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Playback readership poll results
Next year’s Genie Awards may be a tighter race. In response to an online poll asking ‘What will be the Barbarian Invasions of this year’s festival season,’ Saint Ralph was the narrow winner, getting 24.1% of votes. Being Julia was a close second at 22%, followed by Childstar (18.4%), Wilby Wonderful (12.1%) and Elles etaient cinq (9.9%). 13.5% of respondents thought none of these was on par with Arcand’s opus, voting ‘c’est impossible!’
Correction
This Hour Has 22 Minutes is produced by Michael Donovan and Alliance Atlantis Communications, but Donovan’s newly launched Halifax Film Company is not involved, as reported in the Sept. 13 issue of Playback.
Anger management
There are certain things one should never do while angry, such as drive a car, drink, enlist in the army, or write open letters to city newspapers. This is doubly true if one happens to be the head of a film festival that is caught up in a battle for public and professional opinion with its financial backers.
Sarin heads to India with A Love Story
Vancouver: Force Four Entertainment begins three weeks of production in the farmlands of Abbotsford, BC Oct. 14 on the CBC MOW A Love Story before moving production in November to Chandigarh in the Indian province of Punjab for two more weeks.
The $3.7-million production, which is also known as Murder Unveiled and will likely go through another name change, is a tragic Punjabi love story inspired by actual headlines.
Features
Dead heads
Youth
Mainframe goes live
Frankenseries! Science goes mad at Shaftesbury
Toronto has had some experience starring as the site of a mysterious and lethal epidemic, so much of what plays out in the first two episodes of ReGenesis will seem very familiar to anyone who was near this city, or near a television, during the SARS outbreak.
Broadcast
Clear shooting in Vic
Docs
Comeback kid
Panel discusses choosing right format
While the costs of producing 35mm feature films are creeping prohibitively high for many producers, high-definition and other digital video formats have provided a legitimate alternative, while the more economical 16mm and Super 16 formats seem to be making a resurgence.
Groundbreaking cop series takes final bow
With its seventh and final season gracing the airwaves, Cold Squad remains perhaps the most under-appreciated of all Canadian drama series.
Stewart looks back at life on the Squad
For a cop drama so obsessed with death and dying, it’s a wonder Cold Squad survived for 98 episodes. Seven seasons for a homegrown Canadian drama – when most are killed off after one or two seasons – is like a gangster dying in bed with rosary beads in his hands. It just rarely happens.
Gemini Awards for Cold Squad
2000: Best performance by an actress
Cold Squad fueled by warm bodies
When Cold Squad coproducer Julia Keatley ramped up Vancouver’s first primetime national drama in 1997, part of her excitement was for the local production personnel itching for a chance to do something substantial and homegrown.
Series overcame bumpy beginning
Bill Mustos is CTV’s senior VP, dramatic programming.
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