TIFF 2004 sees the launch of Canada First!, the new program featuring works by rookie Canuck feature directors as well as those making their TIFF debuts. Despite the thematic differences among this year’s Canada First! entries, all the directors Playback spoke with have one thing in common – they are all coming to the fest in search of sales.

It’s All Gone Pete Tong is Vancouver director Michael Dowse’s second feature. His first, the Canadian skid pseudo-doc Fubar, was rejected by TIFF but became one of the cult hits of 2002. Fubar screened at a film festival in London, however, which brought Pete Tong into Dowse’s life.

‘I met up with these two producers [Allan Niblo and James Richardson] and they wanted to do a film in Ibiza,’ says Dowse. ‘They had a title but that was all.’

Dowse says that although It’s All Gone Pete Tong – a comedic docudrama about hearing-impaired DJ Frankie Wilde – was financed privately and coproduced by the U.K.’s Vertigo Films and B.C.’s True West Films, it was logistically not the easiest film to make.

‘[Ibiza] is the hedonistic capital of Europe, so if you wanted to go out and blow your face on drugs and not show up for work, you could,’ says Dowse. ‘The island mentality is that if everyone on the film is saying we need something yesterday, [the islanders] say ‘tomorrow, maybe.’ Luckily, we were working with a small enough crew to be flexible.’

Although Dowse began writing the script in February 2003 and was shooting by August, a quick turnaround isn’t all that common among the rest of the Canada First! group. Just ask Mark A. Lewis.

Lewis, also from B.C., began working on what would turn into his first feature, Ill Fated, nearly a decade ago. After his high school penchant for theater mutated into the filmmaking bug, Lewis began to write random scenes and vignettes.

‘The original intention, from a 20-year-old’s perspective, was to write and direct this feature film without any practice whatsoever,’ says Lewis. ‘That was a little naive.’

Realizing filmmaking would be a marathon rather than a cakewalk, Lewis directed a number of short films while continuing work on the scenes. He began consulting with writer/actor John Callander on the script, about a high school graduate desperate to leave his small town but kept there by a number of self-serving family members and acquaintances. It was ready by mid-2002.

Lewis says it was difficult to get the film produced. Although partially privately financed, Telefilm Canada only deemed it worthy once Ill Fated was preselected for Cannes and needed money to finish. Lewis says, however, that the recent attention from festivals has given him a confidence boost toward the film.

‘We’ve had prescreenings that have gone over well,’ he says. ‘With every edit, the reaction gets stronger.’

Another Canada First! feature years in the making is Jimmywork, a documentary with a ‘dramatic resolution’ from Montreal director Simon Sauve. Sauve, an editor by trade (with credits including La Fortresse suspendue), says he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to make a film about his neighbor, Jimmy, who had the odd job of producing an ad campaign for a Northern Quebec rodeo.

‘The documentary rules were pushed to the extreme,’ says Sauve. ‘I wasn’t really thinking about what the film was or where it was going, but it didn’t take long before I was all tangled up in Jimmy’s life and I wanted to know more. As the material kept coming, I realized Jimmy was taking me for a long ride.’

Sauve began this venture using his own money, and shot from January to September 2000. Looking back, had he known the struggles that would lie ahead, he questions whether he would have made the film.

‘If I had known how much effort this project would take, I probably would have never done it,’ says Sauve. ‘The big challenge was to stay focused throughout these last four years, but I had a commitment to Jimmy. I had to go through with it.’

Actor-turned-director Rob Stefaniuk decided to tackle his first feature, Phil the Alien, a puppet-driven comedy about the misadventures of an extraterrestrial barfly, when trying to find something clever for Telefilm’s Low Budget Independent Feature Film Assistance Program. After returning from L.A., where director Kari Skogland turned Stefaniuk’s zany script for The Size of Watermelons into reality, Stefaniuk produced the well-received Public Domain, written and directed by his girlfriend, Kris Lefcoe. Then Stefaniuk took a look around his brother Ron’s creature effects shop in Toronto.

‘I knew my brother had a beaver and an alien [puppet], and so I got an idea I thought would be funny,’ says Stefaniuk.

With Telefilm’s backing, Stefaniuk shot for 17 days, and is happy to finally have a film at TIFF. Both The Size of Watermelons and Public Domain were rejected in earlier years.

‘It’s been eight years on and off trying to get in,’ says Stefaniuk. ‘I knew how difficult it is, so it was a miserable couple of months waiting to find out, but now it feels amazing.’

Abraham scores with debut

In contrast, another Toronto submission, I, Claudia, is not only director Chris Abraham’s first feature and TIFF submission, it also represents Abraham’s first time behind a camera – period. Abraham, a theater director of 10 years, was asked to direct the film version of I, Claudia, based on the play written and performed by Kristen Thomson. Abraham directed the stage version and helped develop the piece.

‘I had the great benefit of knowing and being very clear on the story, as well as the impact I wanted it to have on the audience,’ says Abraham. ‘I hung really close to what my sense of the story is, and I think if I hadn’t had that under my belt, the process would have been a lot more difficult for me.’

I, Claudia is about a young girl who discovers that her recently divorced father is getting remarried. Thomson performs the piece behind four different masks, and Abraham is interested to see if a film audience reacts to the work as positively as theatergoers have.

Of these films, a couple have so far secured Canadian distribution. I, Claudia is being distributed in Canada through Mongrel Media, while Odeon Films will handle It’s All Gone Pete Tong. The Canadian rights for the others and the U.S./world rights for all five are up for grabs. Dowse, for one, is pleased that his film will have a TIFF introduction into the marketplace.

‘It’s the best place to sell and the best place to premier,’ he says.

Next for Dowse is a feature called Cult de Sac (a dark comedy about a cult), while Stefaniuk is developing a rock ‘n’ roll vampire movie called Suck. Lewis is working on a new script with Callander, while Sauve has recommitted himself to editing for now. Abraham is headed back to the theater to direct The Unexpected Man in Toronto, but hopes to work in both film and theater going forward.

Other features in the Canada First! program include, from Quebec, Carole Laure’s CQ2 (Seek You Too), Wajdi Mouawad’s Littoral and Daniel Roby’s Peau Blanche (see story, p. 27). Toronto-based Michael McGowan’s Saint Ralph opens the program (p. 18), and Montreal director Gary Yates’ Seven Times Lucky will also screen (p. 24).