to Eve and the Fire Horse, which she actively began developing three years ago. Unlike other directors’ experiences on their first feature, Kwan says the only real drama on the set of Eve mercifully ended up on the screen.

‘Overall it was very serendipitous,’ says Kwan. ‘I can’t complain in terms of a first experience.’

Although she says she is interested in making films that she can relate to culturally, Kwan does not intend to limit herself to ‘small humanist’ projects.

‘They are not the only kinds of films I want to make, but there has to be some sort of emotion that I connect with [in my work],’ she says. ‘I’m now becoming interested in doing something more epic. Maybe a martial arts film or something to challenge myself with.’

Kwan’s next project will be called Smile and marks her return to the short film realm. With financing already secured from CHUM and CBC, she hopes to get the project underway this fall. And even though she can now class herself as a feature director, she says there are still short stories she wants to tell.

‘I love the short film format and the challenge of telling a story in a very succinct way,’ says Kwan. Dustin Dinoff

Warren Sonoda
Age: 32
Residence: Toronto
Agency: CTI Artists Management
Buzz: Directed potential cult comedy Ham & Cheese

Warren Sonoda is ‘Canada’s next Ivan Reitman,’ according to his agent, David Ritchie.

Using just $100,000 of private money and help from ACTRA’s Toronto Indie Production program, Sonoda directed the ‘potential cult classic’ Ham & Cheese. At least, that’s the appraisal offered by Variety’s Ken Eisner. ‘A must see!’ Eisner raved. ‘[Sonoda] does an excellent job of ratcheting up the yuks.’

‘Once [the review] came out, everyone started calling. I heard from Paramount and Universal, and even got a face-to-face with the head of Miramax,’ recalls Sonoda, who attended Toronto’s Ryerson University film school.

This all proved a heady intro into feature film for the director, who, in league with Toronto’s Black Walk Productions and TWOTHREEFIVEFILMS, has helmed more than 100 music videos and won six national music video awards.

Ham & Cheese tells the story of a pair of star-struck but utterly untalented Canadian comics, played by Jason Jones and Mike Beaver, who also wrote the script.

Sonoda sold Black Walk executive producer Mihkel Harilaid on the concept, and it took four months to shoot and edit the movie on miniDV. Along the way, the script attracted actors including former Kids in the Hall Scott Thompson and Dave Foley along with The Daily Show’s Samantha Bee for a fraction of their usual salaries.

The film was distributed theatrically by Toronto boutique Decade and will come out on DVD in August through kaBOOM!

Meanwhile, Sonoda is developing two new features: the horror flick Dark Matter and Run, a teen thriller being produced in association with Black Walk. James Careless