Creative BC has unveiled the 11 features, documentaries and series receiving nearly $1.4 million in production and post-production grants as part of the fifth round of its Production Program.

The program, announced in 2020 by the B.C. government, aims to support B.C. filmmakers complete their projects for broadcast, sale and distribution. The recipients must be B.C. residents or B.C.-owned and controlled production companies that own the IP of their respective projects. The program does not require a market trigger, as in proof of existing financing from a distributor or a broadcaster’s commitment, in order to be eligible.

The round is supported by B.C.’s three-year investment of $15.9 million, announced April 2023, into the province’s domestic motion productions, workforce and creators through 2027.

Four projects are receiving the maximum of $200,000, including the scripted feature Freaks Underground (Chloe Pictures) from producers Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, the co-directors of the most recent film in the Final Destination franchise and of 2018’s Freaks.

Freaks Underground follows a girl who risks her life and relationship with her mother in order to find a friend in a brutal and fascist world.

Another scripted feature receiving the maximum funding is In Alaska (Experimental Forest Films, IJswater Films), from producers Tyler Hagan, Vincent Karetak and Marc Bary. The Canada/Netherlands coproduction, written and directed by Jaap van Heusden and co-written and co-directed by Karetak, follows a teenager who shoots the Alaskan pipeline, sparking an FBI manhunt.

The Eden Express (Good Question Media, Hopscotch Films), produced by Lori Lozinsoki, Daniel Bekerman, Christina Wood and Chris Yurkovich, is based on Mark Vonnegut’s memoir of the same name. In May of last year it was announced that Daniel Cockburn had boarded the Canada/U.K. coproduction as director.

The documentary series Reclaim My Skin (Anukiri Ura Daka Pictures, Marie Clements Media, Screen Siren Pictures), produced by Marie Clements, Trish Dolman, Ernest Webb, Catherine Bainbridge and Steven Thibault, rounds out the projects that received the maximum funding. The three-part limited series about reclaiming Indigenous women’s history and authority in North America was announced as part of Knowledge Network’s slate last June and is written and directed by Clements in collaboration with artist Pura Fé.

Four more projects are receiving $120,000 in support, including QwAYAĆIIK (Seal Folk), produced by Sam Rose Phillips, who also directs, along with Gloria Pancrazi and Teri Snelgrove. The documentary follows a couple and their community who learn to co-exist among wolves.

Next is a scripted feature, The Bryce Lee Story (Flying Nunchucks Films), produced by Lynne Lee and Arnold Lim, who also directs. The film follows a 13-year-old who lies about being related to Bruce Lee to be accepted by his classmates at school.

One project with a working title and one untitled project make up the remaining two selections receiving $120,000. The former is West Coast Most Haunted (WM-Cold Productions) from producer Tania Koenig-Gauchier. The documentary series accompanies a team of Indigenous paranormal investigators and their encounters. The latter is an untitled feature-length documentary from Flying Cloud Productions, produced by Leon Lee.

The Good Canadian (Great Stories Productions) is co-directed and produced by Leena Minifie and David Paperny and is the only project receiving $50,000. The feature-length documentary unveils the inner workings of genocide happening against Indigenous peoples in Canada.

Silo Entertainment’s Clan of the Painted Lady, produced by Mel D’Souza along with director Jennifer Chiu, was the only project to receive $47,145. The feature Knowledge Network documentary follows the Hakka-Canadian filmmaker Chiu as she travels across the world, uncovers her family’s past and confronts the effects of migration on her family.

The final selection, receiving $20,000, is Lucid (Sublunar Films), co-written and directed by Deanna Milligan and Ramsey Fendall and produced by Milligan, Fendall and Emanuel Foucault. The feature tells the story of a 1990s art student who, due to her use of a lucid dreaming elixir to overcome creative blocks, finds herself trapped in a dreamscape where inner demons manifest as real monsters.

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