High art and pop culture come together in Bloomsday Cabaret, a music-driven, POV documentary from St. John’s, NF Rock Island Productions that will have Joyceans singing.

Rosemary House, who writes, directs and produces, says she was struck by the central role popular music played in the life and writings of James Joyce. Using the simple music of his day, House seeks to give audiences a glimpse into the complex world of the great modernist writer.

After filming in Ireland for two weeks in September, she returned to Newfoundland for an additional week of shooting, which included staging a live cabaret for the finale of the film.

‘[The cabaret] was an extraordinary end to the filming,’ says House. ‘It opens the film as a teaser of what’s to come, then we dissolve to our band and Canadian players on Sandymount Strand in Dublin.’

The cabaret was filmed over two days at the old Majestic Theatre on Duckworth Street in St. John’s and used 80 extras. Paul Pope worked with House as assistant director for the cabaret portion of the film.

The documentary will feature interviews with a variety of Joyce enthusiasts, from Newfoundland writer, actor and amateur Joycean Bryan Hennessey to some of the world’s top Joyce scholars, including Michael Groden from the University of Western Ontario and Terrence Killeen of the Irish Times. Newfoundland actor/writer Sherry White, Toronto opera singer/comedian Mary Lou Fallis and, straight from Lillie’s Bordello in Dublin, Irish singer Paul Harrington will all appear in the doc, with music direction by Londoner Graham Henderson.

The $600,000 documentary will air on Bravo! in April to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Bloomsday, which Joyceans will celebrate on June 16, 2004. CBC has second window.

Shot on Super 16, House hopes to turn Bloomsday Cabaret into a feature-length doc. She says the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, the BBC, as well as German and American distributors have expressed interest in the project. House says she will be looking to make international sales at MIPTV in March.

Bloomsday Cabaret is funded through Bravo!, the Newfoundland and Labrador Film Development Corporation, Telefilm Canada, LFP and EIP, CBC, the Canadian Learning Channel and Heritage Canada, with additional investment from business initiatives, the Ireland Newfoundland Partnership and Tourism Ireland.

House has also been busy writing, narrating and directing Hospital City, a documentary that brings its audience into the hectic life of a large city hospital. Mary Sexton, House’s partner in St. John’s, NF-based Dark Flowers Productions, produces the film with Kent Martin, executive producer of the National Film Board’s Atlantic Studio.

Hospital City was picture locked at the end of November and House plans to deliver to CBC before Christmas. House and Sexton will complete two versions of the doc – a 40-minute version for CBC’s Rough Cuts and a 48-minute version for the NFB, with second window going to CBC Atlantic.

House spent many days familiarizing herself with the Health Sciences Centre in St. John’s, an urban medical facility with 5,000 employees, before bringing a crew of three inside over three weeks in June to witness the miracles and tragedies of daily life at the hospital.

The under-$300,000 doc, shot on digiBeta, is funded through the NFB, NLFDC and CBC.

A dog’s life for Ruby Line

Dog lovers today will go to extraordinary lengths for their pets. Not everyone would send their pooch to doggy daycare or get a second mortgage on their house to pay for veterinary surgery, but over the last 10 years, dogs have moved from family pet to family member. This is the topic of Raising Rover, a documentary from St. John’s, NF-based Ruby Line Productions.

Toronto director Wendy Roland and Newfoundland producer Linda Fitzpatrick shot the $400,000 doc over three weeks this fall in Newfoundland and Toronto before heading to New York City to capture some of the world’s most pampered pups.

Roland says the film centers on four or five main characters, including upscale doggie fashion designer Cece Cord and her dog Tiger Lily, and Deb, founder of the Dog-8-It Bakery, with her three whippets – Sigfreid, Truffles and Coco.

Raising Rover takes a humorous look at some of the more decadent doggy services such as city pools just for fido or canine taxi services that allow your pooch to travel in comfort. The doc also touches on recent advances in veterinary medicine and offers reflections on the changing role of dogs in culture.

Shooting primarily on digiBeta, DOP Ellie Yonova also captured the canine perspective using a miniDV on a boom held at doggy level. The one-hour doc is currently in post with Halifax editor Angela Baker at the Newfoundland Independent Filmmakers Coop. Fitzpatrick will deliver to CTV in March, with second window going to The Independent Film Channel.

Funding sources included the LFP, Telefilm Canada and the Newfoundland and Labrador Film Development Corporation.

Girl Culture

Newfoundland director/producer Victoria King is developing a documentary about a most elusive topic – the lives of preteen girls in today’s culture. Girl Culture, a working title, is a coproduction from Toronto’s Sondhi Productions and St. John’s, NF-based Factory Lane Productions.

Geeta Sondhi will produce the one-hour doc for CBC that gets at the front lines of girl culture by tracking the experiences of three young girls from diverse cultural and geographical backgrounds. King says NFB Atlantic region has also expressed interest in the project.

Poko pushed forward

The CBC launch of Salter Street Films’ animated children’s series Poko took place Dec. 1, rather than at the end of January as originally planned.

Considered CBC’s flagship children’s series, the pubcaster wanted to launch Poko over the holidays because it’s the best time to reach young audiences, says executive producer, writer and creator Jeff Rosen.

Season one wrapped Nov. 19 and CBC ordered a second season before the first aired. Poko, with support from CBC and the Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation, led to the creation of Halifax’s first stop-motion animation studio with a permanent staff of approximately 48.