Adelaide Clemens, Patrick J. Adams, Douglas Smith, Kathleen Turner Starring in ‘The Swearing Jar’ (EXCLUSIVE) →

Variety.com Brent Lang May 5, 2021

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Adelaide Clemens, Patrick J. Adams, Douglas Smith and Kathleen Turner will star in “The Swearing Jar.”

The musical romance will be directed by Lindsay MacKay (“Wet Bum”) from a script by Kate Hewlett (“Malory Towers”), who adapts her play of the same name. David Hewlett (“The Shape of Water”) and Jade Ma (“Zero Chill”) round out the cast.

“The Swearing Jar” centers on Carey, a high-school music teacher who throws a birthday concert for her husband, Simon, making them reminisce about their shared past. Through comedy, music and memory, the film will chart Carey and Simon’s relationship and the birth of their child.

Filming will take place this month in Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario. Distribution rights will be sold worldwide by Metro Films International, and the film will be released in Canada by Level Film. It’s eyeing a festival run next fall.

Producers include Jane Loughman, Kyle Bornais and Tony Wosk, with Morris Ruskin serving as executive producer.

“When I finished reading ‘The Swearing Jar,’ I took a deep breath and immediately picked it up to read again. I was floored by the well-drawn characters and the maze of emotions that Kate Hewlett led me through while I was reading,” said MacKay.

“We are so proud to be bringing this gorgeous, relatable, musical romance to the screen,” said Loughman. “‘The Swearing Jar’ presents the perfect opportunity to produce a prestige independent film, with huge audience appeal, incredible emotional impact and gorgeous visual style. This film is a passion project of mine: a wonderful, meaningful script; a universally relatable story told with sensitivity, heart and humor.”

Clemons appeared in “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and “The Great Gatsby,” and starred on TV’s “Rectify.” Smith starred in “Big Love” and appeared in the second season of “Big Little Lies.” Adams is best known for starring in “Suits.” Turner’s many roles include “Romancing the Stone,” “The War of the Roses” and “Serial Mom.”

Cinematography on “The Swearing Jar” will be undertaken by Jordan Kennington (“Goliath”), music will be composed by Tim Williams (“Brightburn”), and production design will be overseen by Diana Magnus (‘The Invisible Man”). In addition, costume design is by Hanna Puley (“Run This Town”) and editing by Lindsay Allikas (“American Woman”).

“The Swearing Jar” is funded by Telefilm Canada, Ontario Creates, Bell Media/CRAVE, Canadian Federal and Ontario & Manitoba Provincial tax credits and Media Capital Group.

Clemens is represented by United Talent Agency and Mosaic; Smith is represented by Gary Goddard Agency, ICM Partners and More Medavoy; Adams is represented by ICM Partners and Ginsberg Daniels Kallis; and KatTurner by Don Buchwald & Associates.

For the genre projects selected in the Frontières Platform in Cannes, thirteen is a lucky number for KICKING BLOOD →

Cineuropa by Marta Bałaga 29/04/2021 -

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The dedicated section for the genre film industry will return to the Marché du Film for a fourth year. Set to present 13 new genre projects to the industry on 10 and 11 July 2021, the Frontières Platform – a co-presentation between the Fantasia International Film Festival and the Marché du Film - Festival de Cannes – will include Proof of Concept presentations for projects in the advanced stages of financing, and the Buyers Showcase for titles which are in post-production or have recently been completed.

“Despite the pandemic, filmmakers around the world have been very prolific and we are proud to offer Marché du Film participants a first look at a variety of projects such as the very first anime presented at Frontières, an Austrian sci-fi film as well as a new vampire movie from a Frontières alumnus” – it was stated, referring to Denver Jackson’s Esluna: The Crown of Babylon, Magdalena Lauritsch’s Rubikon and Blaine Thurier’s Kicking Blood, which will be joined by Tristan Barr’s Subject, hailing from Australia.

As for the European offerings, Lauritsch will tell a story about a space station researching an algae project which could provide people with a permanent supply of oxygen and food – until things go horribly wrong. Vibeke Muasya will present Twisted (Denmark) and finally, Finland is set to highlight two projects: Taneli Mustonen’s The Twin, currently shooting in Estonia and starring Teresa Palmer as a young mother trying to deal with grief, and The Creeps by Marko Mäkilaakso of It Came from a Desert fame. The film will this time feature cult icons Christopher Lambert and Joe Dante instead of giant ants, rather appropriately so, as it will see a Finnish resort dominated by some tiny troublemakers.

“It took a village of crazy women and a handful of good men, to create my deeply personal psychological thriller” – Vibeke Muasya tells Cineuropa. “Being selected for the Frontieres Platform is a massive help to find distribution. We are in the final stages of post-production and have a lot of fresh talent on board, amateurs in front of the camera and young professionals behind the camera, like composer Mitch Tanner from the UK, and Danish first-time feature editor Amanda Bahl.”

The Frontières Proof of Concept Presentation will showcase six projects, including Beasts of Prey from Italy, directed by Andrea Corsini; Superposition from Denmark, about a creative couple and their son, leaving their life in Copenhagen for an isolated forest in Sweden (never a good idea); and Draven (UK, Sweden, Norway, Finland). Directed by Sonny Laguna and Tommy Wicklund, the latter promises a new, snowbound spin on the slasher genre, delivered by the duo behind Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich.

The Frontières Platform in Cannes is funded by the Government of Canada, with the major support of Wallimage, the Netherlands Film Fund, Telefilm Canada and SODEC.

Complete list of projects:

Buyers Showcase

Esluna: The Crown Of Babylon (Canada)
Director: Denver Jackson
Producer: Daniel Hogg

Kicking Blood (Canada)
Director: Blaine Thurier
Producer: Jennifer Jonas

Rubikon (Austria)
Director: Magdalena Lauritsch
Producers: Loredana Rehekampff, Andreas Schmied, Klaus Graf

Subject (Australia)
Director: Tristan Barr
Producer: David Gim, Tristan Barr

The Creeps (Finland)
Director: Marko Mäkilaakso
Producers: Miika J. Norvanto, Timo Puustinen

The Twin (Finland/Estonia)
Director: Taneli Mustonen
Producer: Aleksi Hyvärinen

Twisted (Denmark)
Director: Vibeke Muasya
Producers: Lene Børglum, Vibeke Muasya

Proof Of Concept Presentation

All The Names We Buried (USA)
Director: Thomas Torrey
Producers: Thomas Torrey, Noah Lang, Chadd Harbold, Sam Frohman

Beasts Of Prey (Italy)
Director: Andrea Corsini
Producer: Giorgia Maria Priolo, Francesco Grisi

Draven (UK/Sweden/Norway/Finland)
Director: Sonny Laguna & Tommy Wicklund
Producers: Rachel Richardson-Jones, Sean Wheelan, David Liljeblad

Long Days (USA)
Director: Adam Keleman
Producer: Eric Schultz

Superposition (Denmark)
Director: Karoline Lyngbye
Producer: Amalie Lyngbo Quist

The Island Between Tides (Canada)
Directors: Austin Andrews & Andrew Holmes
Producers: Austin Andrews, Andrew Holmes, Josh Huculiak

Tribeca Film Festival Unveils Main Lineup For June Event including The Novice →

deadline.com | By Patrick Hipes | April 20, 2021 11:01am

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The Tribeca Film Festival on Tuesday revealed its 2021 lineup, with 66 films spanning three competition sections as well as the annual event’s Viewpoints, Spotlight, Midnight, Movies Plus, and Tribeca Critics’ Week sections.

The festival will run June 9-20 with a mix of live in-person events at outdoor venues across all New York City boroughs. It kicks off with the world premiere of Warner Bros’ In the Heights, the adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway play set in the city’s Washington Heights neighborhood.

Other pics in the lineup that includes 56 world premieres are a selection of films that saw their 2020 Tribeca slots scrapped by the pandemic. There is also a series of Juneteenth programming throughout the sections that will celebrate voices from the African Diaspora, with special emphasis on African-American artists, performers, filmmakers, and interdisciplinary creators. The curation comes as this year’s dates had to be shifted to June from the fest’s usual April slot.

“Despite the challenges our industry faced this past year, it did not stop filmmakers, artists, and storytellers from creating compelling, entertaining, and thought-provoking content,” said Paula Weinstein, Chief Content Officer of Tribeca Enterprises, in announcing the lineup today. “The selections for each of these categories represent the tenacity and commitment of our creative community and we are so proud to include them as part of this year’s festival and share them with our returning in-person audiences.”

Here’s the lineup revealed today, with 60% of the feature films directed by female, BIPOC and LGBTQ+ filmmakers among a  record-high 11,222 total submissions across all categories. More programming will be announced in the coming weeks.

U.S. NARRATIVE COMPETITION

Catch the Fair One, directed and written by Josef Kubota Wladyka. Produced by Mollye Asher, Kimberly Parker, Josef Kubota Wladyka. (United States) – World Premiere. In this absorbing revenge thriller executive produced by Darren Aronofsky, a Native American boxer embarks on the fight of her life when she goes in search of her missing sister. With Kali Reis, Daniel Henshall, Tiffany Chu, Michael Drayer, Kimberly Guerrero, Lisa Emery, Kevin Dunn.

God’s Waiting Room, directed and written by Tyler Riggs. Produced by Tyler Riggs, Suvi Riggs. (United States) – World Premiere. As the summer drags on in central Florida, a young musician, a charismatic hustler, and a man adjusting to life after prison intersect on a dangerous path. With Nisalda Gonzalez, Matthew Leone, Tyler Riggs, Michelle Nuñez, Ray Benitez, Renata Eastlick. In English, Spanish with English subtitles.

Mark, Mary & Some Other People, directed and written by Hannah Marks. Produced by Hannah Marks, Pete Williams, Jon Lullo, Brendan Walter, Jonathan Duffy, Kelly Williams. (United States) – World Premiere. Young newlyweds Mark and Mary agree to try exploring other sexual partners, with surprising results in this unexpectedly charming love story from writer/director Hannah Marks. With Ben Rosenfield, Hayley Law, Odessa A’Zion, Nik Dodani, Matt Shively, Sofia Bryant.

The Novice, directed and written by Lauren Hadaway. Produced by Ryan Hawkins, Kari Hollend, Steven Sims, Zack Zucker. (United States) – World Premiere. Isabelle Fuhrman (Orphan, 2009) plays Alex Dal, a queer college freshman who joins her university’s rowing team and undertakes an obsessive physical and psychological journey to make it to the top varsity boat, no matter the cost. With Isabelle Fuhrman, Amy Forsyth, Dilone Kate Drummond, Jonathan Cherry, Charlotte Ubben.

Poser, directed by Ori Segev, Noah Dixon, written by Noah Dixon. Produced by Drew Johnson, Juli Sasaki, Brett Reiter, Josh Nowak. (United States) – World Premiere. Lennon observes on the sidelines of the thriving Columbus indie music scene, yearning for a personal connection that might shepherd her into the inner sanctum. Enter the enigmatic Bobbi Kitten, who takes Lennon under her confident wing—unwittingly entangling herself in a dark obsession. With Sylvie Mix, Bobbi Kitten.

Queen of Glory, directed and written by Nana Mensah. Produced by Jamund Washington, Kelley Robins Hicks, Baff Akoto, Nana Mensah, Anya Migdal. (United States) – World Premiere. Ghanaian-American Sarah is all set to abandon her Ivy League doctoral program to follow her married lover across the country. Her plans are derailed, however when her mother’s sudden death leaves her the owner of a neighborhood bookshop in the Bronx. With Nana Mensah, Meeko Gattuso, Oberon KA Adjepong, Adam Leon. *Part of the Juneteenth programming

DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

All These Sons, directed by Bing Liu, Joshua Altman. Produced by Zak Piper, Kelsey Carr, Bing Liu, Joshua Altman. (United States) – World Premiere. On Chicago’s South and West sides, the scourge of guns and gangs is destroying countless lives. Taking matters into their own hands, two men dedicate their lives educating, empowering and healing young Black men at high risk for being victims—or perpetrators—of deadly gun-violence.

Ascension (Ascension 登楼叹), directed by Jessica Kingdon. Produced by Kira Simon-Kennedy, Jessica Kingdon, Nathan Truesdell. (United States) – World Premiere. The absorbingly cinematic Ascension explores the pursuit of the “Chinese Dream Driven by mesmerizing—and sometimes humorous—imagery, this observational documentary presents a contemporary vision of China that prioritizes productivity and innovation above all. In Chinese with English subtitles.

Blind Ambition, directed by Robert Coe, Warwick Ross, written by Warwick Ross, Robert Coe, Paul Murphy, Madeleine Ross. Produced by Warwick Ross, Robert Coe. (Australia) – World Premiere. The inspiring story of four Zimbabwean men who form their country’s first Wine Tasting Olympics team and the mission that drives them to compete. In English, Shona with English subtitles.

Fathom, directed by Drew Xanthopoulos. Produced by Megan Gilbride. (United States) – World Premiere. Filmmaker & cinematographer Drew Xanthopoulos delivers a visual and aural wonder of a documentary—an immersive and sensorial film that follows researchers working to finally decode the communication of humpback whales. With Dr. Michelle Fournet, Dr. Ellen Garland. An Apple TV+ release.

The Kids, directed by Eddie Martin. Produced by Shannon Swan. (Australia) – World Premiere. 26 years after indie cult classic Kids was released to an unsuspecting nation, this documentary explores the divergent paths of the original cast, delivering an unflinching look back at one of the most iconic films of the 1990’s.

Like a Rolling Stone: The Life & Times of Ben Fong-Torres, written, directed and produced by Suzanne Joe Kai. (United States) – World Premiere. Suzanne Joe Kai’s intimate documentary shows us how the Rolling Stone writer and editor defined the cultural zeitgeist of the ’60s and ’70s. With Ben Fong-Torres, Cameron Crowe, Annie Leibovitz, Carlos Santana, Elton John, Steve Martin, Bob Weir, Quincy Jones, and more.

On the Divide, directed and written by Leah Galant, Maya Cueva. Produced by Diane Becker, Melanie Miller, Amanda Spain, Elizabeth Woodward. (United States) – World Premiere. On the Divide brings us into the lives of three Latinx people in McAllen Texas, whose different beliefs end up coming to a head at the last abortion clinic in the US/Mexico border. In English, Spanish with English subtitles.

The Scars of Ali Boulala, directed by Max Eriksson, written by Max Eriksson, Mikel Cee Karlsson. Produced by Mario Adamson, Ashley Smith. (Sweden, Norway) – World Premiere. In Max Eriksson’s audacious debut, Swedish skateboarding prodigy Ali Boulala—alongside other pros like Rune Glifberg and Arto Saari—looks back on the DIY videos and fast-paced lifestyle of his coming-of-age in the ’90s skating scene. With Ali Boulala, Rune Glifberg, Arto Saari, Ewan Bowman, Dustin Dollin, Kevin “Spanky” Long. In English, Finnish, Swedish with English subtitles.

INTERNATIONAL NARRATIVE COMPETITION

All My Friends Hate Me, directed by Andrew Gaynord, written by Tom Palmer, Tom Stourton. Produced by Tom Palmer. (UK) – World Premiere. Genuine but increasingly insecure Pete is cautiously excited about reuniting with his college crew for a birthday weekend of memories, partying and earnest reconnection at a picturesque English manor. Best laid plans, dear audience. With Tom Stourton, Charly Clive, Georgina Campbell, Joshua Mcguire, Antonia Clarke.

Brighton 4th, directed by Levan Koguashvili, written by Boris Frumin, Levan Koguashvili. Produced by Irakli Rodonaya, Olena Yershova, Levan Koguashvili. (Bulgaria, Georgia, Monaco, Russia, United States) – World Premiere. Tribeca shorts alum Levan Koguashvili returns to the festival with this warm and sensitively rendered story of a Georgian wrestler, Kakhi, en route to Brooklyn to help his son out of a gambling debt. With Levan Tediashvili, Nadezhda Mikhalkova, Giorgi Tabidze, Kakhi Kavsadze. In English, Georgian, Russian with English subtitles.

Do Not Hesitate, directed by Shariff Korver, written by Jolein Laarman. Produced by Leontine Petit. (Netherlands) – World Premiere. A truck carrying a Dutch military convoy on a peacekeeping mission breaks down somewhere in the desert. As a group of soldiers waits for a repair team to arrive, they encounter a local boy who refuses to leave. With Joes Brauers, Tobias Kersloot, Spencer Bogaert, Omar Alwan. In Arabic, Dutch, English with English subtitles.

Roaring 20’s (Années 20), directed by Elisabeth Vogler, written by François Mark, Elisabeth Vogler, Noémie Schmidt, Joris Avodo. Produced by Laurent Rochette. (France) – World Premiere. In a single unbroken shot, Roaring 20’s gives viewers the chance not only to travel to Paris, but to live a day in the life there during the COVID-19 pandemic. Audiences can experience first hand both the universality of life in 2020, as well as the specificity and beauty of a summer day in the French capital. With Vladimir Seguin, Alice de Lencquesaing, Noémie Schmidt, Aurore Déon, Manuel Severi, Adil laboudi, Zoé Fauconnet, Léo Poulet, Fanny Santer, Lila Poulet-Berenfeld, Lilou Guillot, Elsa Guedj, Guillaume Pottier, Mehdi Djaadi, François Mark, Margaux Bonin, François De Brauer, François Rollin, Elie Salleron, Joris Avodo, Paul Scarfoglio, Léa Moret, Elise Tilloloy, Jean Thevenin. In French with English subtitles.

Souad, directed by Ayten Amin, written by Mahmoud Ezzat, Ayten Amin. Produced by Sameh Awad. (Egypt, Tunisia, Germany) – International Premiere. Amin’s assured, harrowing debut follows an Egyptian university student (a breakout Bassant Ahmed) who leads a double life, presenting different versions of herself to her conservative society and her tradition-flaunting peers. With Bassant Ahmed, Basmala Elghaiesh, Hussein Ghanem, Hager Mahmoud, Sarah Shedid, Carol Ackad. In Arabic with English subtitles.

Wild Men (Vildmænd), directed by Thomas Daneskov, written by Thomas Daneskov, Morten Pape. Produced by Lina Flint. (Denmark) – World Premiere. Hilariously ill-equipped to live off the land yet clad in a Neanderthal-like ensemble of animal skins, Martin wanders the Norwegian forest in a misguided attempt to find a sense of purpose and independence, a wife and two children back at home be damned. With Rasmus Bjerg, Zaki Youssef, Sofie Gråbøl, Bjørn Sundquist. In Danish with English subtitles.

SPOTLIGHT NARRATIVE

12 Mighty Orphans, directed by Ty Roberts. Produced by Houston Hill, Brinton Bryan, Michael De Luca, Angelique De Luca, Ty Roberts. (United States) – New York Premiere.   The true story of the Mighty Mites, the football team of a Fort Worth orphanage who, during the Great Depression, went from playing without shoes—or even a football—to playing for the Texas state championships.  Over the course of their winning season these underdogs and their resilient spirit became an inspiration to their city, state, and an entire nation in need of a rebound, even catching the attention of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.  With Luke Wilson, Vinessa Shaw, Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall, Wayne Knight, Jake Austin Walker, Scott Haze, Levi Dylan, Jacob Lofland. A Sony Pictures release.

False Positive, directed by John Lee, written by John Lee & Ilana Glazer. Produced by John Lee, Ilana Glazer, Jonathan Wang. (United States) – World Premiere. After fertility struggles, a couple seem to have found their savior in a celebrated reproductive specialist. But as hope transforms to happiness, the now-expectant mother is thrown into a spiral of suspicion, threatening her grasp on reality. With Ilana Glazer, Justin Theroux, Gretchen Mol, Sophia Bush, Zainab Jah, and Pierce Brosnan. A Hulu release.

How It Ends, directed and written by Daryl Wein, Zoe Lister-Jones. Produced by Daryl Wein, Zoe Lister-Jones. (United States) – New York Premiere. It’s the end of the world as we know it…and Liza feels…fine?! Featuring a who’s who of comedic favorites, and shot completely during the quarantine of 2020, How It Ends is a hilarious and poignantly resonant, pre-apocalyptic comedy for our collective ages. With Zoe Lister-Jones, Cailee Spaeny, Olivia Wilde, Fred Armisen, Helen Hunt, Lamorne Morris, Nick Kroll.

India Sweets and Spices, directed and written by Geeta Malik. Produced by Gigi Pritzker, John Penotti, Naomi Despres, Sidney Kimmel. (United States) – World Premiere. In Geeta Malik’s fresh and fun take on the classic coming of age story, a college freshman confronts her parents’ values in order to understand her own evolving identity. With Sophia Ali, Manisha Koirala, Adil Hussain, Deepti Gupta, Rish Shah.

Italian Studies, directed and written by Adam Leon. Produced by Brad Becker-Parton, Joshua Astrachan, Jamund Washington, Andrea Roa, Jason Reif. (United States) – World Premiere. A mysterious woman (Vanessa Kirby) wanders the streets of Manhattan in a confused state. Finding herself inexplicably drawn to a charismatic teenager, she embarks on an adventure with him through the cityscape and into the unknown. With Vanessa Kirby, Simon Brickner, Annika Wahlsten, Annabel Hoffman.

The Last Film Show, directed and written by Pan Nalin. Produced by Dheer Momaya. (India) – World Premiere. A 9-year-old boy in a remote village in India begins a lifelong love affair with cinema when he bribes his way into a rundown movie palace and spends a Summer watching movies from the projection booth. With Bhavin Rabari, Vikas Bata, Richa Meena, Bhavesh Shrimali, Dipen Raval, Rahul Koli. In Other with English subtitles.

Opening Night Film Spotlight Section

No Man of God, directed by Amber Sealy, written by Kit Lesser. Produced by Daniel Noah, Lisa Whalen, Elijah Wood, Kim Sherman. (United States) – World Premiere. To better understand the infamous serial killer’s crimes, FBI investigator Bill Hagmaier sits down with Ted Bundy for multiple jailhouse interviews over five years. Their conversations lead to unexpected results, both philosophically and personally. With Elijah Wood, Luke Kirby, Aleksa Palladino, Robert Patrick.

Werewolves Within, directed by Josh Ruben, written by Mishna Wolff. Produced by Jason Altman, Margaret Boykin, Andrew Lieberman, Natalie Metzger, Matt Miller, Benjamin Wiessner, Sam Richardson. (United States) – World Premiere. In Josh Ruben’s video game-inspired horror-comedy, a newly assigned forest ranger checks into a quaint Vermont inn just as a snowstorm cuts him and the eccentric townsfolk off from civilization. Yet frigid weather isn’t their biggest concern—that’d be the bloodthirsty creature picking them off one by one. With Sam Richardson, Milana Vayntrub, Michaela Watkins, Cheyenne Jackson, Glenn Fleshler. An IFC Films release

SPOTLIGHT DOCUMENTARY

A-ha the Movie, directed and written by Thomas Robsahm, co-directed by Aslaug Holm. Produced by Yngve Sæther. (Norway, Germany) – World Premiere. Featuring new interviews and behind-the-scenes footage, Thomas Robsahm’s portrait of the band behind “Take On Me” follows their creative adventures and challenges after reaching global superstardom—all set to their catchiest synth hooks. With Morten Harket, Magne Furuholmen, Pål Waaktaar-Savoy. In English, Norwegian with English subtitles.

Bernstein’s Wall, directed and written by Douglas Tirola. Produced by Susan Bedusa. (United States) – World Premiere. An enlightening, complex look at one of the greatest figures in 20th century classical music whose passion and creativity guided him well beyond the concert hall. With Leonard Bernstein.

BITCHIN’: The Sound and Fury of Rick James, directed by Sacha Jenkins, written by Sacha Jenkins, Steve Rivo, Jason Pollard. Produced by Steve Rivo. (United States) – World Premiere. This incredibly entertaining profile of legendary funk/R&B icon Rick James captures the peaks and valleys of his storied career to reveal a complicated and rebellious soul, driven to share his talent with the world. A Showtime Documentary Films release. *Part of the Juneteenth programming

A Choice of Weapons: Inspired by Gordon Parks, directed by John Maggio. Produced by John Maggio, Monica Berra, Richard Lowe, George Kunhardt, Teddy Kunhardt, Matthew Henderson (United States) – World Premiere. This documentary chronicles renaissance man Gordon Parks’ stellar career from staff photographer for LIFE magazine, through his artistic development photographing everyday Americans, through his evolution as a novelist and groundbreaking filmmaker. An HBO Documentary Films release. *Part of the Juneteenth programming

Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins Story, directed by Laura Fairrie. Produced by John Battsek, Lizzie Gillett. (UK) – World Premiere. Literary phenomenon. Revolutionary storyteller. Feminist icon. Novelist Jackie Collins’s trailblazing and glamorous life is remembered and reconsidered in Laura Fairrie’s admiring documentary portrait. A CNN Films Release.

LFG, directed by Andrea Nix Fine, Sean Fine, written by Andrea Nix Fine. Produced by Andrea Nix Fine, Sean Fine, Abby Greensfelder. (United States) – World Premiere. Academy Award® Oscar winners Andrea Nix Fine and Sean Fine take us inside the U.S. women’s national soccer league and their continuing fight for equal pay in an effort to create real change in women’s sports. With Megan Rapinoe, Jessica McDonald, Becky Sauerbrunn, Kelley O’Hara, Christen Press, Sam Mewis, Julie Foudy. An HBO Max release.

The Lost Leonardo, directed by Andreas Koefoed. Produced by Andreas Dalsgaard, Christoph Jörg. (Denmark, France, Sweden) – World Premiere. The Lost Leonardo tells the inside story behind the Salvator Mundi, the most expensive painting ever sold at $450 million, claimed to be a long-lost masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci. From the moment it is purchased from a shady New Orleans auction house, and its buyers discover masterful brushstrokes beneath its cheap restoration, the fate of the Salvator Mundi is driven by an insatiable quest for fame, money and power. But as its price soars, so do questions about its authenticity. Is this multi-million dollar painting actually by Leonardo – or do certain power players simply want it to be? Unravelling the hidden agendas of the world’s richest men and most powerful art institutions, The Lost Leonardo reveals how vested interests became all-important, and the truth secondary. With Dianne Modestini, Yves Bouvier, Christian Kirk Muff, Robert Simon, Alexander Parish, Luke Syson, Martin Kemp, Frank Zöllner, Jacques Franck. A Sony Pictures Classics Release.

The Price of Freedom, directed by Judd Ehrlich. Produced by Judd Ehrlich, Aidan Tumas, Elena Gaby. (United States) – World Premiere. The NRA has become an increasing force of political influence, challenging gun control legislation as a direct attack on personal freedom. This deep dive into American gun culture is a passionate call to action. With Rep. Gabby Giffords, Sen. Chris Murphy, Rep. Lucy McBath, David Keene, Fred Guttenberg, Nicole Hockley, X González.

Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain, directed by Morgan Neville. Produced by Caitrin Rogers, Morgan Neville. (United States) – World Premiere. Bad boy chef. Bestselling author. Global adventurer. Academy Award® winner Morgan Neville’s (20 Feet From Stardom) documentary brims with the same energy, curiosity, and deep humanity that made Anthony Bourdain the superstar whose life touched so many. A CNN Films, HBO Max and Focus Features release. Spotlight Documentary.

Stockholm Syndrome, directed by The Architects. Produced by Matthew Perniciaro, Michael Sherman, Bow and Arrow Entertainment, Olive Hill Media. (United States, Sweden) – World Premiere. Musician and cultural icon A$AP Rocky explores his life and career while fighting for his freedom after being arrested in Stockholm, Sweden. Placed in solitary confinement amidst the rising tensions of the case becoming a global media storm reaching the highest levels of government, Rocky contemplates who he truly is and how this experience will shape who he is meant to become. With A$AP Rocky.

Wolfgang, directed by David Gelb, written by Brian McGinn. Produced by Jason Sterman, Brian McGinn, David Gelb. (United States) – World Premiere. From acclaimed filmmaker and Tribeca alum David Gelb (Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Chef’s Table) comes another mouthwatering delight of a film about one of the first “celebrity chefs” to rule the scene and a pioneer in the world of California cuisine, Wolfgang Puck. With Wolfgang Puck, Barbara Lazaroff, Byron Puck, Christina Puck, Nancy Silverton, Evan Funke, Ruth Reichl, Laurie Ochoa & Michael Ovitz. In Austro-Bavarian, English with English subtitles. A Disney+ release.

VIEWPOINTS

7 Days, directed by Roshan Sethi, written by Karan Soni, Roshan Sethi. Produced by Liz Cardenas, Mel Eslyn. (United States) – World Premiere, Feature Narrative. As if their pre-arranged date, organized by their traditional Indian parents, wasn’t uncomfortable enough, Ravi and Rita are forced to shelter in place together as COVID-19’s reach intensifies. Hopefully for their sake, opposites do indeed attract. With Karan Soni, Geraldine Viswanathan, Mark Duplass, Zenobia Shroff, Aparna Nancherla, Gita Reddy, Jeffrey Self.

Accepted, directed by Dan Chen. Produced by Jason Y. Lee, Dan Chen, Jesse Einstein, Mark Monroe. (United States) – World Premiere, Feature Documentary. The ambitious students of the TM Landry Prep School enjoyed a remarkable 100% acceptance rate into the county’s most elite colleges until an explosive NY Times article exposed the controversial teaching methods of its dynamic founder.

as of yet, directed by Chanel James, Taylor Garron, written by Taylor Garron. Produced by Ashley Edouard, Taylor Garron. (United States) – World Premiere, Feature Narrative. Told entirely through video calls and digital diaries, Naomi (Taylor Garron who also wrote and co-directs) navigates a problematic roommate and a burgeoning romance all while locked down during the Coronavirus pandemic. With Taylor Garron, Eva Victor, Amir Khan, Quinta Brunson, Ayo Edebiri. *Part of the Juneteenth programming

The Beta Test, directed and written by Jim Cummings, PJ McCabe, written by Jim Cummings, PJ McCabe. Produced by Vanishing Angle. (United States) – North American Premiere, Feature Narrative. After indulging in a mysterious, toe-curling sexual encounter, a Hollywood talent agent frantically struggles to keep his career, his relationship, and his sanity from unravelling in Jim Cummings’ satirical thriller. With Jim Cummings, Virginia Newcomb, PJ McCabe, Jessie Barr, Keith Powell, Kevin Changaris. In English, Mandarin, Swedish with English subtitles. An IFC Films release.

Building a Bridge, directed by Evan Mascagni, Shannon Post. Produced by Evan Mascagni, Shannon Post, Nick Capezzera. (United States) – World Premiere, Feature Documentary. Building a Bridge profiles Father James Martin, an outspoken New York-based priest and author who works to connect the Catholic Church with the LGBTQ+ community through compassion, inclusion, love, and acceptance.

The Conductor, directed by Bernadette Wegenstein, written by Bernadette Wegenstein and Stefan Fauland. Produced by Annette Porter. (United States) – World Premiere, Feature Documentary. In this exhilarating documentary, Leonard Bernstein’s protégée Marin Alsop reveals how she smashed the glass ceiling to become an internationally renowned conductor.

The Death Of My Two Fathers, directed by Sol Guy, written by Sol Guy, Matthew Cooke, Shoshana Guy. Produced by Stine Moisen, Sol Guy. (United States) – US Premiere, Feature Documentary. After putting it off for twenty years, filmmaker Sol Guy finally confronts the six tapes his father recorded before dying. Using those tapes as a framework, Guy recounts his family’s story—and his own—for his two teenage kids. With Sol Guy, William Guy, Travestine Guy, Freye Parkhouse, Barbara Ogletree, Leora Gesser. *Part of the Juneteenth programming

The Justice of Bunny King, directed by Gaysorn Thavat, written by Sophie Henderson. Produced by Emma Slade. (New Zealand) – World Premiere, Feature Narrative. Bunny, a woman at the outskirts of society, fights to be reunited with her children. When her teenage niece needs help, Bunny takes her under her wing, and together, they make a stand against the cards they’ve been dealt. With Essie Davis, Thomasin McKenzie.

The Legend of the Underground, directed and produced by Giselle Bailey, Nneka Onuorah. (Nigeria, United States) – World Premiere, Feature Documentary. A timely documentary uncovering rampant discrimination in Nigeria while exploring the lives of several non conformist men who must choose to live imperiled lives there or flee to the USA. An HBO Documentary Films release. *Part of the Juneteenth programming

North By Current, directed and written by Angelo Madsen Minax. Produced by Felix Endara. (United States) – North American Premiere, Feature Documentary. A thoughtful, provocative rumination on identity and familial responsibility, North By Current turns an unflinching eye toward a family in the process of repair.

Perfume de Gardenias, directed by Macha Colón, written by Gisela Rosario Ramos. Produced by Arleen Cruz-Alicea, Consuelo Castillo, Adriana Ángel, Gisela Rosario Ramos. (Puerto Rico, Colombia) – World Premiere, Feature Narrative. After the death of her husband, a grieving elderly woman is enlisted by a coterie of gossipy elderly women in her neighborhood to plan and create custom funerals – offering seniors a chance to plan in advance how they want their funerals to be presented, and how they want their lives to be celebrated. With Luz María Rondón, Sharon Riley, Katira Álvarez, Carmen Nydia Velázquez, Carmen Milagros Ortiz, Flor Joglar, Abner Rivera. In Spanish with English subtitles.

Sisters on Track, directed by Corinne van der Borch, Tone Grøttjord. Produced by Anita Rehoff Larsen, Tone Grottjord. (United States) – North America Premiere, Feature Documentary. A coming of age story set in New York, Sisters on Track is about hope, belonging, and the metaphorical and literal sisterhood of young athletes Tai, Rainn, and Brooke Sheppard. A Netflix release.

Wu hai, directed and written by Ziyang Zhou. Produced by Luna Wang, Yini Qian, Li Zhu (China) – North American Premiere, Feature Narrative. A dinosaur theme park in the desert of Inner Mongolia is the setting for this remarkable dynamic drama in which a man’s whole world unravels over the course of three fateful days. With Xuan Huang, Zishan Yang, Tumen. In Chinese with English subtitles.

MIDNIGHT

Shapeless, directed by Samantha Aldana, written by Kelly Murtagh, Bryce Parsons-Twesten. Produced by Lizzie Guitreau, R. Todd Campbell, William Ramsey, Brian C. Miller Richard. (United States) – World Premiere, Feature Narrative. Out in public, Ivy is a New Orleans lounge singer trying to make a name for herself. When alone, though, she suffers from a terrifying eating disorder. And the more she hides her struggles, the stronger her inner demons become. With Kelly Murtagh, Bobby Gilchrist, Jamie Neumann, Marco Dapper, Erika Ashley, Gralen Bryant Banks.

Ultrasound, directed by Rob Schroeder, written by Conor Stechschulte. Produced by Rob Schroeder, Georg Kallert, Charlie Prince. (United States) – World Premiere, Feature Narrative. After his car breaks down, Glen spends one hell of an odd night with a married couple, setting into motion a chain of events that alter their lives plus those of several random strangers. With Vincent Kartheiser, Chelsea Lopez, Breeda Wool, Tunde Adebimpe, Rainey Qualley, Bob Stephenson.

We Need To Do Something, directed by Sean King O’Grady, written by Max Booth III. Produced by Bill Stertz, Josh Malerman, Ryan Lewis, Peter Block. (United States) – World Premiere, Feature Narrative. Trapped inside their bathroom for days after a tornado ravages their home, a family of four struggles to keep their composure. That’s nothing, however, compared to what’s coming for them beyond the bathroom’s walls. With Sierra McCormick, Vinessa Shaw, Pat Healy, Lisette Alexis, John James Cronin.

MOVIES PLUS

The Father of the Cyborgs, directed and written by David Burke. Produced by David Burke, Sean O’Cualain. (Ireland) – World Premiere, Feature Documentary. Dr. Kennedy made headlines for implanting electrodes in the brain of a paralyzed man then teaching the patient to control a computer. After much controversy he later began experimenting on himself.
After the Movie: A conversation with the filmmakers and scientific experts about Dr. Phil Kennedy’s extraordinary work and legacy within his field of computer-brain interface and beyond. Hosted by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

The Neutral Ground, directed and written by CJ Hunt. Produced by Darcy McKinnon. (United States) – World Premiere, Feature Documentary. With sharp humor and a critical sense of curiosity, comedian CJ Hunt documents the fraught removal of four Confederate monuments in New Orleans. As the scope of his film expands, Hunt investigates the origins of a romanticized Confederacy and confronts hard truths much of America has yet to face. With CJ Hunt. *Part of the Juneteenth programming
After the Movie: A conversation with CJ Hunt, Executive Producer Roy Wood Jr. (The Daily Show), and Pulitzer-Prize winning creator of the 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones on confronting the ongoing legacy of America’s Original Sin.

No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics, directed by Vivian Kleiman. Produced by Vivian Kleiman, Justin Hall. (United States) – World Premiere, Feature Documentary. A lively look at five LGBTQ+ comic book artists whose careers go from the underground scene to the cover of Time Magazine and the international stage. With Alison Bechdel (Fun Home), Jennifer Camper, Howard Cruse, Rupert Kinnard and Mary Wings.
After the Movie: A conversation with Alison Bechdel, Justin Hall, Rupert Kinnard and Vivian Kleiman.

The One and Only Dick Gregory, written and directed by Andre Gaines. Produced by Andre Gaines, Valerie Edwards. (United States) – World Premiere, Feature Documentary. This revealing portrait of comedian/activist Dick Gregory documents his many personal reinventions throughout the decades, from celebrity to civil rights hero and beyond, while hearing from the incredible entertainers who have been inspired by his blueprint. Executive Produced by Kevin Hart and Lena Waithe, with Dick Gregory, Chris Rock, Kevin Hart, Dave Chappelle, Lena Waithe, Harry Belafonte. *Part of the Juneteenth programming
After the Movie: A conversation with Andre Gaines, Executive Producer Lena Waithe, and Special Guests on the impact that Dick Gregory’s work has had on subsequent generations of artists and activists.

Paper & Glue, a JR Project. Produced by Sara Bernstein, Justin Wilkes, Dallas Brennan Rexer, Marc Azoulay. (France, United States) – World Premiere, Feature Documentary. From the favelas of Rio de Janeiro to the US-Mexico border to the courtyard of a supermax prison, JR’s large-scale photomurals have turned some of the most provocative spaces of the world into eye-catching immersive art that challenges perspectives and unites communities. In English, French, Portuguese, Spanish with English subtitles.
After the Movie: A conversation with Director and Artist JR.

Reflection: a walk with water, directed and written by Emmett Brennan. Produced by Emmett Brennan, Nick Brennan. (United States) – World Premiere, Feature Documentary. Filmmaker Emmett Brennan takes a “pilgrimage with water,” traveling the length of the Los Angeles Aqueduct on foot. Using California’s water crisis as a starting point, Brennan introduces principles to reshape human life with water in mind. With Kathy Bancroft, Connor Jones, Rhamis Kent, Gigi Coyle, Ariel Greenwood, Andy Lipkis.
After the Movie: A special performance by Jacob Collier and Justin Kauflin.

With/In (United States) – World Premiere, Feature Narrative. Shooting on iPhones during last year’s quarantine, an impressive collective of talent chronicles 2020 pandemic life’s myriad challenges and simple pleasures through narrative shorts. Sometimes poignant, other times funny and consistently free-spirited, this stripped-down anthology turns confinement into creativity.
After the Movie: A conversation with Directors Sanaa Lathan, Maya Singer, Morgan Spector, & more.

TRIBECA CRITICS’ WEEK

Ailey, directed by Jamila Wignot. Produced by Lauren DeFilippo. (United States) – New York Premiere, Feature Documentary. Told by the man himself, interwoven with decades of awe-inspiring dance footage of his world-famous dance company, Ailey recounts Alvin Ailey’s life story, from humble his Texan beginnings to becoming one of the most iconic choreographers of his generation. With Alvin Ailey, Judith Jamison, George Faison. A Neon release. *Part of the Juneteenth programming

The Ballad of a White Cow (The Ghasideyeh Gave Sefid), directed by Behtash Sanaeeha, Maryam Moghaddam, written by Maryam Moghaddam, Behtash Sanaeeha, Mehrdad Kouroshnia. Produced by Gholamreza Mousavi, Etienne de Ricaud. (France, Iran) – North American Premiere, Feature Narrative. Mina’s life is turned upside down when she learns that her husband Babak was innocent of the crime for which he was executed. Mina starts a silent battle against a cynical system for her own and her daughter’s sake.With Maryam Moghaddam, Alireza Sanifar. In Farsi with English subtitles.

Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It, directed by Mariem Pérez Riera. Produced by Mariem Pérez Riera, Brent Miller. (United States) – New York Premiere, Feature Documentary. From New York City kid to movie star and to women’s rights activist, the indomitable Rita Moreno has enjoyed a storied life in the spotlight. Here the dynamic icon shares the challenges of being a Latina in Hollywood and the triumphs of her incredible 70 year career. With George Chakiris, Héctor Elizondo, Gloria Estefan, Tom Fontana, Morgan Freeman, Mitzi Gaynor, Whoopi Goldberg, Norman Lear, Eva Longoria, Justina Machado, Terrence McNally, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Rita Moreno, Karen Olivo. A Roadside Attractions release.

2020 FESTIVAL SELECTIONS
After having their planned Tribeca 2020 premieres canceled, the feature films of the 2020 Festival have been invited back for long awaited in-person premieres in 2021. Participating titles include:

499, directed by Rodrigo Reyes
All the Streets Are Silent, directed by Jeremy Elkin
The Art of Political Murder, directed by Paul Taylor
Asia, directed by Rothy Pribar
Banksy Most Wanted, directed by Aurélia Rouvier, Seamus Haley
Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road, directed by Brent Wilson
Clean, directed by Paul Solet
Contactado, directed by Marite Ugas
Cowboys, directed by Anna Kerrigan
Dear Mr. Brody, directed by Keith Maitland
Enemies of the State, directed by Sonia Kennebeck
Fries! The Movie, directed by Michael Steed
Fully Realized Humans, directed by Joshua Leonard
The God Committee, directed by Austin Stark
Happily, directed by BenDavid Grabinski
Harley, directed by Jean-Cosme Delaloye
Honeydew, directed by Devereux Milburn
I Carry You With Me, directed by Heidi Ewing
I Promise, directed by Marc Levin
Ice Cold, directed by Karam Gill
Jacinta, directed by Jessica Earnshaw
Kiss the Ground, directed by Josh Tickell, Rebecca Tickell
Kubrick by Kubrick, directed by Grégory Monro
La Madrina: The [Savage] Life of Lorine Padilla, directed by Raquel Cepeda
Landfall, directed by Cecilia Aldarondo
Larry Flynt for President, directed by Nadia Szold
The Last Out, directed by Sami Khan, Michael Gassert
Lorelei, directed by Sabrina Doyle
Love Spreads, directed by Jamie Adams
Marvelous and the Black Hole, directed by Kate Tsang
Materna, directed by David Grutnik
Miracle Fishing: Kidnapped Abroad, directed by Miles Hargrove
My Heart Can’t Beat Unless You Tell It To, directed by Jonathan Cuartas
No Future, directed by Andrew Irvine, Mark Smoot
Not Going Quietly, directed by Nicholas Bruckman
The Outside Story, directed by Casimir Nozkowski
P.S. Burn This Letter Please, directed by Michael Seligman, Jennifer Tiexiera
Pray Away, directed by Kristine Stolakis
Ricky Powell: The Individualist, directed by Josh Swade
She Paradise, directed by Maya Cozier
Simple As Water, directed by Megan Mylan
The Sit-In: Harry Belafonte Hosts The Tonight Show, directed by Yoruba Richen
Socks on Fire, directed by Bo McGuire
The State of Texas vs. Melissa, directed by Sabrina Van Tassel
Stateless (Apátrida), directed by Michèle Stephenson
Sweet Thing, directed by Alexandre Rockwell
Television Event, directed by Jeff Daniels
This Is Paris, directed by Alexandra Dean
Through the Night, directed by Lora Limbal
Wake Up on Mars (Réveil sur Mars), directed by Dea Gjinovci
Women In Blue, directed by Deirdre Fishel
Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn, directed by Muta’Ali

Planet Africa returns for TIFF 2020

TIFF marks 25 years of the Black cinema showcase with new films from Charles Officer, Dawn Porter, Tommy Oliver and Dieudo Hamadi

NOW Magazine BY RADHEYAN SIMONPILLAI AUG 25, 2020

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The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is commemorating the Planet Africa program 25 years after the Black cinema showcase began.

The celebration will premiere four new films that are in the spirit of the now-defunct program. The festival, which is hosting a mix of in-person, drive-in and online screenings, will also host two virtual panel discussions and a livestream party featuring the return of Planet Africa’s DJ Dave Campbell.

TIFF co-head Cameron Bailey developed the Planet Africa program when he was still a film critic for NOW Magazine. In an interview, Bailey compared the current racial reckoning after the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd to the period leading up to TIFF’s first Planet Africa program.

“We were riding the crest of the cultural activity that was happening south of the border,” says Bailey. He points to the demonstrations in the wake of the Rodney King beating, as well as films from Spike Lee and John Singleton, and conscious hip-hop acts like A Tribe Called Quest and the Jungle Brothers as contributing to the environment that fostered his program in 1995.

TIFF’s Planet Africa Selections

Dawn Porter’s documentary on White House photographer Pete Souza, The Way I See It, will premiere at TIFF 2020 as part of the Planet Africa celebration. The film showcases iconic imagery Souza captured from Obama’s presidency, while illustrating how far things have deteriorated since. Congolese director Dieudo Hamadi’s Cannes selection, Downstream To Kinshasa, will represent the continent. The documentary follows wounded war survivors of the Six Day War who travel by river to Kinshasa seeking justice.

Director Tommy Oliver (1982) is returning to TIFF with 40 Years A Prisoner. The doc follows Mike Africa Jr.’s efforts to get his parents Mike and Debbie out of prison. They were part of MOVE 9, members of the Black liberation group sent to prison in 1978 after a standoff with police in West Philadelphia that killed an officer. Africa Jr., who was born in prison, never saw his parents together for 40 years.

Canadian director Charles Officer’s new film Akilla’s Escape is the only fiction feature in this year’s Planet Africa. The crime drama stars recording artist and actor Saul Williams as Akilla, a player in the ganja game planning his retirement during legalization. He’s out to protect a 15-year-old during a particularly violent night in Toronto after a stash house robbery.

Porter, Hamadi, Oliver and Officer will take part in one of the two Planet Africa panel discussions. The other panel, Planet Africa Origin Stories, reunites Bailey with his programming cohort: June Givanni, Gaylene Gould, Julie Crooks and Maxine Bailey. They’ll be discussing the program’s origins and influence. Bailey also promises they’ll spill tea about the obstacles that got in the way of Planet Africa.

Planet Africa’s Influence

“The big idea behind Planet Africa was that there was a common spirit across the African diaspora,” says Bailey. He describes a thread among Black films, whether they came from Congo, Johannesburg, Jamaica or the diaspora. “There was something about that voice, the vernacular of Pan-African film language that was unique and distinctive.”

Through Planet Africa, TIFF programmed films from Charles Burnett, Euzhan Palcy, Raoul Peck, Abderrahmane Sissako, Mario Van Peebles, John Akomfrah and Frances-Anne Solomon. The latter went on to create the Caribbean Tales Film Festival.

Officer credits Planet Africa with sending him on the path to becoming a filmmaker. He was a graphic designer at the time and his first encounter with Planet Africa was a little poster he was tasked with designing. Bailey says the Planet Africa team would make a point of outsourcing designs, catering and music to Black businesses. Later, Officer would score tickets to the festival.

“I loved cinema but I didn’t even know that this kind of cinema exists,” says Officer, who then started discovering filmmakers like Haile Gerima and Raoul Peck. “I was like holy shit, this is a whole other world.”

A few years later, Officer directed his first short When Morning Comes and had a small role in Clement Virgo’s Love Comes Down. Both films played TIFF. And Officer excitedly recalls attending the Planet Africa party and meeting icons Larenz Tate and Deborah Cox, who starred in Virgo’s films. “It was a dream!”

The Planet Africa Party

TIFF remains a largely white affair. That make up didn’t change much at Planet Africa screenings.

“We weren’t then and we’re still not reaching the Black community as much as I would like us to,” says Bailey.

The infamous Planet Africa party was another story. Bailey describes an uncommon phenomenon. People from Scarborough and North York, dressing up to attend a Black party hosted by a major cultural institution like TIFF. They probably couldn’t get into any other TIFF party. But they had the hook up for Planet Africa because a friend or a friend of a friend was an organizer.

And they’d spot Samuel L. Jackson, Don Cheadle or other celebrities who didn’t necessarily have to be Black. Both locals and visitors in town for TIFF knew that was the party to be at. Unlike most TIFF parties, where everyone just stands around looking for a shoulder to rub, Planet Africa threw down.

“The social aspect of it should never be undervalued,” says Bailey.

The Obstacles

Bailey says systemic or institutional racism weren’t phrases that were commonly used back then. But perhaps they describe the internal tensions at TIFF that surrounded Planet Africa.

The section was entirely Black run, from the programmers to Karen Carter who was involved with the social and community side of the program. In the early days, none of them were full-time employees at TIFF. They operated outside of it.

Bailey says they didn’t necessarily follow protocols and processes, partly because they didn’t even know what those were. They would also break protocol when going outside the festival to access Black designers, DJs, caterers and vendors.

“There were these strains and tensions if we wanted to do something that was Afrocentric at any institution in this country.”

And there was another factor that led to Planet Africa’s dissolution. Some filmmakers, particularly from the diaspora, were not keen to be in an Afrocentric program.

“They wanted to be seen as individual filmmakers,” says Bailey. “Like what you would see now. ‘I’m not a Black artist. I’m an artist.’”

Charles Officer remembers those conversations well: the chatter was that Planet Africa was seen as “ghettoizing.” But he points out that the alternative isn’t better. Today, we’re seeing BIPOC committees or pushes for diversity boards and advisors, precisely because Black talent gets overlooked.

“We need these programs,” says Officer. “You have to carve out this space so they have an opportunity to get out there.”

Making Akilla’s Escape

In Jamaica, the Shower Posse was an enforcer for the Jamaican Labour Party, which empowered its drugs and arms trade. Some say they had support from the CIA. The Shower Posse has branches across Canada and the U.S. The gang’s founder Lester Coke, aka Jim Brown, was murdered in prison in 1992. Many suspect his political connections were covering their tracks. Coke’s son Dudus took over the violent gang. He’s currently serving a prison sentence in the U.S.

In Akilla’s Escape, Officer explores how violence trickles down through generations, from father to son, and how corrupt Jamaican politicians can affect kids on Toronto’s streets. Saul Williams’ Akilla (a killah) tries to break the cyclical violence when choosing to rescue a young boy named Sheppard (Thamela Mpumlwana) from crime.

The genre film also boasts Officer’s magic realist touches, hypnotic cinematography from Maya Bankovic and supporting performances from rapper Vic Mensa and Bob Marley’s granddaughter Donisha Rita Claire Prendergast.

Making Akilla’s Escape in Canada is a miracle in itself. Our film industry is practically hostile to Black storytelling – there’s a reason the film took a decade to make, for only a fraction of the budget a film of its scope typically demands.

“You should stay away from Black violence,” is the sage advice Officer got from a key decision-maker in Canada.

That was in 2012, the same year as the Danzig shooting.

@justsayrad

Source: https://nowtoronto.com/movies/news-and-fea...

Protagonist pacts with Elevation, JunaFilm for female-led thriller (exclusive) →

BY GEOFFREY MACNAB23 FEBRUARY 2020 SCREENDAILY.COM

An ambitious Canada-Germany co-production is underway that will pit a pack of teenage girls against a murderous monster.

The untitled psychological thriller will see the UK’s Protagonist Pictures unite with Germany’s JunaFilm and Canada’s Elevation Pictures on the project, which will begin shooting this autumn in Ontario.

Written and directed by Hamburg-based Canadian newcomer Carly May Borgstrom, the story begins when a young girl is found dead in a secluded mountain community. A group of teenage girls then decide to fight the monster that killed her by “embracing their own dark power”.

London-based Protagonist helped forge the co-production.

Verena Gräfe-Höft’s produces for JunaFilm, Noah Segal and Christina Piovesan co-produce for Elevation Productions, and George Hamilton and Isabelle Stewart executive produce for Protagonist.

Hamburg-based JunaFilm is here in Berlin with thriller Sleep, starring Toni Erdmann’s Sandra Huller, which receives its world premiere at the Berlinale. Canadian producer and distributor Elevation recently wrapped on Azazel Jacobs’ French Exit, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Lucas Hedges.

Why Is Canadian Television So White?

Canadian TV is having a major moment. Too bad it also has a major diversity problem.

KATHLEEN NEWMAN-BREMANG

LAST UPDATED JANUARY 30, 2020, 8:21 A.M.

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REFINERY 29

When I watched Pose star Billy Porter become the first openly gay Black man to win an Emmy for lead actor in a drama series last fall, his speech felt like a knock in the gut. With his signature exuberance, Porter quoted great American novelist and activist James Baldwin: “It took many years of vomiting up the filth I was taught about myself and halfway believed before I could walk around this earth like I had a right to be here.” By the time Porter looked at the camera and said, “I have the right! You have the right! We all have the right!,” I was crying. As applause roared, my first thought was, This would never happen on Canadian TV. 

The past few years have ushered in a “Black renaissance” on American television, with Black artists starring in and creating more shows than ever before. Series like Atlanta, Insecure, Black-ish, Queen Sugar, Scandal, Empire, Watchmen, and Pose offer complex and varied portrayals of the Black American experience. In Canada, though, it might as well still be 1998, when there were so few Black characters on TV that I, a Black girl growing up in a predominantly white suburb, would cling to any Black character — always in a supporting role, never the star — who wasn’t a one-note stereotype. I’d write down every word Denise on Breaker High (played by Persia White) would deliver to her white classmates. Any time Emily in Student Bodies (a nerdy girl-next-door played by curly-haired actress Nicole Lyn) spoke, it was like regurgitating little bits of filth I was taught about myself through TV: that I wasn’t pretty, that I was destined for a life of crime, that I didn’t belong, or, worse, that I shouldn’t exist. 

Decades later, when it comes to who’s both behind and in front of the camera, Canadian television still has not made a significant space for Black artists, nor does it adequately reflect the 22% of Canadians who are people of colour. There’s been progress, but not enough — most shows paint a monolithic, white-washed picture of this country. And it isn’t just that Canadian TV is SO WHITE, it’s that the industry seems to be turning a blind eye to the issue. For as much as we love to smugly tout cultural inclusion and diversity in this country, Canadian TV has a very real racism problem.

Critically acclaimed and internationally lauded shows like Schitt’s Creek, Workin’ Moms, Letterkenny, and Baroness Von Sketch are supposed to be indicators of a golden age of Canadian television, but feature only one or two actors of colour in one-dimensional supporting roles (Kim’s Convenience is the exception). Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy most of these shows. I like Schitt’s Creek so much I’m writing weekly recaps of its final season. I also applaud its trailblazing LGBTQ characters. But, let’s be real, it’s still about a rich white family. 

When it comes to primetime dramas, Diggstown and Burden of Truth are the only two with solo non-white leads (Vinessa Antoine and Kristen Kreuk, respectively). Nurses has two leads of colour of its five main cast members. But in every other primetime drama series, characters of colour are in supporting roles that prop up the white leads. The recently cancelled Anne With An E, based on Lucy Maud Montgomery’s beloved Anne Of Green Gables, came up with refreshing ways to tackle race by representing Prince Edward Island’s historically Black community and introducing an important Indigenous character, but still, it was Anne’s story. Characters who are Black, Indigenous, and people of colour tend to exist in the margins — they give the appearance of diversity but they exist in white worlds and their stories are told largely by white writers.

People of colour are also lacking behind the camera. Aside from Diggstown, all of the shows I listed above have white showrunners, including Kim’s Convenience. There are few stats on representation in Canadian TV, but the ones we have are embarrassing. A study of 24 major series from Women in View noted that in 2017 only 1.8% of the writing, directing, and cinematography contracts in television went to women of colour, and that zero Indigenous women worked on these productions. There are only three people of colour in the position to greenlight shows at Canada’s major networks — all of them at the CBC.

“Laughable” is the word Diggstown star Vinessa Antoine uses to describe the state of representation in Canadian TV. Antoine, who’s from Toronto, says the absence of leading roles for people of colour in Canada has been a constant factor in her decades-long career and a major topic of conversation among her peers. “Nobody's in the fetal position crying about it or having big boo-hoo,” she says. “We’re very used to it at this point.” It’s an all-too-familiar glimpse of being a Black woman in a white workplace: There’s no time for tears or self-pity. There’s only room to put your head down, go to work, and laugh at the inevitable setbacks. With her role on CBC’s legal drama Diggstown, Antoine became the first Black actress to star as a lead in a Canadian primetime drama. She took an optimistic view of that fact when asked about it in early interviews promoting the show, but says she wasn’t being entirely honest. “In my gut, I was embarrassed,” she says. “I am so proud to be Canadian, and so happy to talk about its multiculturalism, but also, I shouldn’t be the first.” 

Like Antoine, who starred in General Hospital and is currently filming a show in L.A., some of Canada’s brightest actors of colour are excelling in the U.S. Golden Globe nominee Stephan James, his brother Shamier Anderson (Endings Beginnings, Destroyer), American Gods’ star Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs, and Waves breakout Taylor Russell are just a few of the names Canada has lost to its acting brain drain. There are also many examples of writers who hit their stride once they shed the constraints of Canadian TV. Trey Anthony, who became the first Black woman in Canada with her own sitcom, Da Kink In My Hair, is now living in Atlanta writing for shows on OWN. When I interviewed James in 2018 about starring in the Oscar-nominated film If Beale Street Could Talk, he told me he grew up in Scarborough, ON, believing he wouldn’t succeed if he stayed in Canada: “I looked to find examples of Black actors who had done what I wanted to do, and I could never find examples.” 

Diggstown creator, writer, and showrunner Floyd Kane agrees that James is better off in Hollywood. He tells me a story about trying to pitch a project to Canadian executives with James as its lead in 2016 — after the actor had done big studio films like Selma and Race. “It was shocking to me the blank stares that I would get from distributors,” he says. “If this were a young white actor who had this level of experience at his age, people would be clamouring over themselves to put him in [a series].”

I looked to find examples of Black actors who had done what I wanted to do, and I could never find examples.

STEPHAN JAMES

It’s no surprise that Kane, a Black man, was the one pushing a young Black actor as his star. We know that more diversity behind the scenes translates to more diverse stories onscreen. And we desperately need those stories, considering half of Gen Z Canadians say diversity onscreen doesn’t reflect modern audiences, according to a recent study from Refinery29’s parent company, Vice Media Group. While many networks now have “inclusion officers” and programs to promote diversity, these initiatives tend to benefit white women. After gender parity initiatives were implemented by the CBC and Telefilm in 2016, the number of women directors in Canadian film and TV increased by 11%, but the vast majority of those women — about 98% — are white, according to Women in View. The result has been a slew of successful shows that feature female narratives, such as Baroness Von Sketch and Workin’ Moms, but ones that centre around the stories and perspectives of white women. (To its credit, Baroness Von Sketch often pokes fun at the fact that its leads are four middle-aged white ladies.)  

When white women are considered part of a company’s diversity and inclusion efforts, people of colour are often left behind. It sounds good when Corus says its “scripted content focuses heavily on women and diverse characters,” or Bell Media says its originals team includes “POC, women, and LGBTQ team members,” with “72% of the team identifying as one or more of these groups,” as they did in statements, but when you break it down, it means that white women are markers of these networks’ push towards inclusion.

“Gender parity isn’t diversity,” says screenwriter Gillian Müller, a senior committee member of BIPOC TV & Film, which recently launched Film in Colour, a database of Canadian filmmakers who identify as visible minorities, to combat the myth that there isn’t enough diverse talent here. Müller cites major barriers for Black, Indigenous, and people of colour in the industry, including the culture of discrimination and exclusion that prevents progress. “There's a difference between performative diversity and actually allowing folks to have a real seat at the table to be included in the decision-making process,” she says.

Gender parity isn’t diversity.

GILLIAN MÜLLER, SCREENWRITER

“It’s very difficult for diverse filmmakers [and TV creators] to get a first chance, let alone a second chance in this country,” says Jennifer Holness, writer, producer, and president of Hungry Eyes Media, the Toronto production company behind BBC comedy She’s The Mayor and CBC drama Guns. Holness, who started Hungry Eyes because white executives wouldn’t hire her, recalls when Shoot The Messenger, a show she created with her husband, Sudz Sutherland (a Black writer, director, and producer), was cancelled in 2016 after one season while three other shows by white showrunners were given a second season despite having lower ratings. (CBC disputes this claim and says the renewed shows did have higher ratings.) Holness says that the industry is small and stacked with white executives who love to hire their (also white) friends. “Even if you have a bad show, the nepotism is so great that your shows get produced again and again and you’re given a much greater chance at success than people of colour,” she says of white creators/writers. “I’m surprised [Diggstown] got a second season.” 

Things are also challenging for Indigenous actors, writers, and producers, with APTN being the only network in this country where you find a plethora of nuanced Indigenous stories. In 2017, a report from the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission found that on Canadian networks, “There was a widespread impression that depictions of Indigenous peoples tend to be stereotypical (e.g. depicted as poor, alcoholic, sniffing glue or gas).” 

Outside of APTN, Rogers’ specialty channel, OMNI, is where you’ll find original multicultural programming (though none starring or created by Black Canadians), including Blood and Water, in Cantonese and English; Mangoes: A Slice of Life, in Punjabi and Hindi; and Second Jen, about two Asian second-generation millennials. It says something that this diversity is found not on mainstream networks but on lesser-rated specialty channels that don’t get as much of a national promotional push. The shows that you do see on billboards and at bus stops offer up a singular view of Canadian taste. No wonder so many of us turn to American content.  

Change happens when there isn’t one, but many — and when being Black in Canadian TV isn’t exceptional, but ordinary.

I know the U.S. industry is bigger and has more money, and that our talent is always going to find more opportunities there. And maybe we are years — heck, at this rate, decades — away from our own Black TV renaissance or from mainstream shows being as multicultural as this country is, but Canadian broadcasters need to be held accountable. In the U.S., when the Emmys or Golden Globes refuse to acknowledge artists of colour in television, outrage is expressed in hashtags and viral campaigns. Here, the Canadian Screen Awards consistently ignore talent of colour (last year, all the major TV acting category winners were white), and there’s no uproar. But that seems to be the Canadian way: We pretend racism doesn’t exist here. It’s ignorance masquerading as decorum. Part of the problem is that Canadian mainstream media has its own glaring diversity problem. There are a few writers of colour putting in the work, such as CBC’s Amanda Parris, who just launched a column about Black art, which also includes American work (because, if I had to guess, the Canadian pickings are so slim). 

There are glimmers of hope, like Diggstown. “I think the fact that Black people are seeing themselves on CBC in this way is sending a message that the door has opened for us,” says Kane. “It’s about the person who is sitting at home with their Black female cop show or Black male firefighter drama who will go, ‘Oh, I’ll go pitch it to CBC because they did that show and there’s a likelihood they’ll do mine.’”

When reached for comment, Bell, CBC, and Corus all proclaimed a commitment to diversity (the phrase “commitment to diversity” was echoed almost verbatim in their statements) and listed current and upcoming shows as examples. Bell Media cited the forthcoming original drama Transplant, about an ER doctor who is a Syrian refugee (played by Pakistani-Canadian actor Hamza Haq). It also called-out the “female-driven” show New Eden, which is directed by a woman of colour, Aleysa Young, but stars two white actresses. Corus plugged Departure, starring Archie Punjabi (best known as Kalinda on The Good Wife) and newly greenlit drama Family Law, whose cast is not yet announced. Bell Media and CBC both acknowledged that there was more “work to be done,” while Rogers did not respond to a request for comment.

Last year CBC/Radio-Canada announced at least one of the key creative positions (producer, director, writer, showrunner, or lead performer) in all English and French-language programs will be held by “someone with a diverse background.” One. CBC is the network with the most scripted shows featuring leads of colour, like new sketch comedy series called Tall Boyz and sitcom Bit Playas, about two actors of colour (played by Kris Siddiqi and Nigel Downer) struggling to deal with the “soft racism” in the entertainment world. Ironic. CBC’s streaming service, Gem, just announced that Utopia Falls, a sci-fi hip-hop YA series, will debut in February. It stars Robyn Alomar and Akiel Julien and is created by R.T. Thorne, a prolific Toronto-based music video director. “You don’t really get to see your people in the future, and when you do, they’re somebody’s sidekick,” Thorne told NOW Toronto of the series. “I really wanted to see what my culture could be in the future.”

Of course, I have yet to see the upcoming shows that allegedly will change the face of scripted television in Canada, but I hope they are nuanced, authentic portrayals of Canadians who are Black, Indigenous, and people of colour. I hope they are everything we’ve been waiting for. I grew up without seeing my culture on Canadian TV. And unless the industry takes real steps to make room for more diverse stories, the future will be just as bleak.

Source: https://www.refinery29.com/en-ca/canadian-...

BAFTA Children’s Winners Includes Wildbrain's Creeped Out

By Andreas Wiseman December 1, 2019 1:37pm Deadline.com

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BAFTA has announced the winners of this year’s British Academy Children’s Awards. There were three first-time winners at the ceremony in London, including Emily Burnett who won the BAFTA for Performer for her role in The Dumping Ground; Lindsey Russell for Presenter for Blue Peter; and Bella Ramsay for her performance in The Worst Witch in the Young Performer category. Dirk Campbell, also for The Worst Witch, won in the Director category. The coming-of-age film Leaving Care, following two care leavers as they navigate a series of firsts without the help of a family, won two BAFTAs: Content For Change and Teen. CBeebies won Channel, the seventh time since the category was introduced in 2006. Horrible Histories won Comedy, the sixth time it has won in this category. The Drama award was won by Creeped Out. The show that pitches the nation’s pets against each other – Play Your Pets Right – won in the Entertainment category. Children’s DIY show The Dengineers collected the BAFTA in the new Factual Entertainment category. The Factual category was won by Finding my Family: Holocaust (Newsround Special), which followed a Holocaust survivor and his teenage granddaughter on a journey to learn about his experiences. Hilda, the series about a fearless young girl who finds friends, adventures and magical creatures when she journeys to the city, won in the Animation category. The BAFTA for International Animation went to Teen Titans Go!, which follows the adventures of the young Titans while they are trying to save the world. Pre-School Animation was won by Numberblocks. Tee and Mo: Help Our Little World, featuring an animated monkey and his mum, won Short Form. Ferne and Rory’s Vet Tales won the Pre-School Live Action award and the International Live Action category was won by The Odd Squad. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse swooped in and took the BAFTA for Feature Film. The Amazing World of Gumball won in the Writer category. The Digital category saw a win for Wonderscope’s ‘A Brief History of Amazing Stunts by Astounding People’ and for Game, Astro Bot Rescue Mission took home the BAFTA. Nikki Lilly, the YouTuber, presenter and charity campaigner, received the BAFTA Special Award for her work in raising awareness of social issues.

British Academy Children’s Awards 2019: Winners highlighted in bold.

 SPECIAL AWARD

Nikki Lilly

 

ANIMATION

THE AMAZING WORLD OF GUMBALL Ben Bocquelet, Mic Graves, Sarah Fell – Great Marlborough Productions/Cartoon Network

DANGER MOUSE Aidan McAteer, Tim Searle, Chapman Maddox – Co-produced by BBC Children’s In-House Productions and Boat Rocker Media/CBBC

THE DEMON’S HEAD Production Team – CTVC/TrueTube

HILDA Luke Pearson, Stephanie Simpson, Kurt Mueller – Silvergate Media/Netflix 

 

CHANNEL

CBBC

CBEEBIES

HOPSTER

TRUETUBE

 

COMEDY

4 O’CLOCK CLUB Julia Kent, Tim Hopewell, Connal Orton – BBC Children’s In-House Productions/CBBC

CLASS DISMISSED Sid Cole, Chantal Delaney, Dermot Canterbury – BBC Children’s In-House Productions/CBBC

HORRIBLE HISTORIES Production Team – Lion Television/CBBC

SO AWKWARD Joanna Blake, Ian Curtis, Lucy Guy – Channel X/CBBC

 

CONTENT FOR CHANGE

APPLE TREE HOUSE Production Team – Five Apples/CBeebies

HIJAB & ME Production Team – CTVC/TrueTube

LEAVING CARE David Metcalf, Nav Raman, Ali Quirk – Chatterbox/CBBC

NOW I CAN BREATHE Production Team – CTVC/TrueTube

 

DIGITAL

BIG BANG AR Production Team – Nexus Studios & Google Arts & Culture & CERN

MOSHI TWILIGHT SLEEP STORIES Steve Cleverley, Ian Chambers, Sanj Sen – Mind Candy

STORYSIGN Production Team – Aardman

WONDERSCOPE’S ‘A BRIEF HISTORY OF AMAZING STUNTS BY ASTOUNDING PEOPLE’ Production Team – Preloaded/Within

 

DIRECTOR

DIRK CAMPBELL The Worst Witch – CBBC/Netflix

STEVE CONNELLY Horrible Histories – CBBC

MIC GRAVES The Amazing World of Gumball – Cartoon Network

GRANT ORCHARD & SANDER JONES Hey Duggee – CBeebies

 

DRAMA

THE ATHENA Production Team A Bryncoed Production/Sky Kids

CREEPED OUT Production Team – BBC Children’s In-House Productions and DHX Media/CBBC

THE DUMPING GROUND Gert Thomas, Jeff Povey, Jamie Annett – BBC Children’s In-House Productions/CBBC

THE WORST WITCH Kim Crowther, Dirk Campbell, Neil Jones – BBC Children’s In-House Productions and ZDF Enterprises/CBBC/Netflix

 

ENTERTAINMENT

PLAY YOUR PETS RIGHT Production Team – Lion Television/Sky Kids

SAM & MARK’S BIG FRIDAY WIND UP Steve Ryde, Frankie Wolfe, Dave

Skinner – BBC Children’s In-House Productions/CBBC

SPY SCHOOL – Joe Shaw, Ben Spiteri, Steven Andrew – Zodiak Kids/CiTV

TOP CLASS Production Team – ITV Studios/CBBC

 

FACTUAL

ANNE FRANK: A LIFE IN HIDING (NEWSROUND SPECIAL) Production Team – BBC Children’s In-House Productions/CBBC

FINDING MY FAMILY: HOLOCAUST (NEWSROUND SPECIAL) Production Team – BBC Children’s In-House Productions/CBBC

MY LIFE: I WILL SURVIVE Sarah Murch, Launa Kennett, Denis McWilliams – Blakeway North/CBBC

MY LIFE: BLOOD SUGAR BROTHERS Production Team – Nine Lives Media/CBBC

 

FACTUAL ENTERTAINMENT

BLUE PETER Production Team – BBC Children’s In-House Productions/CBBC
THE DENGINEERS Charlotte Ingham, Jennifer Morrison, Annette Williams – BBC Children’s In-House Productions/CBBC
OPERATION OUCH! Production Team – Maverick TV/CBBC
THE PETS FACTOR Production Team – True North Productions/CBBC

 

FEATURE FILM

HORRIBLE HISTORIES: THE MOVIE – ROTTEN ROMANS Will Clarke, Caroline Norris, Dominic Brigstocke – Altitude Film Entertainment, Citrus Films/Altitude Film Distribution

MARY POPPINS RETURNS Rob Marshall, John DeLuca, Marc Platt – Walt Disney Pictures/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman, Phil Lord – Sony Pictures Animation/Sony Pictures Releasing UK

TOY STORY 4 Josh Cooley, Jonas Rivera, Mark Nielsen – Pixar Animation Studios/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

 

GAME

ASTRO BOT RESCUE MISSION Development Team – SIE Japan Studio/Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe

CHIMPARTY Development Team – NapNok Games/ Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe

LEGO DC SUPER-VILLAINS Stephen Sharples, David Hoye, Matt Ellison – TT Games/WB Games

OVERCOOKED 2 Development Team – Ghost Town Games/Team17

 

INTERNATIONAL ANIMATION

APPLE & ONION George Gendi, Brent Tanner, Benton Connor – Cartoon Network Studios/Cartoon Network

DOC MCSTUFFINS Dan Nosella, Michael Stern, Chris Nee – Brown Bag Films/Disney Junior

SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS Stephen Hillenburg, Vincent Waller, Marc Ceccarelli – Nickelodeon Animation Studio/Nicktoons

TEEN TITANS GO! Production Team – Warner Bros./Cartoon Network

 

INTERNATIONAL LIVE ACTION

ANDI MACK Terri Minsky, Michelle Manning, Greg Hampson – Disney Channels Worldwide/Disney Channel

MALIBU RESCUE Production Team – Pacific Bay Entertainment and Entertainment Force/Netflix

ODD SQUAD Scott Montgomery, Warren P. Sonoda, Mark De Angelis – Sinking Ship Entertainment, Fred Rogers Productions/CBBC

 

PERFORMER

EMILY BURNETT The Dumping Ground – CBBC

RAQUEL CASSIDY The Worst Witch – CBBC/Netflix

ANDY DAY Andy’s Safari Adventures – CBeebies

ELIZABETH WATERWORTH-SANTO Horrid Henry – Netflix

 

PRE-SCHOOL – ANIMATION

DIGBY DRAGON Adam Shaw, Chris Drew, Jen Upton – Blue Zoo Productions/Channel 5

FLOOGALS Production Team – Nevision/Channel 5

HEY DUGGEE Grant Orchard, Sander Jones, Janine Voong – Studio AKA/CBeebies

NUMBERBLOCKS Joe Elliot, Simon Taylor, Ben Lee-Delisle – Blue Zoo for Alphablocks/CBeebies

 

PRE-SCHOOL – LIVE ACTION

APPLE TREE HOUSE Production Team – Five Apples/CBeebies

FERNE and RORY’S VET TALES Production Team – BBC Children’s In-House Productions/CBeebies

MOLLY AND MACK Dominic Macdonald, Ciaran Cruickshank, Adrian Mead – BBC Children’s In-House Productions/CBeebies

MOON AND ME Production Team – Foundling Bird/CBeebies

 

PRESENTER

SAM NIXON & MARK RHODES Sam and Mark’s Big Friday Wind Up – CBBC

LINDSEY RUSSELL Blue Peter – CBBC

DR CHRIS VAN TULLEKEN & DR XAND VAN TULLEKEN Dr Chris and Dr Xand Investigate: Alcohol – BBC iPlayer

OWAIN WILLIAMS Stwnsh Sadwrn – S4C

 

SHORT FORM

CBEEBIES BEDTIME STORIES Production Team – BBC Children’s/CBeebies

LABUNTINA Valentina Ventimiglia, Naomi Jones, Lorenzo Castellarin – Labuntina/Sky Kids

TEE AND MO: HELP OUR LITTLE WORLD Dominic Minns, Nathaniel Cooper, Ellie Wyatt – Plug-in Media/CBeebies

A WHALE’S TALE Production Team – Cartoon Network/Blue Zoo/BBC Children’s/Sky Kids

 

TEEN

LEAVING CARE David Metcalf, Nav Raman, Ali Quirk – Chatterbox/CBBC

MIMI ON A MISSION: SEX ED Ida Ven Bruusgaard, Danni Davis, Tom Power – Peggy Pictures/BBC iPlayer

ONE-TO-ONE Production Team – CTVC/TrueTube

THIS IS MY LIFE: BOYS TO MEN Production Team – Big Deal Films/BBC iPlayer

 

WRITER

WRITING TEAM The Amazing World of Gumball – Cartoon Network

CIARAN MURTAGH, ANDREW BARNETT JONES Danger Mouse – CBBC

WRITING TEAM Horrible Histories – CBBC

MARK BAKER, NEVILLE ASTLEY, PHIL HALL Peppa Pig – Channel 5

 

YOUNG PERFORMER

SEBASTIAN CROFT Horrible Histories: The Movie – Rotten Romans – Altitude Film Entertainment, Citrus Films

EMILIA JONES Horrible Histories: The Movie – Rotten Romans – Altitude Film Entertainment, Citrus Films

BELLA RAMSEY The Worst Witch – CBBC/Netflix

JAIRAJ VARSANI Hetty Feather – CBBC

 

Source: https://deadline.com/2019/12/bafta-childre...

TIFF Rising Star 2013 Alumna Megan Park: Time for Me to Come Home for Christmas

Hallmark

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A Canadian born actress, Megan Park is known for her critically acclaimed roles in numerous hit television series and feature films including Aaron Sorkin’s “The Newsroom,” “Central Intelligence,” with Kevin Hart and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and “Charlie Bartlett,” with Robert Downey Jr. She was awarded TIFF’s “Rising Star” for her role in "What If," alongside Daniel Radcliff and Zoe Kazan, but is best known for her starring role on six seasons of the ABC Family hit show “The Secret Life of the American Teenager,” for which she won a People’s Choice Award and Teen Choice Award.

Park’s directorial debut was in 2016 when she wrote and directed the short film, "Lucy in My Eyes," which premiered at the 2017 Austin Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Short. Recently writing a pilot, which CBS studios bought, Park and is now writing a feature film for New Line-Warner Bros. with Shailene Woodley attached as the star. Park also recently co-wrote and co-directed a web series titled, “We’re Adults Now,” with Canadian writer Katie Boland.

An avid director of several music videos, which have grossed more than fifty million views, Park has worked with artists such as Mike Posner, Blackbear, Gucci Mane and Billie Eilish. As an actress, she has two feature films and several projects in production slated for a 2018 release, and she has numerous other writing and directing projects in development.

Source: https://www.hallmarkmoviesandmysteries.com...

Isabelle Fuhrman, Amy Forsyth and Dilone will headline Lauren Hadaway’s debut feature, “The Novice,” Variety has learned exclusively. →

Variety | Dave McNary

CASTINGS

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Isabelle Fuhrman, Amy Forsyth and Dilone will headline Lauren Hadaway’s debut feature, “The Novice,” Variety has learned exclusively.

Ryan Hawkins of Picture Movers, Steven Sims of H2L Media, Kari Hollend, and Zack Zucker are producing. Al Engemann of Picture Movers, Charlotte Ubben and Michael Tennant of RBF Productions, and Billy Hines and Christopher Hines of H2L Media are executive producing. Production will start in mid-October.

The film tells the story of a college freshman who joins her university’s cutthroat rowing team and undertakes an obsessive journey to make the top varsity boat.

Fuhrman’s credits include “Orphan,” “Down a Dark Hall” and “After Earth.” Forsyth most recently appeared in Amazon’s “Beautiful Boy” and previously starred in NBC’s “Rise” and and Hulu’s “The Path.”

Hadaway, a 2018 Outfest Screenwriting Fellow, is repped by Bellevue Productions. Fuhrman is repped by UTA and attorney Cheryl Snow. Forsyth is repped by Gersh and David Dean Management. Dilone is repped by Framework.

TIFF Rising Star 2015 Alumna Deragh Cambpell: AN INTERVIEW WITH: DERAGH CAMPBELL

October 6, 2019 Toronto Film Critics Association

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“Audrey has become a vessel, a tool we can use to explore different things.”

MS Slavic 7, the crown jewel of this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival’s Future/Present program, is a sly, fleet, alluringly mysterious film about family and history, intimacy and distance. It marks the most recent incarnation of Audrey, a character who has appeared in previous films (Never Eat Alone, Veslemøy’s Song) directed by Toronto’s prolific and singular Sofia Bohdanowicz and featuring actor Deragh Campbell. Campbell has played a pivotal role not only in the interpretation of Audrey, but also in the character’s very conception. With MS Slavic 7, the collaboration became so intertwined that Campbell, alongside Bohdanowicz, is credited as actor, co-scenarist, co-producer, co-editor and co-director.

MS Slavic 7 finds Audrey traveling to Harvard University to peruse an archive containing correspondence between poets Józef Wittlin and Zofia Bohdanowiczowa, Audrey’s (and Bohdanowicz’s real-life) great-grandmother, both of whom were Poles in exile, the former in the U.S., the latter in Canada. Audrey doesn’t read Polish, yet her contact with the letters and, eventually, with the man she has translate them, reveals the degree to which she finds solace and meaning in the tactile vestiges of her familial past. Her familial present, meanwhile, is thornier, as is evidenced in scenes in which Audrey attends an anniversary party in Etobicoke and is confronted with a resentful aunt. 

The film’s most captivating scenes find the socially uneasy Audrey either in solitude or negotiating shared space in the Harvard library, where she handles the letters with a quiet, rapturous focus, or in a local restaurant, where she speaks aloud her interpretation of what these letters contain and signify. These monologues represent the moments when MS Slavic 7 most obviously veers into a terrain as close to documentary as fiction, with Campbell’s thoughts and Audrey’s thoughts merging in their fascination with the importance of the letters’ “objecthood” and movement through space to reach their addressees. 

Daughter to four generations of actors, Campbell was born in Toronto, grew up in Stratford and Niagara-on-the-Lake, studied creative writing in Montreal, lived for spells in London and New York, and re-settled in Toronto in 2014. Her filmography includes I Used to Be Darker, It’s Hard To Be Human, and Kazik Radwanski’s Anne at 13,000 ft., which debuted at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, where it received an honourable mention in the Platform competition, and which also screened at VIFF. “Because I’ve only been in movies seen largely by cinephiles,” Campbell says, “it probably seems like my filmography is more curated than it actually is.”  Campbell came to her family’s trade via a circuitous route, but forging her own path and becoming a pivotal figure in contemporary Canadian independent cinema has helped her occupy a space that is uniquely hers. 

MS Slavic 7 will open at TIFF Bell Lightbox on October 10. 

Was there a particular point in the process of making MS Slavic 7 at which it became clear that your contribution was going beyond that of an actor or co-scenarist? 

Before we started shooting our roles as co-writers and co-producers were established, but I was the actor and Sofia the director. It was during the editing that Sofia came to me with the realization that, in her own words, she didn’t have all the answers. I came in and joined the editing process two days a week and two months into that Sofia proposed that we now look at the film as being co-directed. Which was very egoless of her and very empowering for me. I’m lucky that on these small, intimate projects I’ve gotten to be very involved in the development of characters. Directors will ask my opinion on a formal decision, say, which isn’t something that usually happens to actors. This isn’t something I would necessarily want on every project. I like the idea that on some projects you can just be an actor, while on others you can contribute in another way. 

I find such arrangements exciting not only because it breaks down seemingly immovable hierarchies within filmmaking or the distribution of credit, but also because this approach to process yields a different product. Even if Sofia were to begin this film with the same concept, even if she were to incorporate the same elements along the way, if she was sorting it all out on her own I don’t think she would have arrived at this result. This applies to all of the Audrey films: without your extra-actorly input, Audrey might not have even become the character who eventually prompted MS Slavic 7. 

I think Audrey has become a vessel, a tool we can use to explore different things. It’s become a method of channeling. In MS Slavic 7my anxiety from university is probably informing the character, whereas in Sofia’s upcoming short film, Audrey is in the process of grieving a friend, which is something that Sofia was going through last year. The idea that both of us can reflect on different personal experiences, that we’ve created a character that is made up of different elements of two different people, is very interesting to me. I feel like you’re better equipped to tap into your instincts when you’re in dialogue with someone else, whereas when something is just coming out of your head in isolation you can feel very self-conscious. You can shake off some of the desire to impress someone with a polished idea when you’re in conversational mode. 

When you introduced the film here in Vancouver you described it as being very earnest, which struck me as curious. I get it in the sense that Audrey is, in her way, earnest, and the viewer’s perspective is closely hewed to hers. But I’d argue that, in another way, the film is anything but earnest. It conceals and reveals things at strategic moments. It’s playful and even cryptic. I’ve seen it twice now and still find it mysterious. 

I guess I think of Audrey as earnest in her desire to understand things and articulate herself. But that desire is so strong that it inhibits her. That’s actually, for me, the link between my characters in MS Slavic 7 and Anne at 13,000 ft., this desire for experience and meaning being so powerful as to get in one’s way. Maybe if Audrey could relax a little, if she wasn’t so desperate to understand the letters, she would be open to a more emotional experience of them. Just as Anne might be able to get closer to others if she could just stop and truly listen to them for a moment, rather than feel obligated to perform for them, to amp up every interaction. I think Audrey really believes it’s through research that she can become closer to her great-grandmother. If she can articulate her findings, maybe she can connect. I think this is what drives a lot of art, the feeling that if I find a way to really say what I feel then I can connect to others and feel understood. 

In Audrey’s first monologue she talks about the meaning of the letters as being inextricable from their materiality. In the first scene in the archive we see Audrey handling the letters in this very exploratory way, folding and unfolding them, and then these superimposed titles appear, fragments of the letters in translation, like subtitles except no one is speaking. Initially I was wondering if Audrey was gleaning the letters’ contents by osmosis. 

[Laughs] Maybe to some extent she is. 

I’m just thinking about this idea of things you can touch, how we spend time watching Audrey touching these letters whose words she can’t read, while later in the story we learn she’s become intimate with someone we never she her touch. Did you and Sofia talk about the contrast between Audrey’s relationship to objects and to people?

We’re definitely talking about her relationship to people. There is a goal that in the next film she’ll finally get a friend. [Laughs] We also talked about the difference between Audrey’s body language in the first two monologues and the third, where we see her addressing another person, which makes her more self-conscious. We see Audrey’s flow of thoughts being interrupted by having to reckon with another person. Interacting with others is really hard for her because her sense of identity only works in isolation. She has to come to her conclusions privately and then present them to others. I sympathize with this pretty strongly. I think she feels at peace with the letters because they don’t change or react. They’re things she can react to. 

When I first saw MS Slavic 7 I thought Audrey’s first monologue was perhaps you, Deragh, talking to Sofia. It’s only during the third monologue that we realize she’s addressing the translator. Can you talk about the decision to reveal the translator so late in the story? 

In my mind he’s not there for the first two monologues, only the third. But I like hearing people’s responses and learning how the monologues can be read in many different ways. Something that I find really interesting with cinema is that, unless you create these foggy edges to imply a dream sequence, whatever you show on screen is real. Because Audrey is sitting at a table speaking outwardly, we assume this is literally what’s happening. I thought of those first two monologues as a kind of abstract representation of her notebook or thought process. I like how cinema allows you to create a moment that’s abstract and actual at the same time. You can’t choose for it to be one or the other. It’s kind of both and neither. I was an avid reader before I became an avid film-watcher, so these questions remind me of things Anne Carson might do, for example. In Autobiography of Red you don’t know whether this character is actually a dragon or the dragon is just a metaphor. Not forcing that decision is an interesting way to hold tension. 

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MS Slavic 7 is in part about finding one’s place in the larger story of a family. And it deals specifically with an artistic legacy spanning generations. I wonder how this question has played out in your own life. You come from a long line of actors. I know you’ve felt considerable ambivalence toward acting. Is it a vocation you wanted to avoid because of your family? Was there a formative experience that prompted you to explore the practice on your own terms? 

It’s been gradual. I wasn’t pursuing acting. Then I was cast in I Used to Be Darker and it was just as I was about to complete my creative writing degree that I got the call telling me the film got into Sundance. That felt like this sharp break between my writing life and my acting life. Yet through my acting work I’ve gradually come back to writing, because even as early as Stinking Heaven I was already writing with the director. It was never that I felt I was contending with my family and their accomplishments in any direct way, but I think I just felt lost as an actor for a long time. I was given some praise early on for being natural on camera, which was funny because I was being such a smaller, quieter version of myself. It’s only with these last three features, Fail to Appear, MS Slavic 7 and Anne at 13,000 ft., that I feel I’ve been able to be less internal. I think I’ve relaxed enough to show more variety in my face and body than before. It was very moving and meaningful to me when my parents came to see Anne and my father made comments on my work and I realized that I’d slowly began to develop my own acting style independent of my parents’ work. I’m now feeling quite excited about acting for the first time. 

Did you do it as a kid?

No. I mean, I was never in professional productions. I wrote and directed my own little plays. Sometimes we would run down to the Stratford Festival after the plays let out and handed out flyers saying that the children of the actors in the production are putting on a play. People would then leave the theatre and come watch us kids do a play on our front porch. 

Did your parents encourage you to act?

Not in any pressuring kind of way. I think my mom was actually very excited about me being a writer and having more agency in my creative life. But I think that by this point she’s really proud of the film community that I’ve helped build with others. So many actors have this existence where it’s about them and their management. Their success is entirely about them. For me, success has been about a community, something we built together. It’s not about the success of any one person. It’s unusual for actor, more sustainable and more satisfying. 

I can only imagine that working with Sofia on MS Slavic 7 and Kaz on Anne at 13,000 ft. would offer two very different exchanges and challenges. Do you feel you’re exercising different muscles when working with these different directors?

There are similarities in the sense that both give me some authority over what’s happening in front of the camera. The biggest difference comes from the scenarios that Sofia has proposed, or that we’ve proposed together, and the ones that Kaz proposes. Sofia and I are very communicative. We have a shorthand around, say, whether we have the shot. We’re very quick with regards to sorting out whether we have what we need. With Kaz it’s a bit more delineated. We might be working and I’ll spend ten minutes interacting with what’s in the space without knowing if what we just did will wind up in the film or, if so, how it will be cut together. There’s a necessary trust there. I’m less involved in those decisions—which is a given, since I’m co-director of one film and not the other. With Audrey it’s about control and with Anne it’s about abandon. I was thinking about how, while working on Anne, some days I would show up on set feeling emotionally available and others less so. Unlike a trained actor I don’t have a lot of tricks, so sometimes I can get there and sometimes I can’t. But that’s kind of how anxiety works. Some days you’re volatile and others you’re numb. There’s an inner struggle to break out of yourself. 

Was the process of making Anne more anxiogenic that that of MS Slavic 7?

Oh, certainly. MS Slavic 7 is where I’m the most comfortable. So often when acting you can feel that you’re failing. You can get too concerned with pleasing the director. Sofia is the least judgmental person in the world. She creates a space where you’re not thinking about those things. It’s also just a question of the material. Those monologues regarding the letters are pretty much my own thought process. I’m happiest when I’m reading, while I’m probably least happy in social interactions and situations I can’t control. I almost wonder if a project like Anne at 13,000 ft. doesn’t favour untrained actors because my process was so much less about sculpting a moment that just offering responses that [editor] Ajla [Odobasic] and Kaz will later sculpt in the edit. It’s more about acting as generating material for others to build a character from. Which I find extremely interesting. I admire it and feel lucky to be part of it. But, it’s more anxiety-producing, for sure. 

You didn’t train as an actor. Which makes me think about that funny, tense scene in MS Slavic 7 where Audrey’s aunt flips out over the idea of someone becoming a curator without receiving years of training first. Do you ever feel like you might want to get some training as an actor? Or do you feel you’re getting everything you need just through doing it?

That’s a very interesting question. I probably won’t get any training just because I hate school so much. Though I probably have fewer issues with authority than when I was younger. Back then if I thought what someone was asking me to do was stupid I just wouldn’t do it. I wonder if that wasn’t a way for me to be lazy and avoid things that might be difficult. All I can say is that right now I feel that I’ve arrived at a new place, building a character by placing myself in a situation and allowing myself to react, to be as present in the given circumstances as possible. That’s what I’m most interested in exploring. Maybe at some point there will be a limit to how interesting I find that or how much I can grow as an actor by doing that. Maybe at that point it will become important to explore other types of acting. But for the moment I feel pretty good about just throwing myself into these different situations and responding with the tools I’m been developing little by little, one film at a time, one challenge at a time.

Interview by José Teodoro

Source: https://torontofilmcritics.com/features/an...

TIFF Rising Star 2013 Alumna Évelyne Brochu: 'Orphan Black' Star Évelyne Brochu's 'Objets perdus' Is a "Bit of Tenderness" in Aggressive Times

By Laura Stanley Published Sep 23, 2019 exclaim

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"Sometimes love stories lead to art, but sometimes friendship stories do too," Montreal-based actor and musician Évelyne Brochu says in an interview with Exclaim! about her debut album, Objets perdus — a collaborative recording with singer-songwriter, producer and Brochu's longtime friend, Félix Dyotte.

Brochu met Dyotte when she was 17, and a mutual love of music became the foundation of their friendship. With Dyotte's encouragement, Brochu became a backing vocalist for his first bands and in 2016, the pair released a duet entitled "C'est l'été, c'est l'été, c'est l'été." They eventually agreed to make an album together, and Dyotte got to work writing and composing Objets perdus. For Brochu, the album's an incredible gift.

"I can't believe what he did for me," Brochu says about Dyotte. "Making art is already something that takes a lot of commitment, but offering it to somebody else is insane. It's beautiful. I'm very touched by that. What a kind, beautiful gesture."

Brochu's acting résumé includes roles in movies by Denis Villeneuve and Xavier Dolan. She was also in the CBC TV series X Company, but is perhaps best known for her role as Delphine Cormier in the sci-fi show Orphan Black. Growing up, Brochu liked to sing and took piano and drum lessons. But her mom, a cello teacher, was passionate about music, and Brochu wanted to forge her own identity.

"I wanted to define myself and not do her thing. So I think that's why I stepped away from [music] and went towards acting. That's my interpretation, and a cheap psychoanalysis, but I think that might be it," Brochu explains.

Recorded and mixed by Philippe Brault, Objets perdus is a collection of pop songs that borrow from '70s folk-rock and '80s synth-pop. In each track, a softness, akin to slipping into your favourite sweatshirt, envelops listeners. Brochu says that heading into the studio there wasn't a plan for how the record was going to sound; instead, they allowed the songs to unfold naturally. The resulting softness is something that Brochu is very happy with.

"I feel like some times call for a revolution, but right now the revolution we need is tenderness and joy and love. There's so much aggressive and decisive energy, I think that a little bit of tenderness is quite delicious," Brochu says.

The making of Objets perdus was a creative experience unlike any that Brochu has been a part of. For an actor, it's rare to get insight into every stage of the creative process, so for Brochu to witness each stage of the album's creation was, as she describes, "magic." She also credits Dyotte and the album's entire creative team for fostering an atmosphere in which she felt comfortable presenting her true self.

"My best friend heard the songs and said, 'I've heard you singing for a long time, but this is the first time that I hear you when you're singing.' I think that was the best compliment that she could ever give me," Brochu says.

"That's what interests me in art. I'm interested in characters when they are a vector of liberation for even more truth to come out. Singing is not like talking. Singing is not like me sitting in front of you telling you an anecdote about my life. That would be, if you could call it, super truthful. But I think there's another layer of truth that only art can bring."

Brochu asserts that Objets perdus won't be a one-off release, and says that her and Dyotte are already planning future projects; they just need to find the time to work on them. Much like how Objets perdus is rooted in Brochu and Dyotte's friendship, Brochu hopes that listeners can find a companion in the album.

"The thing I find coolest about music is that it can be part of people's lives. You can include it in your life you don't have to stop living for the art to get to you," Brochu says. "Cinema and theatre, you have to get to a place, sit down, and live it. It's an interruption of life, whereas music blends in with your memories and your life. The hope is that this album can be part of people's lives."

Objets perdus is out now on Grosse Boîte.

Source: http://exclaim.ca/music/article/orphan_bla...

TIFF Rising Star 2015 Alumnus Stephan James: Why Stephan James Is Poised for Hollywood’s A-List

By MATT DONNELLY Variety

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Only the brightest in Hollywood are getting an invitation to join Quibi. In the last few months, Jeffrey Katzenberg has been signing deals for his forthcoming digital venture, which will produce serialized episodes that will be as short as five minutes. Among those boarding the Quibi train: Jennifer Lopez, Liam Hemsworth, Don Cheadle and Anna Kendrick. And so is Stephan James.

It’s the latest sign that the 25-year-old actor, who had a breakout 2018 with back-to-back starring roles in Amazon Studio’s “Homecoming” (opposite Julia Roberts) and Barry Jenkins’ drama “If Beale Street Could Talk,” is a name to know in Hollywood.

“I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt he will be one of the biggest stars of the next five years,” says Joe Russo, who along with his brother, Anthony, served as producers on the upcoming thriller “21 Bridges,” out in theaters on Nov. 22. Despite playing a villain in the film, James tested through the roof in likability against the film’s lead, Chadwick Boseman.

James, who has been acting since age 14 in his native Canada, is still processing the growing spotlight on his career. He’s among the new class of Hollywood leading men, which includes Timothée Chalamet, John Boyega and Lucas Hedges, who walk the line between character actors and internet heartthrobs. In February, when James attended the Oscars, social media blew up with love letters to his stylish red suede tuxedo. And he’s been the subject of frequent online adoration all year (just look at the Twitter feed of Vulture’s resident tastemaker, Hunter Harris).

“I think I’m learning to be more present,” James says over green tea at the Chateau Marmont on a recent afternoon in Los Angeles. “Oftentimes when there’s so much happening around you, you got to remember to acknowledge the space you’re in.” He reached that realization while traveling for work last year. “I just remember being in a hotel room in Paris or London or somewhere, taking a deep breath and being like, ‘Wow. What a ride!’ I’m living out my dreams. Literally manifesting these things, and people are seeing it and appreciating it.”

The characters he’s played most recently all have a strong moral compass. On “Homecoming,” he earned a Golden Globe nomination for portraying a war veteran who begins to experience memory loss while undergoing treatment at a recovery clinic. In “Beale Street,” he’s a man madly in love with his girlfriend in 1970s New York, delivering a soulful performance that anchors the prestige drama adapted from the James Baldwin novel. And on Quibi, he’ll headline “#Freerayshawn” as another war veteran, this time grappling with a drug deal gone wrong. Laurence Fishburne will play the police negotiator attempting to lure James’ character out of hiding as the media descends on the developing scandal.

“It’s new and exciting,” James says about the series, which was produced by Antoine Fuqua. “I think we have to learn to push the envelope and to challenge ourselves on a new horizon.” Like most actors of his generation, James doesn’t care what medium he appears in. He just wants to play meaningful parts. Over a 90-minute conversation, he’s friendly but reserved. It’s a characteristic he says he’s had since childhood. In camouflage shorts and Ray-Bans, he probably wouldn’t be noticed by nearby guests if not for the setting, which is packed with stargazers sipping on glasses of rosé.

He admits to occasionally googling himself, but he hasn’t been surprised by his findings. “I’m pretty reclusive, so I don’t put my personal life out there,” he says.

To be shy was an anomaly in his childhood metropolitan town in Toronto. James was raised by his mom, a poet and a screenwriter. His older brother, actor Shamier Anderson, loved musical theater. “Seeing my brother do what he did, going to his shows, it sort of opened me up a little bit to take baby steps and then diving into what that would feel like,” James says. “I went from performing a monologue in front of 20 people in class to being in my school play in front of 500 kids. Then I got a manager.”

James started with small parts on Canadian TV shows. His first credit was for a short-lived series called “My Babysitter’s a Vampire,” and he landed a regular role at 16 on the teen soap opera “Degrassi,” where he stayed for two seasons, from 2010 to 2012. His big break in Hollywood came with a transformative role in Ava DuVernay’s 2014 drama “Selma,” where he played Martin Luther King Jr. adviser and civil rights pioneer John Lewis.

DuVernay recalls the first time she saw James, not in a live audition or a self-submitted tape but on David Oyelowo’s smartphone. “David showed me a trailer of Stephan in some indie. He had no idea who he was either, and Stephan had about two lines in this clip, and it was incredible work,” she says.

Tracking him down was no picnic. DuVernay’s longtime casting director Aisha Coley spent nearly three months searching for the actor, who had no formal representation in Canada.

Source: https://variety.com/2019/film/features/ste...

TIFF Rising Star 2014 Alumnus Shannon Kook: Shannon Kook From CW’s “The 100” Uses His Platform as an Actor to Do Good

Emily Gao April 26, 2019 Mochi

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From South Africa to Canada, Shannon Kook has followed his passion as an actor and stayed true to his values, both on-screen and off.

Acting has been a part of Kook’s life since elementary school. “I was always doing [acting] through school. It was an extramural. There’d be plays, competitions at birthday parties, [and] there were always plays every term,” Kook says.

In the beginning, Kook’s father didn’t encourage his interest in singing and acting. Kook began booking commercials through an agency at a young age but had to stop in order to focus on school. However, this pause did not keep Kook’s talent from showing up on screen, and his father is now fully supportive of his passion. Kook remains grateful for the familial support he has received in his life.

Growing up in the age of apartheid, Kook is familiar with the topic of race. Kook recalls how his mother, who is from South Africa, and father, who is of Chinese descent, had to sneak into segregated movie theaters together. As a multiracial person himself, he has experienced discrimination based on the way he looks. He has also grappled with the fear of not being “enough”: neither Asian enough nor White enough.

“Coloured was a term I was proud of,” Kook says. In South Africa, the word was used to classify people of mixed race ancestry. It wasn't until Kook immigrated to North America that he learned that the term “Cape Coloured” was a people and culture mostly unknown outside of South Africa.

Kook has always felt drawn to championing and portraying minorities in his roles. In one of his best-known roles on the show “Degrassi,” Kook played openly gay Zane Park. Kook recalls receiving messages from fans praising his portrayal of a LGBTQ+ character, at a time when such roles was still scarce and mostly stereotypical.

"It was important to me to play a gay character as just another guy at school,” he says, “and not as a 'character' or 'stereotype' as I had mostly been seeing them on TV back then. I identified with this because of how I saw, and still see, Asian men portrayed on screen."

Currently, you can catch Kook starring as Jordan Green in The CW’s show “The 100.” As Kook explains, “‘The 100’ is a post-apocalyptic show where the main question is, basically, what would you do to survive? It's humanity trying to establish a civilization.”

In the show, Earth goes through a nuclear event that destroys much of human civilization and survivors live in a spaceship called The Ark. Trouble strikes when The Ark starts to run out of resources like air and food, so they have to decide whether to eliminate part of the population or go back down to Earth. To decide, 100 kids are sent down to Earth to see if it’s inhabitable after the nuclear event. All of these chosen kids are also criminals.

In terms of his character Jordan Green, Kook describes him as “a smart and ambitious guy but [lacking] a lot of experience.” For Kook, “it is quite a gift of a role to play, seeing that he is a young man with a fully grown heart and set of skills, but never having met anyone outside his parents or stepped off their spaceship."

Kook firmly believes in using his platform as an actor to do philanthropic work. “When you get exposure,” he says, “you innately have an ability to speak to people's lives and experiences.”

One organization he has worked with is the international charity Free the Children, now known as WE Charity. With them, he flew to India to build a school. During his trip, Kook was impressed by the way the kids in India carried themselves despite their lack of material goods.

Another organization Kook has worked with is the Sick Kids Foundation, a Canada-based charity advocating for child health. In the future, Kook hopes to do even more philanthropic work.

Aside from acting, Kook is also interested in dance, martial arts, music, and spirituality. “I guess I’m just curious about life in general,” he says. While you could catch him on the dance floor, the easiest place to see Kook is on “The 100,” which premieres its sixth season on April 30 on The CW.


Source: https://www.mochimag.com/mochi-magazine/sh...

TIFF Rising Star 2016 Alumna Grace Glowicki: “Persistent Paranoia, Anxiety and Fear Does Something to Your Body…”: Five Questions for Tito Writer/Director Grace Glowicki

by Scott Macaulay in Directors, Interviews on Mar 18, 2019 Filmmaker Magazine

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One of the great independent film discoveries of SXSW 2019 is a picture that is also one of the boldest artistic statements of year, Grace Glowicki’s Tito. The Canadian actor and director is known to Filmmaker readers as the female lead of 2016 25 New Face Ben Petrie’s Her Friend Adam, which I dubbed in these pages “a squirmy treatise on sexual insecurity and relationship oneupmanship.” Glowicki’s character’s response to her partner’s icky jealousy, I wrote, is one of “unrivaled power and blistering sexual humiliation, capped off by a loudly feigned orgasm that will erase in viewers any memory of Meg Ryan’s similar reenactment long ago in When Harry Met Sally. (Glowicki picked up a Special Jury Award for Outstanding Performance at Sundance.)”

Her Friend Adam was a sharper-than-the-norm slice of hipster millennial relationship anxiety, but Tito — in which Glowicki is the lead and Petrie the co-star — is something else entirely, an expressionistic plunge into the fractured psyche of an emotionally damaged social recluse that reminded me films like Lodge Kerrigan’s Clean, Shaven and Harmony Korine’s Trash Humpers as well as the confrontational performance art of Mike Kelly and Paul McCarthy. Glowicki herself plays the near-silent Tito, eyes downcast, twitchy and shambling, but projecting an essential empathy. Petrie is an out-of-nowhere neighbor who wants to connect and to party. The narrative is purposefully minimalist, with moves from interior to exterior, and through visual spaces that both assault as well as echo the fears in Tito’s brain, as important as any single plot point. In fact, as Glowicki discusses below, Tito avoids the often misguided narrative impulse in films about characters with disabilities in favor of a discursive approach that places its character study in service to a complex thesis about male predation and “women as prey.” With the director’s own genderbending lead performance working on a meta level, Tito is both a midnight-movie-worthy blast of heightened sensation as well as a thoughtful personal expression by a notable new directing talent.

Tito premiered last week at SXSW, and Glowicki answered the following questions via email.

Filmmaker: The director’s statement for your film Tito talks about “re-appropriating the experience of women-as-prey as the male creation, and male problem,” and “regifting it to the male psyche from whom it originates.” Could you discuss further how these psychological, critical and theoretical ideas found their form in Tito, particularly in your decision to cast yourself as Tito and then to make the narrative as minimalist as it is?

Glowicki: The choice to perform Tito as a male character initially arrived as a purely intuitive instinct. The character first emerged with my trying on a piece of costume and listening as my body naturally responded to it with a physical posture. From that posture, the voice of the character emerged, and organically it became apparent that the character bubbling up was a man. I just trusted that instinct and followed through with it, really allowing my physical instincts to lead the psychology of the character.

Only later, when I reflected cerebrally on my instincts, did I discover that the choice to perform Tito as a male character aligned with the themes I wanted to explore in the film.

Not long before I began writing, I had gone through a difficult slice of time where I felt possessed with fear and anxiety about being in my female body: indoors, outdoors, regardless of my surroundings I felt unsafe as a woman…. I felt like prey to predators, which in my experience were male. Processing this period, reflecting on the nature and origin of my fear, and reading about projection theory, I came to realize that my anxiety was not an intrinsic part of me. Feeling like prey is not a part of my natural identity, but actually originates in the identity of the predator. It arrives from a need by the predator to assert power over others, from a place of fear and insecurity. The predator’s need to dominate others, and to make others his prey, imprints on the bodies that he selects; that imprint is left on his prey and leaves them fearful in a manner that resembles the trembling needs of his identity and not of their own.

So while predation is a problem that disproportionally affects women, it is not our problem. It is a masculine problem — something inside the masculine psyche that needs to dominate and hunt — and with Tito I wanted to play out my fear of being a woman in the male psyche from whom it so often originates.

And as for making the narrative minimalist, that is a natural result of how my brain works; I don’t think in complicated narratives. I very much respond to the simplicity of comic books, fables, anime films…. I like the accessibility of simple storytelling and films that really focus on character over plot. As a result, in the writing process, while the character comes very organically the story is harder for me to nail down. I really believe in following what feels intuitive, so I want to try to push myself for the next one to listen to that part of me that doesn’t respond to plot and to see what happens in a purely character-driven world.

Filmmaker: Could you discuss the different influences and inspirations that went into the character of Tito? With his physicality, near silence, and emotional rawness he recalled to me both silent movie comedians as well as the kind of physical presence of certain conceptual and performance artists — people like Paul McCarthy and Mike Kelly. And then there’s also a clear choreographic quality to his movement, which suggested a whole other set of influences as well. What did you draw on to create his physical presence?


Glowicki: Tito was inspired by many things, but first and foremost he was inspired by this aforementioned period of my life when I was very afraid. Persistent paranoia, anxiety and fear does something to your body; for me, it created a frail, folded-in, shaky posture. Letting these feelings affect my body in this way when building the character allowed me to set an emotionally authentic base of physicality, on which I could then consciously build a psychology. Along with letting an intuitively selected costume help build the posture and movements, I listened to Mica Levi’s Under the Skin soundtrack on repeat. That film deals with some similar emotions to Tito, and the music was a really great tool to have when I was moving around my bedroom in the costume trying to find the right physicality.

I also looked to Denis Lavant as a constant source of inspiration — he is such a powerful silent performer, who I endlessly look up to. Watching his work, and really just knowing he exists, really helps me to explore this kind of performance style — which I think probably falls into some kind of strand of clowning.

I also thought of Johnny Greenwood quite often, as someone whose movements and look have always mesmerized me. Edward Scissorhands and Iggy Pop were helpful references as well.

Filmmaker: This is your second collaboration with Ben Petrie. In the first, he directed and you both starred. Here, you direct and he costars. Could you discuss this collaboration and how your working relationship has evolved and changed over these films?

Glowicki: Working with Ben has been one of the most fulfilling and exciting experiences of my life. When I first met him, I knew right away he was someone I needed to work with. He’s got an infectious energy, as a storyteller and as a performer, and he’s also this incredibly rare balance of an acutely emotionally aware and gentle person on one side, with an incredibly wild and rebellious sense of humor on the other. We started trying to write a script together which never really got off the ground, but then he appeared with a finished short film script he wanted to direct us in called Her Friend Adam. Making that film with Ben was a great experience, where we really started to build a relationship, but more excitingly a process.

We went to a Meisner acting class together, which we both found very fascinating and helpful. We continue to carry forward some of the language and techniques from that class — but mostly, it just informed our commitment to always trying to authentically connect to each other in scenes, with a devotion to genuine impulse and spontaneous emotional response. We also came to develop a rehearsal style — for us, the longer the better — which has involved very slowly discovering and blocking physical movements that support the dialogue and actions of the script. I love this part of working with Ben; rehearsing with him always feels like learning the moves to bizarre narrative dance, with emotional meaning hidden beneath each move.

Getting directed by Ben in Her Friend Adam was truly formative for me — as an actor, it really set a standard of collaboration and commitment to process that I’m always seeking in other directors. After the dust settled from that film I wanted more, so I started writing Tito. I’ve always been making tiny films and experimental videos, but never quite had I felt confident enough to accept the identity “Filmmaker” or “Director,” but something about watching Ben make Her Friend Adam really put the fire under my butt to get over that and embrace what I’ve been quietly doing for years.

Casting Ben was a no-brainer, as we had so much to build on after having cultivated such a gratifying process together. Making the internal switch from being the actor in a film Ben directed to directing him in one of my own took me a minute to adjust to — we had to discover the differences in the mechanics of our process within this new dynamic — but eventually I got the hang of it and we got really comfortable in this role reversal. The rehearsal process, which for Tito was eight weeks, was very collaborative; it felt very comfortable working with him not only as his scene partner but also as the director. As with Her Friend Adam, blocking and rehearsing Tito was a very open dialogue, with lots of ideas from both parties freely flying around. And funnily enough, when we get back from SXSW we’re going right into rehearsal for Worms, which is Ben’s first feature. We’re the two leads in it, and I can’t wait to collaborate again. I’m excited to get out of the hot seat of directing for a minute and let him take a turn at the wheel!

Filmmaker: One of the most striking elements of the film is its soundtrack, by Casey MQ. There’s an almost musique concrete quality to the score as it both underscores Tito’s emotional state as well as represents a chaotic outer world. What led to this soundtrack choice, and what did you want music to do in this film?

Glowicki: Collaborating with Casey was incredibly fulfilling. He is this wildly talented musician who plays a million instruments, can imitate any style of music, works with remarkable speed, and produces a lot of material. On top of this, he is incredibly open to collaboration, and to stepping into someone else direction and process; he really believes in the power of collaboration and process and embraces it with an enthusiasm that really energized the film.

We started developing the soundtrack even before shooting. I didn’t let him read the script, and instead just talked with him about the vaguest possible story details — mostly just the essential feelings we were going to be dealing with in the film. I compiled a list of feelings or moments for him to explore musically; he would read through it and then send me back a long improvisation, exploring each feeling, and trying to process express it through a smattering of different sounds and instruments. We went back and forth with this, building a library of improvisations of Casey seeking out these different feelings with relentless curiosity. It was important to me that these sounds not have melodies, so that they could be malleable.

After amassing this rich library of Casey’s exploration, I took these sounds and positioned them where they felt intuitive to me. Once I lay down my first layer of Casey’s sonic textures, I then showed to him my choices and we talked about why I had chosen certain sounds, and the how and why I had put them there. He then took that layer and worked on top of it, building on it, adding nuance to it, morphing it, re-inventing it, and in some cases replacing it with something better.

The resulting soundtrack in the film is the result of 18 months of an ongoing conversation, layering ideas and tones and sounds and emotions until we found the sounds that felt like they best distilled what we wanted to express. It was thrilling working with someone so artistic and devoted to process.

Filmmaker: Finally, the movie marries in its cinematography and production design a kind of squalid realism with at times dreamlike visuals that range from clearly imaginary spaces to hyperreal, stylized interiors. Can you talk about the different types of spaces you wanted to evoke in this film and the sort of direction about them you gave to your cinematographer and production designer?

Glowicki: The sense of space in the film was inspired by what it feels like to stay in your house for too long; when your world is physically much smaller, you adapt to this confinement, and strangely each room opens up into a world of its own. In this context, when (if) you do go outside, it can feel like this vast alien planet. Our production designer Anastasia Popova did an incredible job with a very tiny production design budget of bringing this sense of space to life. I talked with her about designing Tito’s house as though when he moved in, there was some furniture and dishes left behind from the last tenants, and he just never really built on that. While keeping the space stark and minimalist, Ana added subtle details to the walls and blinds which really added emotion and specificity to the backgrounds while also heightening Tito’s world just slightly in a way that aligned with the film’s subjectivity. She was really a one-woman-band as production designer and really crushed it, taking my direction and running with it confidently with very little resources.

Christopher Lew (DP) and I had many preparatory conversations, getting a sense of the visual landscape and space of Tito. It was important to us that the film’s visual aesthetic leaned in to the purified emotions we wanted to deal with in the story; absolute fear, absolute loneliness, absolute relief — whatever the feeling, we wanted to express it with the heightened impact felt by someone isolated and fearful enough to be utterly vulnerable to his emotional inner world. In this pursuit, a big inspiration for us was comic books and cartoons; these types of images helped inform the ways we could heighten the intensity of Tito’s subjective experiences. Highly expressive use of light and colour was a big part of our resulting choices.

Our visual decisions were also informed by the realities of our shoot — we had seven days to shoot the entire feature. This reality encouraged us to follow our natural instinct to shirk excessive coverage and instead to find expressive compositions through which long stretches of scenes could be performed.

Watching the footage, while editing with Brendan Mills, I came to realize more and more that Chris just intuitively understood things. He’s got such a sensitivity, I can feel his intuition in every shot. He was able to see the world through Tito’s eyes and to plug in to that subjectivity so that the audience could experience his inner world alongside him.


Source: https://filmmakermagazine.com/107213-five-...

TIFF Rising Star 2016 Alumna Sophie Nélisse: ’47 Meters Down’ Sequel: Sophie Nélisse To Star, Corinne Foxx & Sistine Stallone Make Film Debuts; Summer 2019 Release

By Andreas Wiseman December 10, 2018 6:56am Deadline

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Cast and release date have been set for 47 Meters Down – Uncaged, the sequel to box office breakout 47 Meters Down. Sophie Nélisse (The Book Thief), John Corbett (Sex And The City), Nia Long (Empire), Corinne Foxx, Sistine Stallone, Brianne Tju (Scream TV series), Davi Santos (Polaroid) and Khylin Rhambo (Teen Wolf) will star.

Principal photography is underway this week in the Dominican Republic with Byron Allen’s ESMP U.S. release in 3,500+ screens set for June 28, 2019. Johannes Roberts returns to direct the sequel from a script he co-wrote with his 47 Meters Down co-writer, Ernest Riera. Foxx and Stallone, the daughters of Jamie Foxx and Sylvester Stallone, respectively, will be making their film debuts.

The film will tell the story of four teens diving in a ruined underwater city, who quickly find themselves in a watery hell as their adventure turns to horror when they learn they are not alone in the submerged caves. As they swim deeper into the claustrophobic labyrinth of caves they enter the territory of the deadliest shark species in the ocean.

James Harris, Mark Lane and Robert Jones of The Fyzz are producing with Byron Allen, Carolyn Folks, and Jennifer Lucas executive producing. The breakout original took almost $60M global off a $5.5M budget.

“The sequel 47 Meters Down – Uncaged is well-positioned to be a big summer event movie,” said Byron Allen, CEO of Entertainment Studios. “The shark-filled psychological horror/thriller will once again have moviegoers overwhelmed and on the edge of their seats being terrorized by the world’s greatest predators!”

Stallone is repped by Brookside Artist Management.

Source: https://deadline.com/2018/12/47-meters-dow...