B.C. Finance Minister Joy McPhail recently said that the local film industry was one of the only sectors in the province not falling into economic recession. And by all other accounts, the industry is growing at a better-than-healthy clip that is opening opportunities for local residents.

Here’s a handful of individuals making their first marks on the industry.

*Lori Triolo, 28 – Actor

As a Vancouver actor, Lori Triolo is known as ‘the girl with the edge’ and has forged a career with gritty guest starring roles on shows such as The X-Files, Viper and The Sentinel.

Now, the Queens native is about to debut as a new character in the made-in-Vancouver Cold Squad. The character, Jackie Cortez – a hard-bitten Internal Affairs cop who is inexplicably transferred to the Cold Squad after learning all the secrets of her coworkers – appears in all 15 episodes of the series’ second season for Baton.

Triolo landed in Vancouver six years ago after her New York theater school classmates – fully half of whom were Canadian – encouraged her to come north to exploit the need for authentic-sounding Americans for the u.s. service shows.

Her first role in Vancouver was, indeed, a jailed New York hooker in scenes with Katharine Hepburn. More recently, she stars as the ‘loud-mouthed’ girl in Mina Shum’s new feature Drive, She Said, which is in theaters now.

Quote: ‘I have great loyalty to Vancouver. It’s changed a lot in the six years I’ve been here. It’s become more competitive and the quality of the actors has become much stronger.’

*Raul Inglis, 31 – Writer/director

As a Vancouver-based screenwriter of Vancouver-made projects, Raul Inglis has had some remarkable success: cowriter of Keystone’s Crash and Canadian box-office champion Air Bud, writer of the hbo mow Final Cut and cowriter of the new film Convergence.

Last November, he capitalized on some second-unit directing experience and took the next step by directing his own script, called The Falling. The film, shot over 24 days in Vancouver, explores the three points of view of the three participants in a romantic triangle. Through the film, says Inglis, the audience begins to question truth and memory as they learn that the innocent are not so pure and the villainous not so evil.

The Falling, which was privately financed except for completion money from Telefilm Canada, debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival, where the producers were looking for a distributor. Follow-up screenings include the Chicago Film Festival and the London Independent Film Festival (or Raindance) in October.

Since completing The Falling, Inglis has picked up some directing work with Mainframe Entertainment for which he is directing an episode of the animated series War Planets.

Quote: ‘The independent dream may be over. With the weak Canadian dollar and the influx of u.s. work, it’s really hard to work.’

*Carole Ducharme, 35 – Producer/director

For her second short film, Straight from the Suburbs, Carole Ducharme made use of the b.c./Quebec coproduction treaty, an experience that laid bare for her the difference in the two film centers.

The 22-minute comedy – about a woman who discovers she is heterosexual in a world that is populated entirely by gays and lesbians – received within a month of her application $45,000 from Quebec funding agency sodec for production in Montreal. The $17,500 raised here as completion money took more than a year to come from the Vancouver offices of Telefilm Canada and the National Film Board. With her own investment and deferrals, the total budget comes to $75,000.

The short film will finally have its world debut at the Vancouver International Film Festival a few days before it screens again at Montreal’s Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. Montreal distributor Cinema Libre is handling sales.

In the meantime, Ducharme, who moved to Vancouver from Montreal two years ago, is coproducing the new Japan-funded, animated series Cybersix with noa’s Herve Bedard in Vancouver.

Quote: ‘I’m very disappointed in Vancouver in terms of it being a Canadian film center. In Quebec there is very quick support and here it’s completely different. It’s completely changed my perception of time.’

*James Wallace, 45 – Director of photography

Apprenticeships in the camera department are long-term commitments, says Jim Wallace, who has worked both the u.s. service and independent production sides of the local business.

Wallace spent a decade as a focus puller to get the chance to shoot on his own. That happened four years ago when he began as a camera operator on u.s. shows and as a dop on local independents.

In 1997, he was the chief camera operator and second unit dop for the first season of local series Dead Man’s Gun. That same year, he was the overseeing cinematographer for The Vigil, which screens at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival and is about two brothers who make their way to Seattle for a vigil for late rocker Kurt Cobain.

In 1998, Wallace has been camera operator and second unit dop on three mows for Shavick Entertainment and Fox Television. He is currently the dop on Echo Lake, one of the first Canadian films to be shot on a digital format.

Quote: ‘The service industry is a tremendous training ground that no school can provide. The people who have been through that have a real resource to put into the local industry.’

*Colin Cunningham, 32 – Actor/writer/producer

According to Colin Cunningham, the impetus to create the feature Zacharia Farted was to get the chance to do some different acting than that usually offered to locals by the series regularly shooting here. The result is a world premiere for a new feature at the Vancouver International Film Festival.

Zacharia Farted, a colorfully titled comedy about two friends who are sidetracked during a fishing trip to investigate the inhabitant of a grave they found, is a comedy that puts Cunningham in the lead with Vancouver acting friends Ben Ratner and Madison Graie, who also serves as a coproducer. Damon Vignale serves as executive producer for the privately financed film that was shot a year ago and is still looking for a distributor.

An actor for 10 years, Cunningham has an array of performance credits including notable shows such as The X-Files. He recently completed filming on an episode of Dead Man’s Gun in which he played a minister accused of raping and murdering a girl.

Quote: ‘There are a lot of actors out there who bitch and moan about how all the good parts go south of the border. I’m too busy to think about it.’