Director/writer/coproducer: Bruce Sweeney – Executive producer: Stephen Hegyes – Coproducers: Linda Gunns, John Dippong – Cameraman: David Pelletier – Diary by: Louise Cameron

Dirty, Bruce Sweeney’s follow-up to Live Bait, dissects the tortured emotional lives of a group of dysfunctional Vancouverites.

Summer 1996: Sweeney approaches coproducer Stephen Hegyes for help in finding a distributor for Live Bait, named best Canadian film at the 1995 Toronto International Film Festival.

September 1996: Hegyes secures a distribution deal with Malofilm at tiff.

Nov. 6, 1996: Sweeney gives Hegyes videotapes of the rehearsals with actors Tom Scholte, Benjamin Ratner, Babz Chula and Nancy Sivak on Dirty. Hegyes is already familiar with the director’s intensive ‘Mike Leigh style’ of rehearsal and has seen a first draft of the script for the film, but the impact of these preliminary scenes impels him to commit to the project.

‘That got me hooked on it,’ he says. ‘The performances between Tom Scholte and Babz Chula, as well as between Scholte and Ben Ratner, were really phenomenal and quite compelling, and I agreed to come on the project at that point as executive producer.’

Dec. 18, 1996: Sweeney and Hegyes fly to Toronto to meet with Malofilm (now Behaviour Communications). Malofilm’s Noah Segal has already read the script for Dirty but is hesitant to invest in the character-driven piece.

Hegyes shows him the rehearsal tapes and Segal’s reaction is similar to his own on first viewing them. ‘We went into the boardroom, screened the tapes and had lunch,’ Hegyes says. ‘We had a deal by the time the coffee came.’

Malo puts up an advance of $150,000 for Canadian distribution rights. The film is budgeted at $1 million.

January to March 1997: Hegyes continues to pursue a broadcast sale as Sweeney prepares for shooting. Echoing Malofilm’s initial response to the project, most broadcasters are scared off by the material.

Producers Linda Gunns and John Dippong file grant applications to B.C. Film, which eventually agrees to come in for 75% of the advance in exchange for a theatrical release in Canada.

March 13, 1997: Just six weeks before shooting is scheduled to begin, Hegyes secures a broadcast sale with Citytv. ‘It actually came right down to the wire,’ he recalls.

May to June 1997: Dirty begins shooting the first week of May in Vancouver.

June to October 1997: Sweeney and Ross Weber edit the film at the production offices in Vancouver. Sound editing is done at Sharpe Sound Studios.

Sweeney and Hegyes decide they will work towards completing Dirty in time for the Sundance Film Festival in late January.

Oct. 16, 1997: Hegyes flies to Santa Monica with the cutting copy and screens it for Geoff Gilmour, programmer for Sundance. Gilmour responds very favorably, but does not proffer an immediate invitation to the festival.

December 1997: Sweeney and Hegyes are officially invited to screen Dirty at the 1998 Sundance festival.

January 1998: Dirty is shown to appreciative audiences at Sundance.

Dippong distributes black ‘Dirty toques’ to festival goers. As Hegyes recalls, the hats ‘were the hottest piece of merchandise at the festival. We probably could have financed the next picture if we had arranged things better and sold them.’ Hegyes wears one of the toques during his first and last attempt to learn snowboarding.

February 1998: Dirty is screened at the Berlin International Film Festival. Hegyes begins discussions about a foreign distribution deal.

Summer 1998: Hegyes, Behaviour and V.K. & Associates begin working on the initial Canadian release strategy for Dirty. The film will be screened at the Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal festivals, and each screening will be followed by a theatrical release in the respective city.

September 1998: Dirty screens at tiff.

Public screenings:

Monday, Sept. 14, 9 p.m.

Uptown 2

Tuesday, Sept. 15, 1 p.m.

Cumberland/Alliance 3

Press & industry screenings:

See Website for daily updates: www.bell.ca/filmfest