Director: Alan Moyle * Writer: Tricia Fish

* Producers: Jennifer Kawaja, Julia Sereny

* Cameraman: Derek Rogers * Diary by: Samantha Yaffe

Making its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival comes New Waterford Girl, a dramatic comedy studded with an all-star cast and gleaming with a sense of irreverent nostalgia.

‘It takes real-life situations and turns them on their heads,’ says producer Jennifer Kawaja.

Set in the 1950s, the film takes place in a small Cape Breton mining town (New Waterford) that’s collapsing around an unlikely pair of teenage girls who help each other achieve their dreams – one wants to escape her small-town hell for the freedom of the big city and the other, who has been recently transplanted from the Bronx, struggles to fit into an insular community laden with traditional Catholic values. Their journey eventually ignites a war between the sexes as well as some serious soul searching.

‘It’s about learning to love your home, about friendship, about women, about teenage girls. It’s about the outsider and feeling like an outsider in your own home,’ says Kawaja.

New Waterford Girl, which features a host of celebrities including Nicholas Campbell (Da Vinci’s Inquest), Mary Walsh (This Hour Has 22 Minutes), Cathy Moriarty (Raging Bull), Andrew McCarthy (St. Elmo’s Fire), Mark McKinney (Kids In The Hall) and director Alan Moyle (Pump Up The Volume), is to be released theatrically by Alliance Atlantis/Odeon Films later this year.

1996: Jennifer Kawaja meets Tricia Fish at the Canadian Film Centre.

January 1997: Kawaja and partner Julia Sereny of Toronto-based Sienna Films read Fish’s script, New Waterford Girl, and fall instantly in love with it.

January-March 1997: The option for the script is negotiated. Conversations ensue with Fish about trying to stick to the integrity of the script, how the three women will work together with Fish continuing to be part of the process throughout, and potential locations. The script is set in Cape Breton, in Fish’s hometown, and it is decided the film will be shot there. Everybody’s excited.

March/April 1997: Applications for funding are sent out to Telefilm Canada and the Harold Greenberg Fund.

April 1997: Discussions begin with Chris Zimmer of Imagex (now ImX) in Halifax about a coproduction arrangement.

July 1997: Close on funding for the first phase of development – $20,000-plus from Telefilm, the Harold Greenberg Fund and the Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation – a coproduction deal is inked between Sienna and Imagex. Story editor Bruce Rob gives Fish a rewrite plan.

August 1997: Still in development, Fish gets a job as a story editor/writer on the cbc series Black Harbour (Fogbound Films/Topsail Entertainment), prolonging the drafting process. Originally, the final rewrite was scheduled for October; now it won’t be ready until December.

The director tentatively chosen by Kawaja and Sereny gets a firmer offer and is no longer available (because financing is not in place yet, the producers cannot make any formal commitments). cbc reads the script and is very enthusiastic about it, but no deal is made. Talks begin with Alliance Communications regarding distribution.

October 1997: The first rewrite is completed. Kawaja and Sereny head out east to scout locations. It’s their first trip to the Maritimes. Fish, who is still working on the series, is too busy to meet them so she directs them around the area via cell phone. It rains. The two producers drive from Halifax to Cape Breton twice, taking two different routes to see all the possible locations.

Kawaja and Sereny meet with Zimmer in Halifax. Logistics are worked out.

Mid-December 1997: Kawaja and Sereny apply to Telefilm and the Harold Greenberg Fund for final-phase development funding.

April 1998: Production applications are submitted. The pressure is on – they are aiming to start shooting by August, before the weather turns.

May/June 1998: The producers get the green light from Telefilm and the Harold Greenberg Fund, to the tune of roughly $30,000. Alliance signs on as distributor. Discussions begin with John Cummerford of Cummerford Casting and Claudia Smith about casting the film.

June 1998: After months of trying to track Moyle down, he is signed on as director.

July 1998: Kawaja, Fish and Moyle take a road trip to Cape Breton to give Moyle a feel for the place, the people, the accents…and also to start making decisions about locations. The producers need to decide whether the shoot will actually take place in Cape Breton or whether to fake it in Halifax. Moyle falls in love with Cape Breton.

August 1998: They sign lead actress 19-year-old first-timer Liane Balaban after auditioning her seven times (800 other girls from across the country have auditioned for the role by this point). All commitments are down on paper.

September 1998: Preproduction begins in Halifax. All formal casting decisions are made for the 50 speaking parts. The producers begin to feel the story come alive. A deal is struck with Air Canada to fly actors in and out. Air Canada goes on strike.

Oct. 12, 1998: Production begins on New Waterford Girl.

Nov. 15, 1998: Final day of shooting and luck is in the air – a snow storm hits the region, but everything is cool as the shoot is taking place indoors.

Dec. 19, 1998: Post-production begins.

July 1999: Delivery.

September: New Waterford Girl has its world premiere at tiff.