– Forcier’s Comtesse to open FCMM

Andre Forcier’s feature La Comtesse de Baton Rouge will have its world premiere June 5 at the opening of the inaugural edition of Festival international du cinema et des nouveaux medias de Montreal. fcmm is the new film, video and multimedia showcase created by festival directors Claude Chamberlan (New Cinema) and Bernard Boulad (International Short Film Festival) with the financial backing of the Daniel Langlois Foundation. Two hundred productions are on this year’s program, running at five indoor and three outdoor venues June 5-15.

A love story shot on location in Quebec and Louisiana last fall by Max Films, La Comtesse is slated to be released by distrib Compagnie France Film on June 13.

-Star Choice call center in Fredericton

While the future of Canada’s first dth service is grainy post AlphaStar’s untimely demise, Star Choice Television Network, the second Canadian dth service to hit expectant eyeballs, has announced full-steam-ahead initiatives, including deals with major retailers.

In a deal with Star Choice, Radio Shack, which has 800 stores across the country, became the first major electronics chain to carry a Canadian dth service. Star Choice has also signed a deal with Adventure Electronics, which will carry the dth company’s equipment in 155 stores in Ontario and Quebec.

Star Choice also announced the official opening of its Fredericton, n.b. call center. The 40-station call center is expandable to 200 stations, currently employs 50 people, and the company expects to have as many as 300 staff by the end of its third year of operation.

Star Choice launched its service at the end of April. Tee-Comm, owner of the AlphaStar dth service which launched in late March, is currently in receivership. It filed for bankruptcy May 27. Tee-Comm president Al Bahnman resigned on that date.

-Silent Cradle

Producer Bruce Harvey of Illusions Entertainment is first out of the A-Channel production gates in Edmonton with Silent Cradle, an indie feature shooting to June 15.

The flick stars Oscar nom Lorraine Bracco (Good Fellas, Basketball Diaries), John Heard, Jason Gedrick (EZ Streets) and Canadians Margot Kidder, Esther Purves-Smith and Shaun Johnston.

Bracco plays a pregnant reporter who has a bad fall and is rushed to the hospital by a cop played by Kidder. Heard, as the doc, says the baby didn’t survive, but when the reporter g’es to adopt a child and finds it suspiciously easy, she begins to suspect her baby may be alive.

David Schultz wrote Silent Cradle, Paul Ziller is directing.