Vancouver: The West Coast’s enterprising guerilla filmmakers are back at their resourceful best with the production of Lucky Stars (aka Pick of the Litter), the first feature for producers Jump Communications and Like Minded Media.

Written by the producer/director team of Maureen Prentice and Jason Margolis, Lucky Stars is a digital video romantic comedy about a publicist who, after being dumped by her lover, gets a dog and tries to get him into the movie business.

The $100,000 feature stars Josephine Jacob (Madchen Madchen), Brendan Fletcher (The Law of Enlosures), Sara Walker (Housekeeping), Elisabeth Rosen (Murder in a Small Town), Damon Johnson (The Last Stop), Stanley Katz (MVP), Ray Galletti (I Spy), Mackenzie Gray (The Net), Peter Chinkoda (MTV Real World: The Lost Years), Michael Scholar Jr. (Street Cents), Prentice and her canine Lucky.

Cinematographer is Shawn Talbot (Lily’s Crickets). Production designer is Margot Ready (X-Men 2).

Prentice and coproducer Robin Chan produced the Leo Award-winning short Mon amour mon parapluie.

Production on Lucky Stars wraps Nov. 25.

Act-Men

Actors Sir Ian McKellen and Alan Cumming are growing roots in Vancouver with the long shoot for X-Men 2: both have taken roles in local productions.

McKellen will star in Carl Bessai’s third feature, Emile, a Canada/U.K. coproduction set to shoot here this winter. In it, he plays a Canadian-born professor who, after 40 years in the U.K., returns to the West Coast to reconnect with his family.

Previously, Bessai directed Johnny and Lola.

Cumming, meanwhile, has volunteered his services to the six-minute comedy Pits, by writer/director Gary Hawes, an apprentice on the X-Men 2 set. In Pits, Cumming plays a store manager interviewing a job candidate.

See Grace Fly

Local independent feature See Grace Fly is in post. Five years in the making, Grace is a digital production about a brother dealing with his sister’s schizophrenia. Writer/director Pete McCormack (Understanding Ken) helmed a 20-day shoot that wrapped in Vancouver Sept. 6.

The feature stars Gina Chiarelli (Da Vinci’s Inquest) and Paul McGillion (A Cooler Climate), who are producers with McCormack, Robert French (Noroc) and Paul Armstrong (Mon amour mon parapluie). Supporting cast includes Benjamin Ratner (19 Months), Megan Leitch (The X-Files), Tom Scholte (Last Wedding) and Jennifer Copping (Protection).

DOP Larry Lynne (These Arms of Mine) shot the feature on DVCPRO. Jesse Miller is editor.

Shot on deferral with a budget of about $180,000, Grace has broadcast licences with Movie Central, The Movie Network and Citytv. Producers hope to blow up the film to 35mm in December.

Doc talk

Paperny Films’ four-part documentary series Chasing the Cure aired on Discovery Health Channel over four weeks in November. The series focused on four Canadian scientists and their breakthroughs in treating cancer, Alzheimer’s, bacterial infection and heart disease.

Aynsley Vogel, Penny Wheelwright, Melanie Wood and Elliott Shiff directed the one-hour episodes that were narrated and cowritten by Allen Abel.

* Vancouver documentary filmmakers Peter and Sheera von Puttkamer (Gryphon Productions) premiere Return of the River – the story of the Huu-ay-aht First Nation near Bamfield, B.C. and the restoration of the Sarita River – at the Discovery Theatre in Vancouver on Nov. 29. The 57-minute film is a sequel to the 1997 documentary Heart of the People and will be broadcast on APTN in April.

Sin and Sinner

Squamish filmmaker Adrianne Polo (Sea to Sky Entertainment) is in post-production with her independent comedy The Big Bank Theory, inspired by Something About Mary and Dumb and Dumber. Telling the stoy of two friends returning stolen money to a church, Big Bank wrapped production in Whistler, Squamish and Britannia Beach in October.

Kelly Goyer and Phil Trasolini play the leads.

Book smart

Knowledge Network is back in the studio with two new productions.

By the Book is a weekly series hosted by Vancouver Playhouse director Glynis Leyshon about feature films inspired by classic and contemporary works of literature. The series debuts Jan. 10, 2003.

The Leading Edge, meanwhile, is a 13-part series about research in B.C.’s post-secondary education sector and goes into production Dec. 9. The series debuts Jan. 7.

Viva Vancouver

Citytv Vancouver has added more to its mixing pot of programming, boasting a commitment to multiculturalism unrivalled by conventional Canadian broadcasters. The upstart Vancouver station launched VIVA, a weekly half-hour look at how cultures meet, clash, and meld in the world of arts, entertainment and pop culture, Nov. 2. Roop Virk hosts and Vancouver producers Baljit Sangra and Veeno Dewan (Viva Mantra Films) produce.

Meanwhile, as part of its agreement to acquire CKVU, Citytv Vancouver agreed to open its cheque book for a variety of causes – including seven short films.

In October, the station picked seven short films (out of 60 applicants) for support as part of the inaugural CineCity: Vancouver’s Stories. Five of the seven- to 22-minute dramas from B.C.-based minority filmmakers will be licensed for broadcast next spring, while two others get development funding.

Licensed titles include: Bubble Tea out in the Sun (producer/director Desiree Lim, cowriter Winston Xin); Madame White Snake & Billy Buckwheat (producer Liz Nunoda, writer/director Michele Wong); No One Suspects the Chinese Guy (producer Robin Chan, writer Henry Mah, director Scott Owen); Once a Fish (producer Michelle Samuels, writer Loretta Seto, director Ling Chiu); and 7 to 11, Indian (producer Andrew Subin, writer/director Nilesh Patel).

Development deals are: Chika’s Bird (producer Sharon Yu, writer Nozomi Imanishi) and Killer Whale Has Taken Me Home (producer/writer Ray Van Eng).

Citytv Vancouver also gave 13 aboriginal and visible minority students in BCIT’s Broadcast and Media Communications program $27,000 in scholarship awards Nov. 6, part of a five-year, $175,000 commitment to support BCIT. In June, Citytv paid $10,000.

And Citytv Vancouver’s first Cultural Diversity Fellowship went to Surrey resident Rajinder Purewal for Hope, his script about Indian immigrants refused entry into Canada. The fellowship pays for Purewal’s admission to the fall screenplay workshop at the Praxis Centre and mentorship with writer/producer Marlene Rodgers.

Naked ambition

Bardel Entertainment is feeling pretty cocky these days. The local toonco’s favorite nudie, Mr. Dink, has won another kudo: the Grand Jury Prize for Animation in the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival.

The Mr. Dink Show’s first four five-minute episodes beat more than 250 features, shorts, animations and documentaries for the exposure. Bardel is in production with another nine five-minute episodes for Comedy Network.