ALBERTA READY FOR A CLOSE-UP
Calgary Film Fest’s lineup unveiled
Suck It Up, a road movie partially filmed in Calgary that premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival, will close the Calgary International Film Festival this year.
The festival announced a new slate of films Thursday evening, all of them having Alberta ties. That includes a closing-gala screening of Suck it Up on Sept. 30, a comedy-drama about two friends who overcome grief with a road trip to British Columbia.
Starring Edmonton actresses Erin Carter and Grace Glowicki and directed by award-winning St. John’s filmmaker Jordan Canning, Suck It Up was shot in Calgary and Invermere, B.C. It debuted at the Slamdance Film Festival earlier this year in Park City, Utah, a festival known for art house fare.
On Thursday, the festival announced 11 films, one television series and a panel discussion, all of which were either shot in Alberta or involved local talent or Calgary expats.
“It seems like we’re always surprised by the number of Alberta submissions we get,” said programming manager Brenda Lieberman. “There’s always films that were never on our radar. There’s always a long list of films that we didn’t know were shot here or has somebody from here connected to them. Every year, the production quality has gone up a lot for the Alberta content. We love it when we get cast and crew together and people are seeing it for the first time.”
Here are some local content highlights of the festival, which runs from Sept. 20 to Oct. 1 at various venues:
ALBERTA DOCS
Calgary filmmaker Cam Christiansen has been working on his animated documentary, The Wall, since at least 2011. The first animated documentary produced by the National Film Board, it’s based on the work of playwright David Hare and his visits to the Israeli West Bank barrier separating Israel and the Palestinian territories. Shot in Banff, Tasha Hubbard’s Birth of a Family follows the story of three sisters and a brother who meet for the first time after being removed from their Dene mother’s care as part of Canada’s Sixties Scoop. Made in Vietnam is Calgary filmmaker Thi Vo’s personal story of his journey back home to find his father. No Roads In, from Calgary director Josh Wong, tells the story of Alberta musician Blake Reid’s attempts to make an analogue record.
EVERFALL
Calgary director John Kissack follows up his debut, A Miracle on Christmas Lake, with something completely different, offering a locally shot supernatural thriller set in the unlikely backdrop of competitive figure skating. Veteran Canadian actor Colm Feore co-stars.
ICE BLUE
Shot in Okotoks, Millarville and Calgary, Ice Blue is the feature-film debut of Calgary director Sandi Somers. The dark drama stars Calgary actress Sophia Lauchlin Hirt as a teenager who uncovers family secrets at her family’s isolated farm. Heartland’s Michelle Morgan co-stars, while the screenplay was penned by local writer Jason Long, who recently wrote Robert Cuffley’s Chokeslam.
ALBERTA TALENT
Of course, not all Albertans stay in Alberta. This year there are a few offerings from Cowtown expats, including Los Angeles-based, Calgaryraised director Matthew Currie Holmes’ Sudbury-shot chiller Buckout Road and former Calgarian Tyler MacIntyre’s horror-comedy Tragedy Girls. Fort McMurray native Cody Bown returned home from Vancouver to shoot the drama Gregoire, loosely based on real-life events in pre-fire Fort Mac. Former Calgarian Amber Ripley is among the producers of Jason James’ Vancouver-shot comedy-drama Entanglement, starring Silicon Valley’s Thomas Middlechurch. Current Calgarian Jason Filiatrault wrote the screenplay.
ALBERTA TV
Plenty of local talent worked on the British TV series Tin Star, a violent revenge thriller starring Oscar-nominee Tim Roth and Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks. Created by Rowan Joffe, it was shot in 2016 in and around Calgary. In fact, it was the first major production to use our new Calgary Film Centre. For now, it doesn’t seem to have a North American broadcaster, which means the festival’s screening of the first two episodes will be a rare opportunity to check it out. To further celebrate the local TV scene, the festival will host a special panel focusing on the Calgary-produced modern-western cult hit Wynonna Earp, which was recently picked up for a third season. Creator Emily Andras and stars Melanie Scrofano, Tim Rozon, Katherine Barrell, Dominique Provost-Chalkley and Varun Saranga are expected to participate.