Montreal: The Eastern Townships region of Quebec offers a rich variety of locations – from quaint 18th century villages to lunar landscapes.

Reno Fortin, commissioner of the Eastern Townships Film and Television Commission, says the region covers 16,000 square kilometers of farmlands and rural villages dating back to the 1700s, reflected in picturesque municipalities like Hatley and the ‘ghost’ village of Ways Mills, near Ayers Cliff.

Fortin, who manages the one-year-old commission on a full-time basis, says the region has a serviceable production infrastructure and affordable services, bilingual personnel, and also benefits from a qualified regional production tax credit. Tax credit authorities (Quebec agency sodec and Canada Customs and Revenue Agency) should be consulted for details on the regional bonus, but one of the qualifications includes hiring local personnel.

The Townships are located less than 90 minutes from Montreal. The region has a rich variety of natural landscapes including a unique open-air mine in Asbestos and the Capelton Mines near North Hatley. Capelton is a rather secluded locale, with much of the mine located deep underground.

‘It’s very unusual and may be one of a very few underground mines still available for shooting,’ says Fortin. ‘There are red sand [pits] further into the area that look like a lunar surface, like something found in Mission to Mars.’

The region features many Victorian-style homes and buildings, reflecting its Empire Loyalist heritage. Principal cities include Sherbrooke, Magog, Asbestos, Coaticook, the university town of Lennoxville, the charming and upscale town of North Hatley, and the historic village of Stanstead, a good match for upstate New England.

‘We brought a tour of location managers last fall to Ogden near Stanstead, which includes a small area called Tommy Phobia and which is exactly like a scary Stephen King kind of place,’ says Fortin.

Recent shoots in the Townships include the imax doc Lost World: Life in the Balance, shot in Mont-Oxford Park and Mont Bellevue and coproduced by Primesco International and Blue Mountain Film Associates of the u.s.

The Lea Pool feature film Lost & Delirious (Cite-Amerique), a coming-of-age story set in an all-girls school, was shot largely at Bishop’s University in Lennoxville.

And the musical tv doc Spirit of Quebec Blues: The Stephen Barry Band & Friends was recorded live at the Le Vieux Clocher in Magog. It was produced by Productions Priori of Quebec City in association with Global Television Quebec.

The Eastern Townships film commission (Bureau de Film et de Television de l’Estrie), located in Sherbrooke, qc, has produced a Shooting Guide, which offers a range of municipal goods and services, a listing of local production companies and facilities, and general support services. The guide is being distributed on a case-by-case basis.

Along with the Shooting Guide, the commission has just launched a new website, and has a new digital photo-library profiling more than 350 regional locations.

The hyperlinked website includes details on locations and services, with accompanying maps, information on weather conditions, filming permits and tax credits.

‘We tried hard last year and now we know a little more about the business and now we’ll try even harder this year to attract new production,’ says Fortin. •

-www.etfilms.com