Doug Sutherland knows what it’s like to go it alone. Since 1991 he’s been trying to produce a feature, a romantic comedy, in New Brunswick.

Yes, a feature. In New Brunswick.

‘From the very beginning, from inside and outside the industry, people have been asking me what business I have to be doing this. You might say it was a labor of love at first. Right nowwell, let’s just say I no longer love this project.’

Since finishing the script for Love Potion in 1991, Sutherland has shot 24 days with a crew of volunteers, buying film stock as he goes along. Funding has consisted of a small contribution from the New Brunswick government and whatever Sutherland, a corporate video producer, could scrape together.

All over the Atlantic provinces these days, producers and filmmakers continue to talk about the smaller pool of resources and their isolation from funders. Looking to the success in Nova Scotia, many are pushing for film commissions of their own to help secure financing and promote infrastructure. The time has come, they say. Sutherland wholeheartedly agrees.

Outside Halifax, the $1,000 cup of coffee is still very much a reality. Although Nova Scotia is beginning to be recognized as a center, and a closer one than Toronto at that, the sense of isolation from funders still exists.

The production climate in the region, depending on where you are, is hot and cold. While filmmakers and producers from New Brunswick and p