TIFF’s Canada First! showcases films from first-time Canadian feature directors, or those from Canuck directors screening a feature at TIFF for the first time.

EDISON AND LEO
Director: Neil Burns
Writers: George Toles, Daegan Fryklind
Producers: Dean English, Karen Powell
Cast: Powers Boothe, Gregory Smith
Distributor: TVA Films

Canada’s first stop-motion animated feature is poised to electrify TIFF’s Canada First program as its opening-night film. The fairytale-gone-wrong is about fictitious inventor George T. Edison during the discovery of electricity.

‘Edison and Leo is one of the most distinctive debut features ever made in Canada, with a very unique, rather adult sensibility that’s rare in North American animation,’ says TIFF Canadian programmer Steve Gravestock.

‘Part of this comes from co-writer George Toles, Guy Maddin’s writing partner,’ he continues. ‘The subject matter – it’s about all kinds of theft, from cultural to spiritual – is timely. Plus it’s very, very funny. The bit where Edison has to drink the bowl of spit is priceless.’

Dean English (Flower & Garnet, Kissed), who produced with partner Karen Powell (The Cabin Movie, Hard Core Logo) at Vancouver’s Perfect Circle Productions and the late William Vince (exec producer) and Dave Valleau (line producer) of crosstown prodco Infinity Features (Capote), is charged by the buzz around the $10-million flick.

Co-written by Toles (The Saddest Music in the World) and Daegan Fryklind (jPod, Robson Arms), the film is voiced by Powers Boothe (Sin City) in the role of the inventor. Gregory Smith (The Patriot) plays his son.

‘George Toles brought me the script in 1998, but I just didn’t know how we could create such a lush, rich world to match the story within a realistic budget,’ says English.

When Toles came back to him in 2002, English believed that Toles’ story could be translated onto the screen using stop-motion animation. ‘If you need to create a world that is a few steps beyond the norm, animation allows you to create it,’ he says.

Ten years in the making, ‘everything about this film was challenging,’ English laughs.

The first hurdle was lining up $10 million.

‘It was very hard to get the funding together,’ English explains. ‘Here is a simple equation: Canada’s first stop-motion feature, plus new ground for all the funding agencies, plus an animated story not geared for kids. I am not sure if they had even considered such an endeavor before I came knocking on their door with this.

‘They had to understand that there was a logical master plan – understand that there was some commercial viability to the project, and, most importantly, that there was the talent in Canada to pull it off. It was a process of finding champions on the way.’

One such champion was Vince, who died of cancer in June. ‘He never made it to the set, but was able to see an earlier cut of the film,’ English recalls.

With TVA Films on board as Canadian distributor, and financing secured, English hired animation director Neil Burns (What It’s Like Being Alone, Jojo’s Circus), and the 80-member crew launched into stop-motion action in July 2007 in an old residential school in Mission, BC.

‘Neil is very talented in being able to work with the animators to find those little special actions that can truly make a scene. He has a great sense of story,’ notes English, quipping: ‘Directing an animated character – the hardest part is getting them out of their trailer.’

Powell confirms that stop-motion animation is a technique that requires patience. ‘In a 10-hour day, we get up to five seconds per animator,’ she explains. ‘So at the end of the day, we may have 50 seconds. But it’s very cost-effective. It’s the fastest animating method you can do.’

Shot over eight months, the production had 13 shooting stages set up, with as many as 11 stages shooting simultaneously. The countless models, sets and puppets were all built from scratch in one-sixth scale.

TVA holds Canadian distribution rights, but English is leaving the U.S. and foreign rights open because ‘creatively, we wanted to create an environment where we would be able to be as true to George Toles’ script as possible. TVA gave us an amazing amount of trust to do that, and having several other partners involved may have diluted that.’

English has been willing to gamble that they are onto something.

‘Financially, we knew that there was a constantly growing audience for ‘mature themed’ animation,’ he says.

‘Will Edison and Leo be that film – who knows?’ IB

COOPERS’ CAMERA
Director: Warren Sonoda
Writers: Mike Beaver, Jason Jones
Producers: Sean Buckley, Nicholas Tabarrok
Cast: Jason Jones, Samantha Bee, Mike Beaver, Dave Foley, Peter Keleghan, Dylan Everett, Nick McKinlay, Jayne Eastwood, Jennifer Baxter
Distributor: Boutique Films

Warren Sonoda wanted to lovingly make a feature that could resonate with a wide audience. So he set out to tell the story that ends with the words ‘…and that was the worst Christmas ever.’

Sonoda took a script from Mike Beaver and Jason Jones (friends from his debut Ham & Cheese) to a Christmas party, showed it to Sean Buckley and Nicholas Tabarrok at Buck Films (who would go on to produce), and got the go-ahead.

After some apprehensions over whether the lo-fi feel of the film could be sustained for feature-length, and if the three could find the time to make the picture together, they seized a block of time opened up by the Writers Guild of America strike, freeing Beaver and Jones from duties on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

‘Eleven days and two Christmas trees later,’ Sonoda turned footage captured with a handicam into his feature debut, Coopers’ Camera.

The Cooper family Christmas unravels before our very eyes after their youngest son, Teddy, decides to make use of the camcorder the family bought itself as a present. An estranged uncle arrives, and all hell breaks loose.

Sonoda thinks that the film, which has distribution courtesy of Boutique Films, is atypical of what TIFF usually chooses.

‘It’s definitely one of the films that will put the most smiles on people’s faces at the fest,’ he says. ‘So after everyone sees all the hard-hitting dramas and documentaries about third-world atrocities, they can come see Coopers’ Camera, sit down and have a laugh.’

Laughter is something Sonoda is willing to guarantee, because the film has such familiarity. ‘Everyone’s been through it,’ Sonoda says. ‘This way you get to laugh at the Christmas from hell without having to go to your relatives.’ SM

BORDERLINE
Director: Lyne Charlebois
Writers: Marie-Sissi Labrèche, Lyne Charlebois
Producers: Roger Frappier, Luc Vandal
Cast: Isabelle Blais, Jean-Hughes Anglade, Angèle Coutu, Sylvie Drapeau, Marie-Chantal Perron, Pierre-Luc Brillant, Laurence Carbonneau
Distributor: TVA Films
International Sales: Max Films

‘It’s a film that pushes the limits,’ says Quebec producer Roger Frappier of his latest outing, Borderline.

‘I was surprised that it did so well in Quebec. I thought it would shock people, but it didn’t,’ notes the Oscar-nominated producer (Jesus of Montreal).

Quebec audiences aren’t easily shocked, but film veteran Frappier (Maelström) wonders aloud how TIFF-goers will respond to this harsh sexual coming-of-age story. The plot follows Kiki (Isabelle Blais), an aspiring young writer who is abandoned by her mentally ill mother (Sylvie Drapeau) and brought up by her grandmother (Angèle Coutu).

The $4.7-million film contains graphic and at times explicit sexual content (including full-frontal male and female nudity), and it has already grossed $1.2 million at the Quebec box office since its release in February. (It generated nearly $400,000 in its first week in theaters.)

Borderline is based on two autobiographical novels – Borderline and La Brèche – by well-known Montreal writer Marie-Sissi Labrèche, who co-wrote the script with first-time feature director Lyne Charlebois.

Frappier believes it was a box-office hit mainly because the three principal characters – a small girl, a young woman and a grandmother – likely appeal to a cross-section of women. ‘It’s a women’s story written and directed by women. It’s a real story about a family,’ he says.

Although the film was ultimately an audience-pleaser, Frappier struggled to get Borderline made. It was rejected twice by Quebec funding agency SODEC and Telefilm Canada. In order to keep the project afloat and reapply to SODEC, Frappier took $1 million from the Telefilm performance envelope he received for La grande séduction. On the third try, SODEC came through, allocating a portion of the Quebec government’s $10 million in emergency funding for feature films to Borderline.

For Frappier, TIFF is an ideal launch pad from which to sell the film internationally. ‘Toronto is always a good festival for us. There were lots of sales of La grande séduction,’ he says.

Frappier is waiting to see the response to the film at TIFF before proceeding with an English-Canadian release. PB

REAL TIME
Writer/Director: Randall Cole
Producers: Julia Rosenberg, Paula Devonshire, Ari Lantos
Cast: Randy Quaid, Jay Baruchel
Distributor/International Sales: Maximum Films

It’s not often that Hollywood actors creep into Canada First!, but Randall Cole’s Real Time brings some star power to the ’08 lineup.

Clocking in at 80 minutes, the Maximum Films thriller follows how Andy (Knocked Up’s Jay Baruchel) chooses to spend his last hour when hit man Reuban (Randy Quaid) comes to collect on a gambling debt.

In addition to some big-name appeal, Cole thinks audiences will be drawn in by the hypothetical question at the film’s core.

‘It forces audiences to look in the mirror and watch the time go by as fast as it actually would,’ Cole says. ‘It will make them wonder what they would do with only one hour left to live.’ SM

DOWN TO THE DIRT
Director: Justin Simms
Writers: Justin Simms, Sherry White
Producers: Anna Petras, Justin Simms, Janice Ripley, Nicholas Tabarrok
Cast: Joel Thomas Hynes, Mylene Savoie, Robert Joy, Hugh Dillon, Jody Richardson, Phil Churchill
Distributor: Mongrel Media

Justin Simms’ Down to the Dirt follows the tradition of many great Canadian literary adaptations, but adds a personal twist.

Joel Thomas Hynes (Hatching, Matching & Dispatching) plays the lead in the adaptation of his own novel about a doomed poet falling into a life-altering romance.

‘The fact that it comes from an autobiographical source gives it a degree of honesty,’ Simms says. ‘It really jumps off the screen and delivers emotional content in a fast and funny way.’

Simms also sees appeal in showing off the Newfoundland independent scene, so the Mongrel Media release was shot entirely in St. John’s. ‘It’s a great opportunity to show the rest of Canada what we’ve been up to,’ says Simms. SM

WHEN LIFE WAS GOOD
Writer/Director/Producer: Terry Miles
Cast: Kristine Cofsky, Brody Harms, Kristen Hovet, Rob Carpenter, Brenda Matthews

Terry Miles’ When Life Was Good takes a humorous look at the various reasons relationships can fall apart. The premise is simple. Brooklyn (Kristine Cofsky) returns home only to immediately decide to pack all her belongings and leave her boyfriend on his birthday.

That one action sets off a chain of periphery events that show the more unorthodox angles of modern romance.

‘After a certain age, one type of relationship stops working,’ Miles says. ‘This is a funny look at the process of figuring out what works and what doesn’t in a love triangle.’

Mainly improvised and shot in a vérité style, Miles likens the film, which has yet to find distribution, to a DIY four-track indie rock recording – that is to say, the perfect mixtape to get away from the big-budget trap. SM

CONTROL ALT DELETE
Writer/Director: Cameron Labine
Producers: Stephanie Symns, Lynne Stopkewich
Cast: Tyler Labine, Sonja Bennett, Geoff Gustafson, Keith Dallas, Alisen Down, Laura Bertram, Kevin James

Control Alt Delete revisits the long-standing love affair Canadian filmmakers have had with technology, but Cameron Labine’s debut shouldn’t get lost in the shuffle.

‘It’s about a guy that fucks computers,’ Labine says of the film’s appeal, ‘so there’s that to set it apart.’

The story is about a depressed tech wiz who gets addicted to Internet porn after his girlfriend dumps him. It takes a turn for the weird when he becomes obsessed with the machine itself.

‘It’s about the things people do to express self-loathing,’ Labine explains. ‘It came out of a kind of dark fascination, but we wanted it to be a fun experiment, without it getting too heavy.’ SM

ONLY
Writers/Directors: Ingrid Veninger, Simon Reynolds
Producers: Simon Reynolds, Ankur Sharma (EP)
Cast: Jacob Switzer, Elena Hudgins Lyle

Despite featuring two writer/directors, Only is perhaps the most personal film of all the Canada First! entries.

Shot over 15 days during an extended March break, the love story unfolds in the same rural motel where co-director Ingrid Veninger lived for part of her childhood.

‘It’s full of anecdotes and memories,’ says Veninger. ‘It’s about taking risks and building trust, and the filmmaking process mirrored that.’

Her collaborator Simon Reynolds thinks the universal appeal of the story will be a big draw. ‘Everyone’s experienced first love, and this takes them back to that moment,’ he says. ‘It’s a film about love and was inspired by a love of cinema, and that all comes through on screen.’

Distribution for the film was still in the works at press time. SM

BEFORE TOMORROW
Directors: Marie-Hélène Cousineau, Madeline Ivalu
Writers: Marie-Hélène Cousineau, Madeline Ivalu, Susan Avingaq
Producer: Stéphane Rituit
Cast: Madeline Ivalu, Paul-Dylan Ivalu, Mary Qulitalik, Peter-Henry Arnatsiaq, Tumasie Sivuarapik
Distributor: Alliance Films

Marie-Hélène Cousineau arives at TIFF with Before Tomorrow – the first film from Inuit women’s collective Arnait Video Productions in Igloolik, Nunavut.

The Alliance Films release tells the story of a fishing expedition that nearly leaves an elderly Igloolik woman for dead. Shot in Puvirnituq, Nunavut, it is considered a Quebec production.

The film was adapted from the novel For morgendagen by Danish author Jørn Riel, which has never been translated into English. Cousineau thinks both the mystique of Igloolik and the universal story will hold appeal.

‘It’s a first in Canada, maybe the world,’ says Cousineau. ‘Not a lot of films come from [Igloolik], but it’s a universal story. Although it’s a completely foreign culture to most, it’s emotions and a story that everyone can identify with.’ SM

NURSE. FIGHTER. BOY.
Director: Charles Officer
Writers: Charles Officer, Ingrid Veninger
Cast: Karen LeBlanc, Clark Johnson, Daniel J. Gordon, Walter Borden, David Collins, Samantha Somer Wilson
Distributor: Mongrel Media

Nurse. Fighter. Boy. tells the stories of a single mother, a boxer and a child converging one night through a related chain of events.

It started as a story Charles Officer told to fellow Canada First! director and co-writer Ingrid Veninger (Only) about three unrelated characters coming together. He decided it was too good not to make into a feature.

Officer employed a primarily black cast, and believes it gives his debut film a ‘soulfulness.’

‘It’s not just for a black audience,’ Officer cautions. ‘It’s got emotion that appeals to all audiences in and out of Canada, beyond just the Obama generation.’

The film boasts a soundtrack – featuring old-school reggae acts The Sheiks and The Maytones and Toronto rapper K’Naan – that Officer says stacks up against any other at the fest. SM