A $26,000 prize, and local filmmaker plans to ‘Waste It’
The script for Emily Bridger’s newest project, “Waste It,” sees a woman dealing with challenges while trying to make a film.
Maybe not the same challenges Bridger has faced, but she can definitely relate.
“I’ve worked in film mainly as a writer, and the things I’ve directed on my own have been super low budget, super small, with a bare-bones crew,” she explains.
Thanks to the 2016 RBC Michelle Jackson Emerging Filmmaker Award, which Bridger won Monday, she’ll be able to expand on that, given it comes with a $26,000 prize consisting of cash and in-kind services towards bringing “Waste It” to the screen.
Facilitated by the St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival (where “Waste It” will premiere next year), the annual award celebrates the memory of filmmaker Michelle Jackson, who died suddenly in 2008 at the age of 36. The prize supports the creation of a six-minute film directed by a woman living in Newfoundland and Labrador.
“I’ll have the opportunity to write and have some really great mentors,” Bridger said. “This award means a whole lot to me.”
Bridger is a filmmaker as well as a playwright, whose past projects include short films “Epilogue” and “Brad,” which screened at film festivals around the continent; “Kathy” (directed by Mark O’Brien), which premiered at the 2011 Atlantic Film Festival and won the Best Comedy award at the Lakeshore Film Festival the following year; and “Sadie,” a short film created with Deanne Foley and Latonia Hartery which screened at international festivals and on Air Canada flights and won a number of awards.
Bridger — who is also a new mother — is currently working on her first feature film, “Little Orphans.” Her nine-minute film “In So Many Words,” which stars Marthe Bernard and Stephen Lush, will screen at this year’s women’s film festival.
It’s one of about 50 films screening at this year’s festival, which opens Oct. 19 and runs until Oct. 23. Many of those movies are local, including Wanda Nolan’s “Crocuses,” which she created as the winner of last year’s Michelle Jackson award.
The festival will open with a viewing of Oscar-winning playwright Brigitte Berman’s “The River of My Dreams: A Portrait of Gordon Pinsent, and include features like “Boundaries,” a film shot by an all-female crew in Newfoundland led by Chloé Robichaud, and “Atlantic,” a documentary narrated by Brendan Gleason following the rise and fall of three fishing communities in Ireland, Norway and Newfoundland.
The festival will wind up with a screening of “Maudie,” a feature film starring Ethan Hawke and Sally Hawkins as renowned Nova Scotia folk artist Maud Lewis. Shot in this province last year, “Maudie” premiered earlier this month at the Toronto International Film Festival, then hit the Atlantic Film Festival in Halifax, where it earned awards for Best Atlantic Feature and Best Writing (for local writer Sherry White).
Opening and closing nights this year will take place at the Cineplex Scotiabank Theatre in the Avalon Mall, since the St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre has outlived its capacity to show films on digital format at the standard in which they are created, according to festival founder and chairwoman Noreen Golfman. Other screenings will happen at the LSPU Hall, The Rooms and Holy Heart Theatre.
Festival week will also see a number of panels, information sessions and networking events for filmmakers.
A full schedule of events is available online at www. womensfilmfestival.com.