Edmonton: ‘A filmmakers love-in’ is how CBC Reflections short film programmer Tara Ellis dubs the National Screen Institute’s Local Heroes Festival, which wrapped March 14 in Edmonton after seven days of short film and indie feature screenings, q&as with directors, and daily seminars focusing on the filmmaking craft.

But beyond the discussions of art and process, the festival offered emerging filmmakers the opportunity to develop contacts with production company reps, broadcasters, distributors and other key industry players who were well represented at the event, with overall attendance at the 4,000 mark.

‘The greatest value of Local Heroes is in providing filmmakers with their first exposure to broadcasters, where we can make contact with them and impart what works, what will make them more successful and ultimately make our jobs easier,’ says Scott McPherson, director of creative development at WIC Entertainment, a key sponsor of the festival.

‘Many of the major projects we do today are with people we met at Local Heroes five years ago who pitched themselves to us as filmmakers and who we watched grow creatively and handle the business side until our confidence factor grew and we were ready to take a risk on their projects.’

Interest, he says, is particularly centered on recipients of the Drama Prize, which gives six teams of emerging filmmakers a year to develop, finance and produce a short film with the aid of $6,000 in cash and $5,500 in service production incentives and training workshops. The films then premiere at the following year’s festival.

After wading through 75 submissions from across Canada, the 1998 winners are: The Fare from Vancouver writer/director Neil Every and producer Tracy Boulton; The Legend of Brideshead Mansion from the Toronto team of writer/producer Joelle Bourjolly and director Courtney Graham; Toy Soldiers from writer/producer Catherine May and director Jackie May; Samurai Swing from Edmonton-based writer Vern Thiessen, director Meiko Ouchi and producer Jason Lee; Babette’s Feet from Vancouver writer/ director Harry Killas and producer John Prince; and La Belle Mobile from Montreal writer/director Mario Bonenfant and producer Louise-Maire Beauchamp.

For the filmmakers premiering their 1997 Drama Prize films and the 16 shorts chosen from among 130 entries for The Declaration of Independents screening, Local Heroes offered the opportunity to market their calling card films, gain exposure through sales to broadcasters, and pitch long-form projects.

The Winnipeg Film Group distributes shorts internationally and distribution coordinator Marlene James is currently working on deals for Kevin Schjerning and Craig Cornell’s The Cellar, The Alley, Scott Simpson’s Terminal Lunch, Ariella Pahlke’s Charlie’s Prospect and David Birnbaum’s Darkly Machiever.

James works the shorts on the festival circuit for a year to help the filmmakers develop resumes for their films, which she says makes them marketable for sales overseas, particularly at broadcasters such as Canal+. She also works at placing shorts in American and Canadian rep cinemas as trailers.

Guy Bennett, for example, managed to get his film Beau screened in theaters as a preview to Love and Death on Long Island and says providing his own promo campaign was an incentive to spur exhibitors to make the deal.

Bennett also promoted Praxis, a non-profit Vancouver organization which develops screenplays via workshops with senior screenwriters. The Hanging Garden and Double Happiness have gone through the process and advisors have included Atom Egoyan and Don McKellar. In response to requests from producers in Canada and the u.s., Praxis catalogues scripts from the workshop available for option and development funding.

Christine Vroom from Kunst Kanaal Arts Channel returned to the Netherlands in negotiations to license Sylvie Rosenthal’s La Bombe au Chocolat, which created quite a buzz, and Mike Munn’s A Hole in the Road. The Arts Channel provides programs via local cable networks in the Netherlands and also provides packages of films to cultural and educational institutions.

Based in New York, Gill Holland operates cineBLAST! Productions, which compiles short films on video for distribution to indie video stores across the u.s. He is seeking to acquire rights to La Bombe au Chocolat, Gary Yate’s The Big Pickle and The Cellar.

Holland coproduced the triple Sundance award-winning feature Hurricane Streets and is considering shooting two of his upcoming films in Canada – a road movie with first-time feature director Leslie McLeave (whom he met via his short films), and Shoot That Clown, a heist-gone-wrong film, also directed by a previous short filmmaker, David Burris. Holland scouted for coproducers at the festival and says he left Local Heroes with numerous feature scripts from short filmmakers.

One of last year’s Drama Prize recipients, Sara Snow, is developing and writing a kids’ series based on the Ellen Schwartz Starshine series of books about a young Vancouver girl fascinated by spiders, and she took the opportunity to hook up with potential producers.

Brent Haynes, acquisition co-ordinator at The Comedy Network, says as a result of his dealings with other broadcasters and filmmakers at Local Heroes, he will be changing some of the licensing conditions for Canadian Comedy Shorts to make them more competitive with other broadcasters.

Haynes is in negotiations to pick up Katherine Baulu and Jennifer Kierans’ The Rogers Cable, Robert Cuffley and Ando Leuchter’s Game Seven, The Big Pickle and Susan Terril and Snow’s The Chicken Tree.

He is also suggesting potential submissions for the Just For Laughs festival’s Eat My Shorts video screening to be held this summer in Montreal.

Industry seminars included a discussion with Bruce McDonald of Roadkill, Highway 61, Dance Me Outside and Hard Core Logo fame, who screened his first short films on the street, called up local media and stirred up publicity by concocting all sorts of promo stunts.