Four Days, a coproduction between Toronto’s Greg Dummett Films and Montreal-based Cite-Amerique, marks Curtis Wehrfritz’s feature film directorial debut. The film was a long, and sometimes overwhelming, labor of love for the veteran commercial and music video director.

‘[Making a feature] is something I’ve been interested in for years now,’ says Wehrfritz, who has amassed many MuchMusic Video Awards and a Billboard Award for his contributions to music video production. When approached to make the jump to long-form, Wehrfritz happily took up the challenge.

Based on the John Buell novel, Four Days is budgeted at $3 million and was financed by the Canadian Television Fund, Telefilm Canada’s Equity Investment Program, sodec, Citytv, the Harold Greenberg Fund and TMN-The Movie Network.

According to the director, at the root of the film is a story of the love and loyalty between a father and son. In the early stages of Four Days, the father dies and exists only in the memory of his son, who still looks to the image of his father for guidance.

1996: Producer Greg Dummett approaches Wehrfritz with John Buell’s novel Four Days and grabs his interest immediately. Wehrfritz says the book had been optioned about eight times before Dummett presented it to him, but it never made it to film. Wehrfritz agrees to direct.

A big fan of Pinckney Benedict’s (Dogs of God) work, Wehrfritz decides to ask the writer if he would be interested in penning the Four Days screenplay. He tracks down Benedict at his home in West Virginia and sends off his reel and a copy of Buell’s book. Benedict is quick to respond: he’s keen to take on the project.

‘I think his writing style is incredibly cinematic and visual,’ says Wehrfritz. ‘His building of myths uses a lot of visual code and there is this sense of authority to his characters that I think is really incredible.’

February 1997: Wehrfritz sends Benedict a plane ticket. They meet for the first time in Toronto and spend a weekend getting to know each other and discussing various approaches to the script.

Benedict sets to work on the first draft.

March/April 1997: Citytv gets involved, providing development money for the film, some of which is used to finance Benedict’s travel expenses to and from West Virginia. Benedict continues to work on the script, and frequent development meetings take place between Wehrfritz and company.

June 1997: Benedict finishes the first draft of Four Days.

Summer 1997: Lorraine Richard, a producer from Montreal’s Cite-Amerique, comes on board as coproducer, making Four Days an Ontario/ Quebec coproduction and the first English-language feature that Cite-Amerique has ever participated in.

The company’s participation pleases Wehrfritz because Buell penned the novel in Montreal and it seems to him the ideal place to film the movie.

Over the course of the season, the Four Days team seeks out a distributor. Many show interest, but none sign. That, plus a few financing difficulties, postpone production on the film, dashing hopes to begin shooting in the fall.

‘The dates kept getting pushed back to the point where we were considering shooting as late as October or November, with a second unit in Mexico to cover any of the water sequences we had,’ says Wehrfritz. ‘Ultimately, as the snow began to approach, we had to call it off and put away our camping gear for another year.’

Late July/August 1997: TMN-The Movie Network and sodec come on board, tmn in an equity investment role and sodec contributing gap financing.

Fall 1997: A deal is struck with Behaviour Distribution, which is handling Canada, while Behaviour Classics will be responsible for international territories.

Winter 1997: An application is sent in to Telefilm for further financing.

Spring 1998: Word comes from Telefilm that the film will receive funding under its Equity Investment Program.

Production is scheduled to begin, but is pushed back once again until September.

Sept. 1, 1998: Filming on Four Days begins in Montreal. The schedule (Wehrfritz refers to it as ‘guerrilla’) is somewhat overwhelming for the first-time director, who credits the film’s veteran dop, Miroslaw Baszak, as a tremendous help to him, calling him ‘a pillar of strength.’

Oct. 4, 1998: Filming on Four Days wraps.

September 1999: Four Days makes its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Says Wehrfritz: ‘It’s flattering to be involved with the film community and it’s flattering to be able to show whatever it is I have for a first project [at tiff]. I’ll quietly present what I have and see what comes next.’