Montreal filmmaker Demetrios Est de l’acropolis will premier his 17-year labor of love Shirley Pimple and the John Wayne Temple at this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival. Produced by Multi-Monde Productions, Est de l’acropolis began filming the $1.2-million feature in 1982, and despite funding and production setbacks, the film is finally ready for viewing.

‘When I started the film I was 19 years old,’ says the director. ‘Back then it was kind of whimsical. I didn’t see it turning into what it has. It kind of got away from me.’

The film is about a child film star named Shirley Pimple (modeled somewhat after Shirley Temple) who has grown up working for a propaganda film company called the John Wayne Institution for the Preservation of American Ideals. Before you laugh, please be advised that there was in fact a John Wayne Institution for the Preservation of American Ideals. It was set up by Senator Joe McCarthy in the 1950s to hunt down communists living and working in the u.s. Ronald Reagan and The Duke himself were each president of the Hollywood chapter at one time.

After working at the John Wayne Institution throughout her childhood, Pimple tires of the centre’s rhetoric, leaves to join rival organization Psychotic Weakling (a term coined by Wayne at the 1969 Oscars when describing Dustin Hoffman’s anti-heroism acting style in Midnight Cowboy), and does battle with her former employer.

The film was initially financed with a small grant from the Canada Council, and as the years progressed, Telefilm Canada, sodec and the National Film Board made contributions.

Est de l’acropolis shot most of the film between 1982 and 1986. By 1992 he had a rough cut and decided he needed more footage to fill some holes. It has taken the last two years to put together the money for post-production.

After 17 years of uncertainty, some might find the fact that the film was even completed astonishing, but Est de l’acropolis says it was extremely important for him to make Shirley Pimple.

‘I always had the notion that there would be always be some kind of gratification at the end of it,’ he says. ‘Completing the film was something that I had been anticipating for so long, and I think that is what kept me going and pushed me not to abandon it.’