Vancouver: Local director Michael Bafaro and production manager Chris Rudolf have returned to Revelstoke, B.C., to film The Barber.
It’s the first full feature shot in their mountainous hometown. (Big studio feature Double Jeopardy, with Ashley Judd, shot one day in Revelstoke back in 1999.)
Produced as the fifth feature by Vancouver’s Prophecy Entertainment, The Barber stars Malcolm McDowell as an Alaska town coiffeur who moonlights as a veteran serial killer. As an ‘offbeat’ psychological thriller, the story gets into his mind and his ability to lead a double life.

Vancouver: The new Canada Feature Film Fund won’t be the boon to B.C. producers that it will be for producers in Central Canada without major restructuring of the draft guidelines released March 29, says the local industry.
‘Overall the fund will be great for the Canadian domestic industry,’ says B.C.-based producer Steve Hegyes and a member of the advisory committee. ‘But B.C. lacks a base of content-providing companies. We have no Rhombus, no Triptych, no big distributors, no broadcasters that buy features. We need to create the same [working] environment that Toronto or Montreal has. Our indigenous industry is in dire straits [and] we have yet to come up with a formula to capitalize film companies.’

Vancouver: CKVU’s licence expires Aug. 31 and there is still no buyer, says the West Coast office of the CRTC.
The Vancouver station – which will be cut adrift from owner CanWest Global’s television network this fall – has been on the block since July 2000 when the CRTC approved CanWest’s acquisition of market leader BCTV, sister station CHEK and other WIC Western International Communications television assets.
But the mandated sale of CKVU didn’t happen by the end of 2000 and, since the new year, the station has been placed into a trust arrangement managed by Winnipeg-based Bud Sherman and a board of six.

Vancouver: DaVinci’s Inquest, Outer Limits, short film Evirati and youth series Caitlin’s Way dominated their competition as nominees in the 2001 Leo Awards celebrating the B.C. film industry. …

Vancouver: Documentary producer David Paperny has drawn back the curtain to reveal Vancouver inflagrante delicto: sadomasochism, cross-dressing, gender switching, fetish parties, dungeons, masters and slaves, and other forms of sexual expression.
Kink, made for Showcase’s Fridays Without Borders bloc, chronicles (rather intimately, one might say) the lives of people who aren’t shy about talking about and demonstrating their nocturnal pursuits.

Vancouver: The Okanagan Film Commission and the Thompson-Nicola Regional District have each received $60,000 from the B.C. government to help attract film and television productions….

Vancouver: Pinewood Sound in Vancouver was among the thankees in Jon Johnson’s Oscar acceptance speech as winner of best sound editing for Universal’s submarine movie U571….

Vancouver: Fresh from their Academy Award parties late last month, previous Oscar winners Al Pacino, Hilary Swank and Robin Williams will be in Vancouver April 19 to June 20 to shoot the Warner Bros.-distributed Insomnia (Alcon Entertainment).
This is a psychological thriller with serious Hollywood muscle behind it. Not only does its cast boast the big hardware, but Steven Soderbergh, George Clooney and Charlie Schlissel (Red Planet) are executive producers.
Three Kings alumni Paul Witt and Ed McDonnell reunite as producers with the team of Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson from Dude, Where’s My Car? (Quit snickering, Dude was closing in on $47 million in domestic box office last month.)
Chris Nolan (of Sundance winner Memento) directs.

Vancouver: The Canadian film industry may not want to ‘paint the devil on the wall’ and speculate about the fallout from potential U.S. labor disruptions this summer, but most are now bracing for a dramatic downturn in business.
Across the country, the outlook is pessimistic that American members of the Screen Actors Guild and Writers Guild of America will ratify new contracts in time to avoid picket lines and work stoppages. And there is little confidence that Canada’s domestic industry will be able to fill the void to any positive effect.

Vancouver: The CRTC, capitulating to the will of the federal cabinet and Heritage Minister Sheila Copps, issued a call for bids Feb. 28 for an over-the-air ethnic television station in the Greater Vancouver market. …

Vncouver: Turkish Internet celebrity Mahir, famous for his hit dance tune I Kiss You, has planted one on Vancouver-based Noisemedia.
The self-proclaimed ambassador of peace and love – through distributors iPop in Canada and Universal Music in the U.S. – has commissioned the local Internet producer to create what is hailed as the world’s first Flash-animated music video.

Vancouver: Until the Canadian Television Fund picks the survivors of this year’s edition of The Great Canadian Funding Challenge, domestic broadcasters are hedging comments about the coming fall season’s renewals.
Nonetheless, there are long-form, serial shows that seem to have immunity.