Double take
Director writes book recounting film experience in Tatamagouche and area
Production of a film about an autistic boy’s journey to acceptance through his school’s solitaire team, has become a story in its own right due to its rocky road to success.
Directed by Stuart Cresswell and filmed in and around Tatamagouche, The Only Game in Town hit a number of snags. A big one was the scrapping of the provincial film tax credit, a move that angered many in the industry.
Cresswell tells of the experience in his book, The Only Film in Town: How a Little Film with a Big Heart Was Made in Rural Nova Scotia.
Shooting of the feel-good comedy began in December 2014, before the film tax credit fiasco erupted and included actors from Pictou County.
Further intense shooting in the summer of 2015 wrapped up filming.
“That wasn’t the way we planned it,” recalled Cresswell. “I was just feeling particularly determined to get it finished.”
The film itself was produced using a crew of young and sometimes not very experienced talent, who nonetheless managed to pull together.
“Working with young people, there was something in the region of 40 and they were very talented,” said Cresswell.
However, their story’s main character, Cor- mack Vertue, is equally intriguing. As someone living with autism spectrum disorder, he finds social interaction and showing emotions difficult. He is also accustomed to a structured, ordered lifestyle without disruption.
However, Vertue’s one great talent was playing solitaire and his skill led to his becoming captain of his school team.
In doing so, his once quiet social life blossoms – at the same time, becoming more complicated – when he falls in love with the girlfriend of a star hockey player and comes under pressure from a teacher to perform.
It is how Vertue manages an increasingly chaotic school life that becomes his true test of character.
“It’s some kind of personal growth for him and acceptance in the wider school community,” Cresswell said. “I see him as a bit of a superhero, really.”
The film and the book will be formally launched in June with a screening at the decoste Entertainment Centre in Pictou, before being shown elsewhere.
The fact both are being released at the same time, according to Cresswell, is simple coincidence.
Originally from England, Cresswell has decades of experience writing, producing and directing movies on both sides of the Atlantic.
Now a full-time resident of northern Nova Scotia, he runs his own production company Simple Films Ltd.