Vancouver: Documentary producer David Paperny has drawn back the curtain to reveal Vancouver inflagrante delicto: sadomasochism, cross-dressing, gender switching, fetish parties, dungeons, masters and slaves, and other forms of sexual expression.

Kink, made for Showcase’s Fridays Without Borders bloc, chronicles (rather intimately, one might say) the lives of people who aren’t shy about talking about and demonstrating their nocturnal pursuits.

The series of 13 half-hours began airing April 6. Salter Street Films coproduces and distributes.

‘The timing was right to produce a documentary series like this,’ says Paperny. ‘Members of Vancouver’s growing S/M community were eager to finally ‘come out,’ especially with more and more depictions of alternative forms of sexual expression appearing in popular culture.’

Field directors Audrey Mehler (The Life and Times of Dr. Henry Morgentaler) and Dennis Heaton (Murder in Normandy) captured people like Fogg and Fanny doing their dominance and submission routine and leather master David shopping for his pain and pleasure accouterment at the local tack shop. They were there to hear about Slave Girl Pat’s wishes to introduce her son and his fiancee to the Body Perve Party scene and hairdresser Stephen’s need to feel pretty in sequins and wigs.

Paperny Films is one of the busiest West Coast doc producers. Its four-part series Titans premiers on Global this spring. The WWII feature doc Forced March to Freedom is in production for History Television. A Death of a Princess, a CTV doc about arranged marriages and murder in the Sikh community, is also is production.

Canadian cult-ure

The local feature Tribe of Joseph (Soloshye Pictures) is in production in Squamish until April 19. Supported by Telefilm Canada, the $1.4-million feature is about a minister who believes his mission from God is to kidnap troubled teens and create his own cult.

Actor Shaun Johnston is the lead, John Conti is the producer and the one-named Cleetche is the debut writer/director.

No paid actors

Lons Gate Entertainment’s financial ties to European broadcaster SBS have resulted in the Vancouver-based company acquiring the rights to a Scandinavian reality series. No Boundaries, based on Nordisk Film TV’s award-winning series 71 Degrees North, will air on WB next season.

The 13-episode series sends competitors on a trek through the wilderness until there is just one left. It will be shot in the Pacific Northwest and could be done in part in British Columbia, says Lions Gate spokesperson Gordon Keep, though the exact locations are being kept a mystery. Despite the production’s timing – July – and the fact that it doesn’t require SAG members, No Boundaries has nothing to do with an actor’s strike or dodging pickets, insists Keep. This is LGE keeping up with the reality TV trend, he says.

LGE is also jumping on the product placement bandwagon. (Like, how many times can Survivor contestants say Doritos?)

Ford Motor Company is paying for the series, which is named after its new truck called No Boundaries. ‘Lions Gate’s risk is next to nothing,’ says Keep.

Brady Connell (EcoChallenge, Survivor 1) and Jim Jusko (Air Bud, I Fought the Law) are executive producers.

‘Lions Gate’s mission is to be a truly international motion picture and television company,’ says Jon Feltheimer, CEO of LGE in a statement. ‘Our international relationships work both ways. Not only do we offer North American productions to the international market, but we are actively in the market for international television and motion picture properties and concepts to introduce in North America. Our relationship with the innovative European broadcaster SBS and producer/distributor Telemunchen allows us to identify hot properties that can translate well to the North American television market.’

In other LGE news, the company will do a pilot for UPN for the series Dead Zone, which is based on the Stephen King anthology.

And Lions Gate Releasing, the distribution division, has picked up the North American rights to All Over the Guy, starring Dan Bucatinsky (who wrote the screenplay and original stage play), Lisa Kudrow and Christina Ricci. The ‘finding true love’ romantic comedy by Julie Davis (I Love You, Don’t Touch Me, Amy’s Orgasm) will get an August release.

Fresh tracks

Vancouver-based youth program writer/producer Cathy Moss (Word Farm) secured $1.1 million in LFP funding for her new series Free Riders for YTV and, at press time, was hoping for the largesse of Telefilm’s EIP.

The 13-part series about snowboarders trying to break into the pro ranks is cocreated with kids show writer Susin Nielsen and coproduced with Toronto’s Barna-Alper Productions. It will debut in the 2002/03 season and, potentially, will be shot in Whistler next winter.

‘The series looks at the kids who are spending the years between 18 and 22 burning up the slopes instead of preparing for a career,’ says Moss (You, Me and the Kids). ‘It’s a compelling world, with great emotional as well as visual appeal.’

Shhhh! x six

Quiet Places, the award-winning series about sanctuaries, began airing another six episodes earlier this month on Vision TV. Produced by Vancouver’s Omni Film Productions, season two explores retreats related to pottery, music, cooking, fly-fishing, dance and rainforests.

World cinema

Iranian emigre and Vancouver resident Asghar Massombagi will make his autobiographical feature Kahled through the Canadian Film Centre’s Feature Film Project.

Kahled is the 10th feature for the FFP and the first to be realized within the FFP’s new ultra-low budget ‘essential film’ category, which means a DV feature done for under $200,000. It’s the story of a 10-year-old boy of Middle Eastern heritage from the inner city who struggles to keep his mother’s sudden death a secret from the outside world. Production started April 15 in the Toronto area.

Massombagi is a graduate of Simon Fraser University’s film program and has written and directed two short dramatic films, Feel Like Chicken Tonight and The Miracle.

Former Vancouver resident Paul Scherzer (No More Monkeys Jumpin’ on the Bed, Babette’s Feet, Tokyo Girls), now living in Toronto, will produce.

The CFC’s ninth film, the $500,000 The Art of Woo (written and directed by Helen Lee, produced by Anita Lee) is in preproduction. Adam Beach and Sook-Yin Lee star.

A message in the medium

Locally made feature How It All Went Down, the story of an aspiring filmmaker who turns to drugs to finance his career, premiered in Vancouver’s Cinemark Tinseltown theatre on March 8 for a one-week gig. Silvio Pollio (4WallFilms) directs and stars in the story. Local short films Keys to Kingdom (Nathanial Geary) and Karl’s in a Coma (Karl Hirsch) accompany the feature screenings. Partial proceeds of all screenings to benefit Downtown Eastside Youth organizations providing safe houses, needle exchange programs and youth detox facilities. *