Halifax-based producer Michael MacDonald (formerly of Ocean Entertainment) established Road House Films in February and already has a whack of TV productions in development and a 2 x 60 limited documentary series in production.

The series, produced and directed by MacDonald, is titled Northern Lights: Canada’s UFO X-Files, and offers a look at the history of UFO sightings in Canada and the way our culture reacts to the phenomenon, especially when comparing Canadians to Americans. If you’ve ever been to Roswell, NM, you have a pretty good idea of some of the differences.

‘Americans are the masters of pop culture, in whatever genre it rears its hideous head,’ says MacDonald. ‘Canadians tend to be a little more circumspect. We are taking a look at why UFOs seem to be pervasive in our culture, and you can’t ignore the U.S. when discussing this topic.’

Production on Northern Lights is really rolling, says MacDonald, who got a lot of interesting footage at the UFO Halifax conference, held over the Thanksgiving weekend and hosted by the filmmaker. He plans to deliver the series to Space: The Imagination Station by April 31, to air sometime in June.

Funding for the $200,000 project has come from Space and the Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation, and MacDonald says he has applications in with several funding sources for top-up dollars. When it’s completed, he will be looking to sell the series internationally.

MacDonald says Road House has a number of interprovincial coproduction projects in the works as well with Toronto producer Michael Mouland and his company Road House Media. The Mikes know each other from their shared publishing backgrounds, and are developing a 13 x 30 series for CTV Travel called Celebrity Death Hotel, about hotels where the famous and infamous have met their untimely ends. Filmoption International is distributing, and MacDonald hopes to be in production by late spring.

Filmoption will also distribute two other Road House Films/Road House Media series currently in development: Visions from the Edge (3 x 60), about science-fiction-themed art in pop culture, and Future Cars, about the makers of concept automobiles.

MacDonald also has two projects in the works with Liography creator/writer Ian Johnston: the MOW Saucer Men (in development) and Toejam, a short film about a man who gets his toe caught in his tub’s drain, thus changing his life for the better. Shooting on the latter should begin by year’s end.

Molaro takes on the Antarctic and Anne

Halifax-based filmmaker Mark Molaro of Dog’s Breakfast Films is following up his acclaimed 35-minute documentary about gay marriages, Mike & Joel’s Wedding, which recently screened as part of the 23rd Atlantic Film Festival, with two other docs destined for the festival circuit.

The first is an ambitious 55-minute film called Students on Ice: An Antarctic Adventure, on which Molaro served as producer, director, videographer and editor.

Working on an ultra-low budget, Molaro followed members of Ottawa-based Students on Ice – an organization which sends teens to the Antarctic for educational purposes – on a two-week expedition to the frozen continent.

He says the purpose of the film is to display the ‘powerful human reaction’ the students had to the Antarctic.

‘For me, this is the unique feature of the documentary, which separates it from so many other historical, scientific or wildlife films that have been made in Antarctica,’ says Molaro. ‘As so few of the film’s audience will see Antarctica, this film is a bit of surrogate experience and allows a viewer to share the human emotion and awe that the continent inspires.’

Students on Ice was funded out-of-pocket and through the National Film Board’s Filmmakers Assistance Program. Molaro hopes to complete post-production by early November, and is preparing to submit the doc for consideration at festivals around the world, where he hopes to find buyer interest.

Molaro is also working on That’s Our Anne, a short doc about the Anne of Green Gables phenomenon and how residents of Prince Edward Island – where the Lucy Maude Montgomery books and television series are set – feel about it.

‘I wanted the insider’s opinion, which usually gets overlooked as most of us are tourists to the island and the phenomenon,’ says Molaro. ‘The film goes directly to islanders themselves and investigates the wide variance in opinion on the Anne phenomenon.’

Again, Molaro serves as producer, director, videographer and editor on the film, which has just gone into post-production. While he won’t disclose the budget, he says the film was self-financed and he plans to have it on the festival circuit next year.

RoboSapiens worth the wait

The last time we checked in with P.E.I. filmmaker John Hopkins was in October 2000, just after he won the $12,000 CBC Script Development Award at the Atlantic Film Festival. The money was destined to go to a feature documentary called Mountain Man, about world-renowned biologist and former NASA scientist Dr. Mark Tilden, who figured out how to mimic the nervous systems and behaviors of insects, in robotic form, without using software or processors.

Three years later, Hopkins continues work on the film, renamed RoboSapiens: A Docu Sci-fi, through his production company Square Deal Productions.

Hopkins says the concept continues to evolve and he’s not about to rush things just to get the film completed.

‘A story needs time to mature, like a fine wine,’ says Hopkins. ‘Most of the stuff we are seeing these days [goes] to press before the grapes are ripe and is being consumed as soon as [it’s] bottled. They are shooting first drafts and being hurried out the door. There is more producing skill being exercised than creativity.’

Tilden and his life are the focal point of the doc, which explores his plan is to distribute millions of his robotic bug and humanoid creations as toys. This is coupled with a human-interest story of a brilliant mind that has trouble getting a date for Saturday night because few think at his level.

The budget for the film, says Hopkins, is about $750,000, with half the funding coming from Technology PEI, the Canada Council, PEI Department of Education, award money and tax credits. He says the National Film Board’s International Co-production Unit and CBC International Sales are interested, and coproduction offers have come in from the U.K., France and the Netherlands.

A one-hour version of RoboSapiens is scheduled to air on CBC’s The Nature of Things in 2005, while talks continue with France 5 and the Independent Film Channel. HBO’s Cinemax has also expressed interest, says Hopkins.

Tilden, incidentally, is Hopkins’ cousin.

Goodnight Atlantic Canada – there will be no encore

JUST when you got used to me being back with Playback, it is with a certain melancholy that I tell you I’m outta here – again. Laura Bracken (lbracken@brunico.com) returns to Playback next issue and will be handling all of your Atlantic Scene and Prairie Scene needs once more.

Thanks folks. It’s been nice dealing with you again.