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Snow Walker cast and crew ‘live the movie’
Charles Martin Smith’s The Snow Walker will close this year’s VIFF at the Oct. 10 gala. The film, based on a short story by beloved Canadian author Farley Mowat, tells the tale of a Canuck pilot lost in the barrens and the Inuit passenger whose native skills save them both.
Canadian Images: verite, sleepers and more Maddin
VIFF 2003’s Canadian Images section boasts a record 32 features, and the reason for that is, simply, there were more strong films submitted, says Diane Burgess, Canadian Images programmer.
Trade Forum: dollars, writing and Stan Lee
Although Marvel-ous Stan Lee – the brains behind Spider-Man, The Hulk and a host of other super-folk – will play a starring roll as a featured guest, this year’s VIFF Trade Forum is really about filmmaking dollars and scribing sense.
Franey: balancing the foreign and domestic
What is most striking about this year’s VIFF lineup is that all three gala screenings feature Canadian films. Denys Arcand’s The Barbarian Invasions will serve as the opening gala, Guy Maddin’s The Saddest Music in the World as the anniversary gala, and Charles Martin Smith’s The Snow Walker will close. This doesn’t necessarily reflect a trend, says Alan Franey, festival director for the last 16 years.
Frontliners sound off on state of B.C. production
Vancouver: Blame dive-bombing terrorists, stingy advertisers, runaway production lobbyists and reality television if you want, but the bloom is off the dogwood tree in Vancouver, no matter whether you toil in service or domestic production.
Cold Squad returns from the grave
Vancouver: In television crime series, you get killed off and that’s that. You’re dead. They examine you, they pray over you, they move on.
B.C. industry must ‘reinvent’ itself
Vancouver: It’s official. The anti-runaway production lobby terminated an estimated $80 million in direct spending in Vancouver in 2002 when the US$170-million Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines abandoned six weeks of preproduction here to shoot instead in L.A.
People
* Noted TV maker Perry Rosemond has been made a Member of the Order of Canada for his ‘tireless’ efforts at CBC on such shows as Fraggle Rock, King of Kensington and Royal Canadian Air Farce. Rosemond was among 109 new appointees announced last month by Governor General Adrienne Clarkson and will be formally awarded the honor at a later date. Also named or promoted were CBC’s Wayne Rostad, filmmaker Anne Claire Poirier and National Film Board alum Tony Ianzelo.
Documentarian Boutet dies suddenly before WFF premiere
Montreal: Veteran Quebec documentary filmmaker Richard Boutet, in his early 60s, died suddenly of a heart attack Friday, Aug. 29, only days before his latest film Sexe de rue premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival.
Accident claims 15/Love stars
Montreal: A tragic highway accident on the morning of Sept. 8 in suburban Montreal took the lives of two promising Montreal actors, Jaclyn Linetsky and Vadim Schneider. Both actors were 17 and among the leading players in the new Canada/France teen TV drama series 15/Love.
T1 cozies with Toronto Star
If you can’t beat them, join them, was the moral of the story when The Toronto Star announced its partnership with Toronto 1 earlier this month – a strategic alliance through which the daily paper and Toronto’s newest TV station will team up on reporting, advertising and marketing.
Toronto turns to TIFF
Hollywood North is the title of Peter O’Brian’s feature premiering at the 28th Toronto International Film Festival (Sept. 4-13). It is also the nickname given T.O. as a popular location for Hollywood productions, which shoot here because they can get Hollywood-caliber results cheaper.
Nets roll with blackout punches
The blackout experienced throughout Ontario and the northeastern U.S. Aug. 14 was less a swift kick and more a grazing blow to Toronto’s recovering production industry, which, aside from some minor logistical dilemmas, emerged from the dark mostly unscathed.
For Canada’s major broadcasters headquartered in T.O., there were a few anxious moments.
Quebec movies rule home market
Montreal: This year’s box-office performance of the four top-grossing Quebec-produced movies is unprecedented and simply stunning.
CBC tops Gemini doc, news and sports noms
CBC leads the pack with 64 nods as the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television unveiled nominations for Canadian documentary, news and sports programming for the 18th Gemini Awards.
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