Following the success of last year’s inaugural event, the Atlantic Film Festival is gearing up for the second Strategic Partners international coproduction conference, Sept. 18-20 in Halifax.

While last year’s event hosted German film producers and funders, 1999 will focus on international coproduction for theatrical and television drama with Nordic countries Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Iceland.

‘The industry in Europe is still very culturally based and there is a real commitment to telling stories that are culturally relevant to their own communities,’ says Jan Miller, who is spearheading the initiative once again. ‘They also recognize that they have such small populations that they have to look to coproductions.’

Prior to choosing the Nordic countries as the focus for Strategic Partners, Miller worked closely with the Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation and Telefilm Canada to identify new areas for international coproduction.

Although tax incentives don’t exist in these countries, they do have their perks. In Norway, for example, the government contributes between 70% to 80% to the production budget as a grant, not as equity.

‘They have a good, strong, mature industry in terms of support and there is a real connection geographically, intellectually, spiritually and historically with this part of the world [Atlantic Canada],’ says Miller.

The deadline for project submissions is June 30. Seventy projects will be selected from both sides of the Atlantic and invited to participate in meetings, case studies and seminars.

The aff runs Sept. 17-25 in Halifax.

*To Ireland and back

Sonny’s Dream (‘Sonny lives on a farm, on a wide open space. You could take off your shoes and give up the race. . . ‘) is sung at Irish weddings and wakes and is one of the biggest selling songs in the country’s history, according to producer Mary Sexton of St. John’s, Nfld.-based Rink Rat Productions (Dooley Gardens).

What most Irishmen don’t know, but are about to find out in the documentary Ron Hynes: The Irish Tour, is that the song originated in Newfoundland.

Sexton, director Rosemary House and dop Nigel Markham will travel to Ireland next month to film Newfoundland singer Ron Hynes accompanied by Irish musicians in two Dublin performances. They will also spend some time in Galway and Cork.

The shoot runs from late May to mid-June, with the documentary scheduled to air on ctv in Canada and rte, Ireland’s national broadcaster, which gave the production a broadcast licence even though it is not a coproduction.

‘As much as it’s a film about how song transcends borders, which will be present through conversations with people, the story is about taking a prolific and talented Canadian musician to Ireland to see him and his music in a different incarnation,’ says House.

Hynes is a balladeer who wrote the internationally renowned Sonny’s Dream around 20 years ago. Since then, the song has been recorded in the u.s., Portugal, Scotland and England.

Once the Irish tour wraps, Sexton will switch hats from producer to director for a one-hour National Film Board documentary about her multitalented brother, Tommy Sexton.

Kent Martin will produce and Markham will be behind the lens on the $350,000 story of the actor/comic/impersonator/writer, who died of aids in 1993 at the age of 36.

Tommy will include archival footage from codco and the S-M Comic Book, as well as Sexton family film footage, photos and animation. The doc will focus on Sexton as a young talent growing up in an energetic Roman Catholic family of 11. His struggle with aids and anti-gay prejudice will also be touched on.

Although no broadcaster is attached to the project yet, Sexton would like to see it air on cbc, since ‘that’s where Tommy spent most of his life.’

*New Halifax prodco takes flight

East Coast native Cheryl Wagner and partner Ken Edwards have unveiled a new Halifax production company, Flying Point Productions.

A Gemini Award-winning producer and writer, Wagner is the creator, producer and story editor on The Big Comfy Couch from Toronto’s Radical Sheep Productions and spent five years as a puppeteer on Jim Henson’s Fraggle Rock.

Now, back at home by the Atlantic, Wagner and Edwards are in development on Bunny Babies, a preschool series combining live actors, costume characters and puppets, as well as a dramatic tv series for the older crowd called Blooming Point.

Wagner is penning scripts for the Cellar Door Productions/Catalyst Entertainment animated series Ekhardt, based on the Christmas special The True Meaning of Crumbfest.