We talk with former Degrassi: The Next Generation actress Annie Clark about her first starring role on the big screen in the Canadian thriller Solo and about her thoughts on modern thrillers, why she chose filming over a vacation, why she never became a camp counsellor herself, and the freedom of being able to get a little down and dirty for the sake of the character.
We talk to brothers Andrew and Adam Gray, the documentarians behind Fly Colt Fly, a look at the almost unbelievable crime spree of 19 year old thief Colton Harris-Moore, about what first drew them to Colton as a subject, the sometimes unbelievable nature of his escapes from SWAT teams and army helicopters, how their love of comics helped in the mythological animated sequences of the film, the dangers Andrew put his own brother-in-law through for the live action recreations, how people from Colton’s younger days were more sympathetic, and how this film almost got them shot... twice.
Enter for a chance to win a pair of passes to a special advance screening of the Canadian comedic mystery No Clue in Calgary on Monday, February 24th or in Vancouver on Thursday, March 6th - both with Q&As with star and writer Brent Butt - courtesy of Dork Shelf and eOne Films.
While certainly a bit overstuffed with several barely intersecting storylines, the ensemble Canadian indie comedy Sex After Kids has great performances, an ear for truthful humor, and certainly a little something for everybody.
We talk to writer/director Jeremy LaLonde and actors Kate Hewlett, Amanda Brugel, and Zoie Palmer about their work on the ensemble independent Canadian comedy Sex After Kids about finding the right people for the roles, assembling a film out of a lot of different parts in a small amount of time, letting go of your ego to play something realistically for laughs, not being able to keep straight faces, and why Jeremy jokingly made his low budget independent film sound even lower budget than it really was.
We talk to Being Human actor and filmmaker Pat Kiely about his second feature film as a director (the proudly un-romantic comedy Three Night Stand), the time between making his first feature and getting around to this one, the advantages of working with great friends and collaborators, the downside to shooting in the dead of winter, and why he’s tired of audiences being fed the same old rom-com clichés over and over again.
We talk to Rhymes for Young Ghouls director Jeff Barnaby his film’s recent successes, the mundane nature of small town life that can lead some to less than exemplary behaviour, treating even his villains as humans, the mixed reaction the film has received within the native film community, and why it was a no brainer to use a female protagonist to tell a deeply personal story that stays true to his own experiences.
Whitewash is an ambitious, if decidedly problematic debut Canadian feature that’s arriving in theatres at the perfect time.
We talk to filmmakers Jason and Brett Butler about their $1,000 budgeted dark comedy Mourning Has Broken and about expanding the film to feature length, how they kind of bluffed their way through their initial pitch with producer Ingrid Veninger, their collaboration with actor Robert Nolan, and how they like to keep audiences guessing.
We talk with veteran director and photographer Gail Harvey about her latest film Looking is the Original Sin, which opens at the Carlton in Toronto this Friday alongside an exhibition at the theatre of photography from her decades long career.
Oil Sands Karaoke is a fun film with some great music that humanizes the often vilified faces of the men and women working in the oil sands.
Dork Shelf talks to Nova Scotia based writer and director Shandi Mitchell about her debut feature The Disappeared, about the differences between writing for publishing and film, her connection to the ocean, shooting on 16mm, and the recent cultural fascination with mortality under extreme conditions.
We chat with TIFF 2009 Pitch This winner, writer and director Daniel Perlmutter, about his recently wrapped comedy Big News from Grand Rock, and his film’s lengthy gestation period, why his film is a throwback to the same kinds of stories his main character is trying to make newsworthy, reuniting with one of his Pitch This mentors for his leading man, and how time flies once the film starts rolling.
The Canadian black comedy Cottage Country has all the potential elements for success: a beautiful locale, actors who can pull off great comedy, and a story with loads of potential on paper. Unfortunately, it never gels the way it should becoming oddly too sweet for the darkness to play with any real balance.
The quiet, unsettling, and visually mesmerizing Canadian independent The Oxbow Cure might be one of the most thoughtful genre films in recent memory. There isn’t another movie like this that’s come out this year, this decade, or possibly will ever be seen again. It's that unique.
