B.C.’s nonfiction filmmakers are center stage at VIFF with five world premieres about radically different subjects.

MR. BIG

Mr. Big marks Tiffany Burn’s directorial debut with a film that could have been called: Unknown Filmmaker Takes on the RCMP.

After years working in front of the camera as a TV journalist in the U.S., Burns stepped behind the camera to expose the methods of RCMP sting operations used to convict her brother Sebastian of a Washington State triple murder in 2004.

‘I realized that this story is bigger than Sebastian,’ says Burns. ‘It is about how the RCMP gets confessions that wouldn’t be accepted anywhere else in the world.’ She set out ‘pitching the story all over the place. People were really interested, but wouldn’t touch it, so I quit my job, sold my sports car, and bought a camera.’

Burns is excited that her film screens first in Vancouver, where the case made headlines for years, but points out that ‘the documentary is not to prove my brother’s innocence. The courts will deal with that. I want to get the story out, get it seen; make Canada aware of what the police are doing.’

Without giving details, Burns hints that a distribution deal is on the near-horizon, and that the festival screening and audience response will help.

SHE’S A BOY I KNEW

Using archival family footage, interviews, phone messages, hand-drawn animation, and $80,000 of her own money (‘I’m in debt’), Gwen Haworth began filming her transition from Steven to Gwen for her student thesis film at the University of B.C.’s film school in 2004.

‘I didn’t search for money so that I could keep complete artistic control,’ asserts Haworth. ‘But now that it is finished and my family are alright with it, my hope is to gain success in the festival circuit, and pick up a distribution deal so I can make this in higher quality, get it out there, and encourage people to pick up their cameras, and tell their own stories.’

THE PRINCE OF POT: MARC EMERY

Producer Anne Pick and cowriter Digby Cook were developing a story for CBC’s The Lens when Marc Emery, Canada’s cannabis activist, was arrested in Halifax on a U.S. indictment charging him with selling millions of dollars worth of marijuana seeds to customers throughout the U.S.

‘Right away, we knew this was the story to tell instead – it was more relevant,’ says Pick. CBC went for the pitch, contributing to the $260,000 film.

Pick is adamant that the film isn’t about marijuana. ‘This isn’t just a story about growing pot,’ she says. ‘Marc is touching on a fundamental issue. It’s about the right to our own morals, values and sovereignty. He’s sinking millions of dollars into this fight.’ The rumor mill indicates a later Sundance screening is possible.

CONFESSIONS OF AN INNOCENT MAN

‘I’ve been wanting to make this film ever since I heard about William Sampson’s imprisonment,’ says producer David Paperny of Vancouver-based Paperny Films.

Sampson, a Vancouver businessman with British-Canadian citizenship, was working in Saudi Arabia in 2001 when he was arrested, interrogated, tortured and held in solitary confinement in a Saudi prison for more than two years – all this despite maintaining his innocence in a car bomb murder.

With approximately $1.4 million backing from his own company, CTV, the National Film Board, Rogers Documentary Fund and Telefilm Canada, Paperny made what he feels is his most challenging film.

‘We were scouring archives in remote locations and even had clandestine crews shooting in Saudi Arabia for us,’ says Paperny, who hopes his efforts pay forward. ‘My hope is that we will get a good response from a dedicated festival audience, create a buzz, and get a theatrical release deal. Fortunately, CTV is very progressive in its thinking and is waiting to see how that unfolds,’ he says.

SAVING LUNA: THE TRUE STORY OF A LONE ORCA

Veteran docmakers and writers Michael Parfit and Suzanne Chisholm know the ropes. They’ve been in the biz for 30 years writing and filming for the likes of National Geographic.

But in 2001, when Parfit and Chisholm went to cover the plight of Luna, a whale stranded alone on B.C.’s coast, they literally experienced a sea change.

‘Documentary makers usually make a film because they have an axe to grind. We went to cover Luna as observers, with a journalistic approach, and all of a sudden we were in it,’ reflects Chisholm.

Parfit concurs. ‘Every writer has empathy. You provide information. You present it accurately, and move on. But we hung on to this story. We became emotionally involved, because saving Luna became more important than telling his story. Luna changed our lives. I don’t know how people will react to our film, it takes a controversial position.’

When asked if they are they looking to follow in the unprecedented success of March of the Penguins, Parfit is emotional and pragmatic. ‘We have the support of CBC for The Lens, and Telefilm Canada for a theatrical release. We’ll see what happens from there.’