boffo edition

Buoyed by banner attendance at the 15th edition of the Summer Institute of Film and Television, held last month in Ottawa, the training program is taking its show on the road, and extending its run at home.

Over 240 participants from 10 provinces flocked to our nation’s capital for the annual week-long workshopping event, that featured three of the four Canadian Cannes selections, accompanied by their directors.

The Institute’s 19 traditional (screenwriting, producing, directing and acting) workshops were joined by an equally popular new entry this year, a Hypermedia workshop headlining documentarian cd Ron Mann and New York-based Voyageur Communications’ Peter Girardi.

Unprecedented numbers were also drawn by another item on the screening agenda, a 15-year retrospective of Canadian cinema.

Given the response to the program, which executive director Tom Shoebridge says is the oldest and the only bilingual training activity in the country, Shoebridge is looking to expand the reach. In order to spread some of the talent-training expertise, workshops are planned for Sudbury, Regina, Toronto and Montreal in the fall and spring, under the banner of the Canadian Screen Training Centre, the non-profit sift parent company.

A 10-week screenwriting program is planned for the fall, and starting in September, a monthly set of six workshops on the business of entertainment will be held in Ottawa. A set of screenwriting workshops in Toronto with Alan Plater is planned for October and a mini-Summer Institute mix of weekend workshops is slated for Sudbury in November. MM