Montreal: Principal photography on the one-hour dance adaptation Amelia, the latest creation from internationally renowned choregrapher/director Edouard Lock and Montreal contemporary dance company La La La Human Steps, has wrapped after 19 days. Lock’s new stage production premiered in Prague and Paris last fall and in Montreal this winter. The post-production, edit and special visual F/X are being done in HD at the Media Principia studios.

Amelia was shot on 16mm film by DOP Andre Turpin and coproduced by Pierre L. Touchette of Amerimage-Spectra and Bob Krupinski of Media Principia. Touchette says Lock designed the shoot in a manner that captures short, live performance segments of between eight and 20 seconds within a classical dance structure.

Media Principia president Daniel Langlois, Spectra VP, TV sector/finance Luc Chatelain and L’Equipe Spectra president Alain Simard are exec producers.

Amelia is being produced on a budget of $1.3 million, with funding from CBC, Radio-Canada, arts channel ARTV, Telefilm Canada and the LFP. The exporter is Rhombus International.

New production at Amerimage-Spectra includes The Body Architect/L’Architecte du corps: Jean-Pierre Perreault, a one-hour documentary coproduction with the National Film Board on the life and work of the acclaimed and recently deceased Montreal choreographer.

Paule Baillargeon (Claude Jutra, portrait sur film) and Jefferson Lewis are the screenwriters. Baillargeon is the director and Lisa Cochrane (Amerimage-Spectra) and Yves Bisaillon (NFB) are producing. The licensees are Radio-Canada and CBC.

Touchette, director Gary McGroarty and Vancouver’s Soapbox Productions start shooting this month on Shaking All Over, a two-hour doc history of Canadian pop music (1961-71) commissioned by CBC. Profiled bands include The Guess Who, The Staccatos, JB and the Playboys, Ian and Sylvia, Neil Young, Ronny Hawkins and more. Author Nicholas Jennings (Before the Gold Rush) is the screenwriter.

Fournier shoots Je n’aime que toi

Shooting in and around the Montreal region on Claude Fournier’s 14th feature film, Je n’aime que toi, wrapped March 28. The film tells the story, described as both ‘intimate and astonishing,’ of a celebrated novelist, played by Michel Forget, who is inspired by a young prostitute called Daisy (Or is she Maude, a student with writing ambitions of her own?), played by Noemie Godin-Vigneau in her first big-screen role.

Dorothee Berryman (Les Invasions barbares), Jean-Nicolas Verreault (Jack Carter, La Turbulence des Fluides), France Castel, Normand Chouinard, comic Louis-Jose Houde and real-life publisher Jacques Lanctot round out the cast. Jorane composed the film’s music.

Craft credits go to veteran DOP Rene Verzier, art director Gaudeline Sauriol, costume designer Michele Hamel, PM Nicole Hilareguy and picture editor Jean-Pierre Cereghetti.

Je n’aime que toi is produced by Marie-Jose Raymond of Rose Films, with the financial participation of Telefilm Canada, specialty channel MusiquePlus and distributor Christal Films Distribution.

Funding for French-track movies

Both Telefilm Canada and SODEC have announced their first-round (2003/04) French-language feature film funding decisions.

Telefilm has accepted five of 22 projects filed for the Jan. 20 comparatives, representing total funding of $5.8 million from both the selective ($2.8 million) and performance ($3 million) components, in addition to approximately $1.7 million from the LFP feature film envelope.

SODEC has accepted six projects out of the 22 ‘secteur prive’ applications filed for its Jan. 27 deadline. SODEC’s overall investment is $4 million. The agency says total demand for funding this round was close to $16 million, representing an average production budget of $3.7 million.

Three of the films have received support from both the federal and provincial agencies. They are:

* Camping sauvage, a comedy about a upright citizen in big trouble with a biker gang, directed by Guy A. Lepage, Sylvain Roy and Andre Ducharme from a script by Luc Dery, Ducharme and Yves Lapierre (Lyla Films/Cine-Roman produce; Alliance Atlantis Vivafilm distributes).

* Dans l’oeil du chat, a thriller about a woman’s mysterious disappearance, from first-time director Rudy Barichello, penned by Marcel Beaulieu (Films Zingaro/AAV).

* La Lune viendra d’elle-meme, a drama about a woman with a long-term illness, her family and friends from first-time director/writer Marie-Jan Seille (ACPAV/Christal Films Distribution).

Two additional films have received only Telefilm backing, at this point:

* La Vengeance d’Elvis Wong by Pierre Falardeau is the third installment in the director’s popular Elvis Gratton comedy series, scripted by Falardeau and actor Julien Poulin. This time out, Mr. Big buys Radio-Canada (ACPAV/Christal)

* La Vie avec mon pere by director/writer Sebastien Rose, a social satire and sequel of sorts about two contentious brothers who go through changes when their father returns to live in Montreal (Max Films/AAV).

SODEC has announced funding support for two additional auteur movie projects:

* Les Etats-Unis d’Albert from director/writer Andre Forcier, a love story set against the early days of American cinema (Productions Thalie/Christal).

* Elles etaient cinq from director Ghislaine Cote and screenwriter Chantal Cadieux explores the theme of rape and its aftermath (Remstar in coproduction with Forum Films/Remstar Distribution).

SODEC is also backing Monica la Mitraille, the reailty-based story of legendary holdup artist Machine Gun Molly from screenwriter Sylvain Guy and first-time feature director Pierre Houle (Cite-Amerique/AAV).

The next deadline for submitting French-language projects to the CFFF’s (Telefilm) selective component is April 28.

Telefilm anticipates approximately $20.3 million in total CFFF production investments in French-langage features in 2003/04. The total includes $9.2 million in selective and $11.1 million in performance, or reserved, component envelopes.

The LFP feature film envelope represents additional funding of approximately $2.5 million.