– Gamine – Producer: Terry Steyn (Swirling Storm Productions)
following a successful collaboration on Something To Cry About, which picked up 16 awards including a Gemini for best short dramatic program in ’95, director/producer Terry Steyn and writer Laurie Pearson pooled their talent once again to shoot Gamine.
A French word meaning ‘street urchin, neglected person, an impudent child or a girl with mischievous or boyish charm,’ Gamine follows a young woman from her small town to the city and its nightlife.
Steyn says the story ‘about looking at yourself and not liking what you see’ got under his skin.
With the deadline for Bravo!fact (a program set up by Bravo! to fund arts-oriented short programs) quickly approaching, he decided to produce the project as a short and whip up a proposal.
The film, which runs just under six minutes, was pulled together on a budget of $13,000, $11,000 of which was financed through Bravo!fact. The remaining $2,000 came out of Steyn’s pocket.

– Dirty Money – Producer: Chris Triffo (Partners in Motion)
dirty Money is an action-packed comedy about a man who gets mixed up with a crowd of bank robbers and is trying to get himself out. The 30-minute short is complete with exploding police cars and daredevil stunts, a film genre rather foreign to its Saskatchewan locale.
The project came about through the Saskatchewan Motion Picture Association’s Debut Program, which awards $75,000 to a producer/writer team of first-time filmmakers. While producer and Regina-based Partners in Motion president Chris Triffo has plenty of experience making documentaries, Dirty Money marks his, as well as director Dean Evans and writer Donna-Lynn MacGregor’s, first steps into the realm of drama.
Remaining funding support came from Saskfilm, Telefilm Canada and Global Television, which aired the film in Saskatchewan.
Although Triffo doesn’t expect the short ‘to sell like hotcakes,’ he took Dirty Money to natpe, where he used the film as a calling card to slingshot the threesome into a mainstream feature.

– Nan’s Taxi – Producers: Charles Bishop, Jonathan Torrens (Nan’s Taxi Productions)
when Halifax producer Charles Bishop caught wind of the Global Atlantic Drama Initiative, which provides funding for short dramas to foster the growth of the independent film industry in Atlantic Canada, he began the search for a half-hour script. What he found was a ‘very charming story,’ Nan’s Taxi.
While Bishop has many documentaries and comedies under his belt, Nan’s Taxi, a story of two Nova Scotia brothers trying to reconcile differences prior to their grandmother’s death, marks his first foray into drama.
Nan’s Taxi aired on Global Television. Aside from what Bishop refers to as a ‘generous licence fee,’ the bulk of the funding came from the ctcpf, with the remainder being supplied by Telefilm, the Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation and tax credits.
Also in this report:
Profiling Best Direction in a Dramatic TV Series: Kari Skogland p.22
Jon Cassar p.22
Jane Thompson p.27
Profiling Best Writing in a Dramatic Program or Miniseries:
Jim Burt: The non-nominee behind so many nominations p.29
Janis Cole p.29
David Adams Richards p.31
Keith Ross Leckie p.37
Pete White p.37
Profiling the contenders for Best Sports Program or Series p.39
The nominees list p.44