When Violet turns 55, she’s convinced she’s going to die. That’s the premise of Violet: A Comedy about Death, now in development by producer Mary Sexton (Dooley Gardens) of Dark Flowers Productions, St. John’s, Nfld.

The $1.7-million feature film, greenlit by the Canadian Television Fund Licence Fee Program, was written by Rosemary House, who doubles as the director. dop is Nigel Markham (Dooley Gardens, Rain, Drizzle and Fog).

Violet is an ensemble comedy that tells the story of a woman living on a family farm outside of St. John’s who is convinced she’s heading into what will prove to be her final year as she turns 55, the age that most of her family members have died. She suffers from depression and worries about her kids: her gay son Carlos, the linguistics professor; her eldest, a 32-year-old punk rocker who’s always short of cash; and her youngest, a daughter who is about to get married.

When the National Screen Institute put out a call for new feature film scripts, Violet made the short list of five screenplays chosen to participate in nsi workshops in Edmonton. It was at the nsi that Sexton had the chance to hone her skills as a producer.

Sexton says after cbc told her it was oversubscribed, she told prospective broadcasters, ‘We’re having a sidewalk sale.’ Soon enough, she had lined up four broadcasters: Citytv, Superchannel, TMN-The Movie Network and ntv (ctv’s affiliate in St. John’s), all of which will broadcast the film. Shooting gets underway in September and Alliance Atlantis Releasing is lined up as the distributor.

* Clothesline Patch a go

Another project to get the go-ahead from the lfp is Clothesline Patch, which also received support for its $450,000 budget from the Newfoundland Film Development Corporation and is set to broadcast on cbc this fall.

Clothesline Patch is the first project by Anita McGee and Bob Petrie of Patch Productions, St. John’s.

It’s based on a short story by Donna Morrissey (originally from White Bay, Nfld., now of Halifax) and is a one-off half-hour drama. The project will be shot on digital Betacam starting late July.

It all got started a couple of years ago at the Atlantic Film Festival, where Clothesline Patch was part of the Scripts Aloud script development workshop.

‘It is the coming-of-age story of a girl, Hannah, who lives in an outport in Newfoundland and who’s trying desperately to hide the fact that she’s started her menses in a place that’s not known for keeping secrets,’ says producer McGee. ‘The clothesline patch is the gathering place for a couple of houses, a communal patch where the girl’s aunts gossip. Hannah’s goal is never to be the subject of the clothesline patch.’

McGee has put together a stellar team: executive producer is Christopher Zimmer (Imagex) and director is multi-award winning Mary Lewis (When Ponds Freeze Over). Casting calls begin in early June.

Meanwhile, McGee’s Kickham Productions is in the midst of production on a six-minute, live-action/animation short, New Neighbours, which received kick-start funding of $17,500 from Bravo!fact.

‘It is the story of what happens when a woman [Maisie Rillie], set in the routine of her own life, suddenly acquires a new set of neighbors whose passionate sex lives interrupt her life,’ says McGee.

She is still raising post-production funds for the $65,000-budgeted short from arts councils and the Newtel-Arts Council Cultural Innovation Fund.

dop is Bob Petrie and chief animation consultant is Anne MacLeod.

With the Bravo!fact grant, Bravo! automatically has the option to broadcast New Neighbours, and McGee says she’s optimistic that the specialty channel will do that.

* Bowlerama rolls ahead

bowlerama is the story of a young journalism grad working as an intern at Black’s daily newspaper in Halifax. The journalist desperately wants to move beyond writing obits and convinces her editor to let her shadow Dave, a veteran crime reporter who’s jaded, cynical and bored.

The one-off half-hour drama for ctv has received the go-ahead from the lfp. Written by Susanne Hiller and Brian Flinn, Bowlerama will be executive produced by David Coole of Halifax’s Jigsaw Pictures, with Catherine Jackman as associate producer. Director is Ron Murphy (Street Cents, I Was a Sixth Grade Alien) and casting is underway. While Coole would not reveal the budget, he says it is very modest. Salter Street International is the distributor.

Bowlerama marks a significant step for Coole as he’s just launching his production company.

Coole has been working in the industry since the mid-’80s when his first paid gig was as a driver on The Campbells. He then went on to become a producer and director with Salter Street Films, Charles Bishop as well as other companies, when his own projects such as Maxwell Demon were often moonlit labors of love.

* Topsail preps Pier 21

Topsail Entertainment (The Bette Show) is in preproduction on a documentary, Stories from Pier 21. ‘Pier 21 was Canada’s Ellis Island,’ says executive producer Michael Volpe, president of Halifax-based Topsail. ‘During the ’20s, people of all kinds of nationalities, and a lot of war brides landed there,’ says Volpe.

Interest in Pier 21 has recently been renewed with the opening of a new audio-visual museum that allows visitors to interactively seek out their ancestors and the journeys of the ships they traveled on, says Volpe.

The two-hour $200,000 doc will be directed by Holly Preston and produced by Barry Cowling, also a partner in Topsail.

Volpe is in the midst of finalizing a broadcast licence with History Television and already has Vision tv lined up for a second window.

Another Topsail doc, Operation Smile, coproduced with Calluna Productions and Hammond Productions, also of Halifax, captures the work of the American-based non-profit organization of the same name.

Operation Smile brings together medical professionals from around the globe to work in Third World countries, fixing facial deformities on both children and adults.

Development and preproduction of the project ($20,000 so far) has been funded in-house and the doc has a prelicence agreement with Vision.

Topsail sent director Heather MacCormac and dop Mark Hammond to Vietnam to follow an international team of medical pros who operate on as many as they can – during their vacation. ‘It is outstanding footage, it will be a wonderful, uplifting doc,’ says Volpe. This summer MacCormac and Hammond will be returning to Vietnam to see the results of the operations. Volpe hopes to have the doc ready this fall.

Topsail’s sketch comedy with pop-culture sensibilities, The Bette Show, held its ratings throughout the cbc strike and another six shows will be shot in June until mid-July.