Doctor’s Case hitting film festival circuit
Hot off the local screen, The Doctor’s Case is now getting called up to the film festival circuit.
This Prince George-centric film was the toast of the Cinema CNC Film Festival where it had a hometown showing for family, friends and supporters of the movie wrought from the burgeoning film industry of our region.
Now it is getting its official intergalactic silver screen debut. The Julien Dubuque International Film Festival is a champion for independent filmmakers and emerging directors. It was the first to offer a dotted line on which co-director James Douglas and co-producer Norm Coyne could sign. It runs April 26-29 in the Mississippi city that conjoins Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois.
“James will be attending the Julien Dubuque. It’s a special occasion for the film, the official world premiere,” said Coyne.
The film has also been accepted into the New Hope International Film Festival in Pennsylvania “and we also have others pending,” said Coyne, due to the film getting into the Film Freeway distribution pool where thousands of festivals glean through and tap films that interest them.
The Doctor’s Case was filmed at Barkerville, Craigdarroch Castle and Emily Carr House – all of them National Historic Sites within B.C. that offered the look and feel of Victorian England. The script was adapted from a Stephen King short story that was the horror legend’s homage to the great fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. Only in this tale, Holmes doesn’t solve the case quicker than his trusty firstmate Dr. Watson. It was Watson who first tumbled to the truth of a murder they were called upon to investigate.
King has a creative catalyst pro- gram called Dollar Babies through which aspiring filmmakers can use his literary works for their cinematic efforts for the nominal licensing fee of one dollar. The stipulation is, the movie pitch has to be substantial and credible and the aspiring filmmaker can make no money for the showing of the film.
No problem, said Coyne. This production was done using all professional actors and a set of ambitious crew members, most of whom had never worked on a film before. Their passions came together to make the feature-length film that is now out in the world.
“We have no commercial income for this film. We are working strictly within the Dollar Babies stipulations,” said Coyne. “It is OK to screen the film at festivals. That is 100 per cent allowed under the Dollar Babies program. We hope it gets seen all over the world in this way. It really is a showcase for the film industry we are trying to spark in our region. Thanks to this great story by Stephen King, we were able to make a movie we are all really proud of and I know it’s going to have ripple effects for Prince George and this region.”