Producers Paul Pope of Pope Productions in St. John’s isn’t resting on the laurels of his feature film Rare Birds, which recently opened in Canadian theatres. He is currently in development on a major television project with the CBC about Gander, NF during World War II.

The six-hour dramatic miniseries takes place during the war when the Royal Canadian Air Force set up camp in Gander in order to fly out from one of Canada’s eastern-most points. ‘They’d never flown anyone across [the Atlantic] in the winter,’ says Pope. ‘The Air Force thought it was a suicide idea. Then, months later when it’s a huge success, the same people [who were opposed to the base] wanted to take it over and take credit for it. It’s [about] pure front-line inventiveness, determination and guts, and a lot of lives taken.’

Pope began researching the project more than two years ago and has traveled to Gander to survey the area.

Early drafts of the script have been penned by John Doyle and Lisa Porter. Pope will produce, but no director has been attached yet. In terms of budget, Pope says, ‘We are probably looking at a couple of million per hour.’

He is hoping to have a script ready for the Banff Television Festival to create interest among international buyers. If all goes well, production will begin in summer 2003.

Ruby Line exploring DNA and 50-foot woman

Annette Clarke of St. John’s-based Ruby Line Productions, reports principal photography began Feb. 8 on Confidential Tracks (working title), a one-hour documentary for CTV. The doc examines issues stemming from human genetic research taking place in Newfoundland and Iceland.

Clarke is producing on behalf of Ruby Line, with Wendy Rowland directing and DOP Nigel Markham manning the camera.

The budget for the doc is approximately $400,000, says Clarke, with funding from Telefilm Canada, the CTF, Rogers Documentary Fund, CIFVF, the Newfoundland and Labrador Film Development Corporation and federal and provincial tax credits. Shooting will wrap in May for an October delivery to CTV.

A second doc from Ruby Line is Starring.NF, about Newfoundland artist Andrea Cooper, who creates images of herself as a 50-foot-tall woman using everything from canvas to digitally altered photographs and digital film. The 30-minute doc will begin production in June on a budget of about $150,000.

Funding for this project has come in from Bravo!, Telefilm, the CTF, the Newtel Cultural Fund, the NLFDC, WTN, CBC Atlantic and federal and provincial tax credits.

Clarke is producing with Linda Fitzpatrick. Anita McGee is attached to direct.

Funny things happen After Dark

Halifax’s After Dark Productions is currently in post on its sketch comedy pilot After Dark TV, produced in a truly grassroots fashion by Chris Cuthbertson, Drew Hagen, Nico Lorenzutti and Michael Mason.

The producers moved to Halifax from Vancouver to concentrate on the project. The $50,000 program has so far been funded without the benefit of a broadcast licence.

‘We could have written some stuff and submitted some scripts, but where is that going to get us and how far will it go? Now we have stuff that’s shot on video, saying this is who we are and this is what we do. That seemed to make the most sense to us in order to break in and get the broadcast licence we need,’ says Cuthbertson.

AFF produces kids film fest

The Halifax-based Atlantic Film Festival is producing the ViewFinders International Film Festival For Youth, a new five-day showcase of film and video targeted at youth aged three to 18. ViewFinders will be held April 24-28 in Halifax, with the CBC as a presenting sponsor.

ViewFinders director Kellie Manning says the festival will include a comprehensive school program, workshops and evening and weekend screenings for children, teens and families. Q&As and other activities are also planned.

The industry portion of the festival will be developed further in coming years, adds Manning.

ViewFinders is essentially a new and improved version of a former AFF initiative, Screen Scene, which ran alongside the AFF from 1993 to 1998. Logistically, says Manning, it was difficult to manage both festivals at once, and it didn’t jibe well with the early part of the school year.

ViewFinders is open to filmmakers young and old from Canada and beyond. Andrew Murphy is the festival programmer.

In other AFF news, the popular Strategic Partners event, which was cancelled last year due to events stemming from Sept. 11, will focus on coproduction partnerships and dialogue between Canada and Australia/New Zealand.

This year’s AFF runs Sept. 13-21 in Halifax.