CINEPLEX ENTERTAINMENT FILM PROGRAM ....................................................................................
The 2012 Filmmakers and their Features In Development
To get in touch with the 2012 Residents or to learn more about their feature projects, please contact: Erica Proudlock at: eproudlock@cfccreates.com or at 416-445-1446 ext. 401.
DIRECTORS’ LAB: In Development
LOGLINE Traumatized by his parents’ turbulent divorce, a young man begins to reclaims his life as he explores his burgeoning sexuality.
SYNOPSIS Oscar Madly is an imaginative “only-child” in St. John, Newfoundland, whose closest friends consist of his pet hamster and a fistful of finger puppets. If his life wasn’t challenging enough being caught in the middle of his parents’ turbulent divorce, Oscar is viciously catapulted into adulthood when his father teaches him about a shocking hate-crime involving a young gay man. Fearing that he too might be gay, Oscar is driven to suppress his femininity. But when Oscar comes of age, his resistance to his sexuality weakens as he forms a tenuous friendship with a tattooed skateboarder from Montreal who introduces him to an electric world filled with music, art and parties. However, as Oscar begins to reclaim his identity, he experiences confusing sexual fantasies about his new friend that are fueled by fear. When Oscar finally confronts and triumphs against the fear instilled by his father, the result is an explosive spectacle of human empowerment unlike anything Oscar could ever expect.
DIRECTOR/WRITER BIO – STEPHEN DUNN Stephen Dunn is an award-winning filmmaker from St. John’s, Newfoundland, and graduate of Ryerson University’s Film Program. His acclaimed short films, LIFE DOESN’T FRIGHTEN ME (GORDON PINSENT), SWALLOWED, and THE HALL, have been celebrated internationally with awards such as BEST FILM (2012 Toronto International Film Festival – Student Showcase), ARTE FILM AWARD (2012 Munich International Film Festival), TIFF EMERGING FILMMAKER AWARD, BEST CANADIAN FILM (2012 YoungCuts), the HSBC FILMMAKER AWARD and more. Film critic Roger Ebert highlighted Dunn as an upcoming filmmaker to watch at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. Dunn is currently developing his first feature, CLOSET MONSTER, through a residency at Norman Jewison’s Canadian Film Centre in Toronto.
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LOGLINE A mixed race man inherits an all white factory, invites his black peers to help whip the workforce in shape, only to whip the white workers right into slavery.
SYNOPSIS Andre Collins, a mixed race man struggling with his identity in the black community, inherits a cracker factory from the father he never knew in an all white community. The problem is the workers are lazy, and an eventual closure looms overhead. Andreʼs solution; inject some much need soul into the factory, turn out a hot new cracker, and populate it with his black friends. But a new found status of power gets the best of him, and not only do the crackers fly; but so do the whips - when he creates a bizarro world of reverse segregation, exploitation and white slavery.
DIRECTOR / WRITER BIO – Cory Bowles From Nova Scotia, Cory has appeared as an actor in a number of film, radio, and television shows, receiving a Gemini for the role of “Cory” in the hit Canadian TV series Trailer Park Boys. He tours coast to coast, bringing his brand social comedy to the stand up circuit. As a choreographer and director, he has created over 60 works for stage and film and is currently faculty at the Bishop’s University Drama Program.
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SEX, LIES AND CABBAGE ROLLS LOGLINE Tensions in a Russian immigrant family boil over during an out of control dinner party as they face the challenges of negotiating their places at the table.
SYNOPSIS EAT OR BE EATEN is a darkly comedic food party film that unfolds over a celebratory Russian dinner. Its many courses are as complex as the family and friends who gather around the table. Host Katia attempts to keep it all together as the elaborate dinner threatens to consume and derail everything. The conflict between expectation, obligation, fantasy, and fate is served from a steaming pot of overflowing contradictions. Unexpected guests arrive, secrets are revealed and true desires uncovered. Tensions in the family boil over as Katia attempts to hold her party, the family and herself together.
DIRECTOR/WRITER – VIRGINIA ABRAMOVICH Virginia has worked in Toronto’s film industry for over eight years, gaining a broad range of experience both in production, and on set. She has directed and produced four short films, LINDY AND THE CATERPILLAR, GRACE, KARATE WIPE and MOMENTUM and has also directed a number of commercial and educational works. Her films have been seen in festivals worldwide, and nationally broadcast on CBC and Bravo. Virginia is completing her latest documentary LITTLE QUESTIONS and has two feature film projects in development, EAT OR BE EATEN and RE-EVOLUTION. She has recently completed her director’s residency at the Canadian Film Centre.
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LOGLINE After overthrowing a youth detention centre, two friends vie for control of power - one desperate to do what’s best for his fellow inmates and the other happy to use them like pawns in the impending police siege.
SHORT SYNOPSIS This coming of age thriller follows a group of hardened street kids on a mission to jailbreak their friend, Jamal, from a notorious youth detention centre known as “The Castle”. After overthrowing the facility the group decides to stay, but when Jamal discovers his best friend’s plan to sacrifice the young inmates like pawns in the impending police siege, he’s forced to sacrifice his friendship in order to protect the innocent.
DIRECTOR/WRITER BIO – Ravi Steve This past year Ravi directed an episode of YTV’s HOW TO BE INDIE, his film TRAINING WHEELS was nominated for Best Short Film by the Director’s Guild Of Canada, and he attended the Canadian Film Centre’s director lab. In 2011 Ravi produced and edited TORONTO in 24 (OMNI), a film that garnered over 20 international awards, nominations, and official film festival selections including three Gemini Award Nominations and one win. In 2010 Ravi produced and directed the one-hour documentary REMIX-TO-RIO which played festivals across Canada and the US and garnered three Best Documentary Awards.
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Synopsis The Haymaker – DONNIE, a young man, whose mother thinks he’s a loser, has fallen into petty theft to support himself. DONNIE becomes infatuated with the idea of becoming a boxer so he can look good naked, but when his mother’s house is repossessed, DONNIE takes up boxing to earn her money, causing him to ditch his friends and find direction in his life. He catches the eye of a gym employee, HERMAN, a peddler for the mafia, who recruits DONNIE with the allure of quick cash but DONNIE’s involvement leads him deep into the seedy underworld of boxing where he battles rivals and kills a man before deciding to steal his way out of the crime world, protecting the dignity he has left by committing to a better life.
Director/Writer Bio – Daniel D’Almonte Daniel D’Alimonte is a filmmaker from Toronto, Ontario and alum of the University of Toronto where he was selected for Don McKellar’s Universal Studios Canada Screenwriting program. He’s also a graduate of the prestigious Conservatory of Motion Pictures at the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts in California where he earned an M.F.A. in directing. His mentors included Tom Mankiewicz, Dezso Magyar and Academy Award winner David Ward. Daniel was the recipient of the Cecil B. De Mille Award given to a distinguished filmmaker voted by the conservatory’s film committee. He’s also the recipient of the Leo Freedman Outstanding Filmmaker Award for his thesis film THE HAYMAKER, which was voted best short film by audiences in both Sacramento and New York. He’s attended the Cannes Short Film Corner and competed in Academy-Qualifying festivals with THE HAYMAKER included the Bermuda International Film Festival and FLICKERS Rhode Island. Daniel was a script reader at RKO Pictures in Los Angeles before he returned to Toronto to attend the Director’s Lab at Norman Jewison’s Canadian Film Center where he’s developing the feature script for THE HAYMAKER.
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PRODUCERS’ LAB: Coming Soon
longline 25-year-old pushover Margo agrees to keep her boyfriend’s secret when he comes out as gay, sending them both on a journey of selfdiscovery and the exploration of love without sex.
synopsis Girl meets boy. They fall in love. Boy comes out. Welcome to your modern day romance. MARGO is a relationship comedy where love transcends sexuality, but not without a little drama; after all, a break up is a break up. When life turns on its heel, both Margo and Steve must make peace with their own demons, travel the road of self-discovery, and forgive each other to find the friendship and love that brought them together in the first place.
producer bio - jennifer shin Jennifer Shin is an emerging film producer with a sharp eye for talent and knack for pop culture and digital media. Starting off her career, she worked in digital media at the youth driven television station MuchMusic, where she first immersed herself into the world of entertainment. Transitioning into television, she quickly became the go-to talent producer/booker on some of Canada’s biggest entertainment television shows, everything from E! to The Hour/George Stroumboupolous Tonight to Canada’s Walk of Fame. Now, she is currently enrolled in the Canadian Film Centre’s Film Producer’s Lab where she is developing her feature film “MARGO” and her television series “STRUMPETS.”
key creative wendy heisler - writer
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LOGLINE A beautiful, charming, and playfully seductive woman hosts a dinner party for her old friends all of whom she shares an intimate past with. Tension and animosity run deep and then boil over once the long anticipated Vancouver earthquake strikes, forcing the group to spend the rest of the night surviving each other.
SYNOPSIS In this character driven relationship drama, Jennifer hosts a dinner party for her newly engaged friends Lilly and Shawn both of whom she shares a sexual past. Co‐hosting the evening is Denyai, Jennifer’s boyfriend. Jennifer once had a tumultuous but passionate relationship with Shawn and a wild tryst with Lilly. Denyai thinks this dinner party is a bad idea from the start, but Jennifer insists. Tensions run deep and come to a head when the long anticipated Vancouver earthquake strikes forcing the group to spend the rest of the night surviving each other.
PRODUCER BIO - Lyvia Cohen Lyvia developed and produced the award-winning short THE PARIS QUINTET IN PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT, which premiered at TIFF in 2011 and won Best Short Work at The Whistler Film Festival, most recently airing on Canal Plus in France. Lyvia produced the short film EMPTY SPACES (Edgemar ’11) directed by Dave Roncin. Lyvia has worked with producer Raymond Massey developing feature films aimed at the North American/Chinese markets. Lyvia is a graduate of the CFC’s Producers’ Lab, where she has been packaging her first feature film project as well as developing and writing an original television series.
Key Creatives: Writer: Haydn Wazelle
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Logline On the eve of her son’s wedding day, a single mother finally tells him the truth about who his father is, forcing her to reconcile the choices she made in her youthful past, which redefine not only her relationship with her son, but almost everyone else in her life.
Synopsis While preparing to travel to Nova Scotia for her only son’s wedding, Sandra, a fifty-year-old single mother, braces herself to confront the bittersweet memories and questionable decisions she made during the pivotal summer she spent there almost thirty years ago—the summer she got pregnant and decided to raise her son, Stephen, alone. When Stephen becomes relentless about connecting with his father, Sandra is forced to reveal the truth. He didn’t exactly leave them like Sandra had described. After stubbornly refusing to be a part of her son’s new relationship with his father, and later being exposed as the other woman in the relationship of a much younger man, she has to face reality. Not only that she might have made a mistake decades ago when she gave Stephen’s father, Carl, a “do-over” and decided to raise her son alone, but also that she has failed to become the adult parent her son needs her to be—that she needs herself to be. Instead of facing these harsh truths and moving on, Sandra runs away, feeling sorry for herself, as she always has. In this late coming-of-age story, Sandra is ready to attend the wedding when she finally accepts that it is up to her to make things right—to learn what it means to put herself second. Her journey to own up to her mistakes means she can’t let fear keep her from doing what she should have done years ago: grow up.
Producer Bio - Lauren Corber Lauren is a recent graduate of the Canadian Film Centre Cineplex Producer’s Lab. Prior to the Producer’s Lab, Lauren served as the Director of Legal Affairs at Breakthrough Entertainment where she was responsible for all legal aspects of the development, production and distribution of live action and animated television series and digital productions. Lauren has produced several short films and a music video. Her most recent endeavors include THE BALCONY AFFAIR, which premiered at the Locarno International Film Festival and SOCIETY SONG, a music video for Canadian singer/songwriter Sarah Slean.
Key Creatives: Elli Weisbaum – Director Stu Marks – Writer
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Longline A hopeless romantic raised in a strict Christian Caribbean home struggles to find love, swapping reality for fantasy as she navigates modern dating life.
Synopsis Lovely is a late bloomer and hopeless romantic who was raised in a strict Caribbean Christian home. She’s stuck between the unrealistic pressures of family expectations and the everyday messages of pop culture. When her childhood crush turned buddy, meets the girl of his dreams a dejected Lovely decides it’s time for a man of her own. Without a roadmap to navigate the labyrinth of modern day romance she uses her poetic imagination to evoke the spirit of Sarah Baartman “the Venus Hottentot” and creates an alter ego as she dives into the abyss of 21st century dating. Becoming a modern-day Goldilocks she tries out different lovers on her quest for the one that feels just right. Through a bittersweet comedy of errors she comes to define love, beauty and intimacy on her own terms.
Producer Bio - Ngozi Paul Ngozi Paul is a critically acclaimed and award winning Actress, Writer and Producer. She is celebrated for bringing underrepresented stories to wide audiences through a fresh and innovative perspective. Best known for playing the wide-eyed beauty, Starr in the hit series ‘da Kink in my Hair a series which Ngozi also co-created and Executive Produced. Founder of Ngozika Productions, which has produced several award winning series and television events. Ngozika has several exciting projects in development and is currently launching ‘THE 1ST TIME PROJECT’ a trans-media offering sharing first sexual experiences of women from around the globe as told through their own voice. Throughout her career, Ngozi has maintained a strong involvement in the community, committed to social change through the arts Ngozi is a board member of the Stephen Lewis Foundation Arts Fund and a Plan Canada Because I am a Girl Ambassador.
KEY CREATIVE Written by: Ngozi Paul and Margaret Lester
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LOGLINE An insomniac agrees to help the girl he loves win a sleep deprivation competition that quickly turns into a nightmare.
Synopsis A PhD student creates a sleep deprivation experiment that he believes will awaken dormant areas of the human mind. Nathan, an insomniac, agrees to join the experiment as a favour to his longtime crush. What they discover after staying awake longer than anyone ever has will defy the laws of science‌. but could end up costing them everything.
PRODUCER/WRITER Bio – JORDAN WALKER Jordan Walker has spent 12 years in the entertainment industry as an actor, writer and producer. In 1999, he co-founded Neophyte Productions with his sister, Leah Walker, to create compelling film and television for the global market. Neophyte recently completed production on its second feature, DEADWEIGHT, which Jordan produced and co-wrote. The film starts Sam Trammell (True Blood) and Josh Close (The Master) and will be released theatrically in 2013. Neophyte is also developing several original television series.
KEY CREATIVE Jordan Walker and Leah Walker - Writers
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WRITERS’ LAB: In Development
LOGLINE When his mother dies, JIMMY CONNELLY returns home and must confront his family who still blame him for the DUI manslaughter of his brother Colin.
SYNOPSIS JIMMY CONNELLY is a man who self medicates his depression with alcohol & OxyContin while working in the oil sands of Fort McMurray. When his mother dies he’s forced to return home to Windsor to deal with his family who still blame him for the DUI manslaughter of his brother Colin.
WRITER/DIRECTOR BIO - JOHN AINSLIE CFC alumni John Ainslie is a filmmaker whose writing slate includes the horror feature THE SUBLET & the action/drama COMING HOME, AGAIN (adaptation). John is set to shoot his micro-budget drama HELPLESS & is putting another polish on his feature drama BURDEN. John wrote the 2009 horror/comedy JACK BROOKS: MONSTER SLAYER (Anchor Bay). His screenplay was nominated for a Fangoria Chainsaw award and the film won Best Midnight Film at the prestigious Sitges International Film Festival.
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Logline Student journalist Deirdre Swain investigates the world of professional pickup artists as she struggles to lose her virginity.
Synopsis Deirdre Swain is the star reporter of her university newspaper with an embarrassing secret: she’s a 23 year old virgin. When her editor Harrison, Deirdre’s unrequited crush, forces her to investigate an underground club on campus devoted to picking up girls, Deirdre plunges into the world of professional pickup artists. But can she use their tactics to lose her virginity?
Writer Bio - Chandler Levack A Toronto native who has also lived in Montreal and New York, Chandler Levack holds a specialist in Cinema Studies from the University of Toronto. As a music and culture critic, she has written for The Village Voice, SPIN Magazine, The National Post and Toronto Life, amongst other publications. Her first script FELT UP concerns a student journalist investigating the professional pickup artist community in an attempt to lose her virginity, and is based on a feature article Chandler wrote in her third year of university. A graduate of the CFC Writers’ Lab, Chandler’s favourite filmmakers include Catherine Breillat and Cameron Crowe.
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A nerd is forced to use his video game knowledge in the real world after his game collection gets stolen by drug dealers in a misguided attempt to win back his girlfriend.
SEAN (24) is a nerd stuck in the past. Buying and selling retro video games with best friend DERRICK, their slacker lifestyle crumbles when their collection is stolen by drug dealers and Sean’s girlfriend ALICE leaves him over his all-consuming obsession. With a rag-tag team of unlikely heroes Sean puts his years of video game training to the test in a dangerous world, and ultimately must decide between a future with games or the girl.
John Titley is a screenwriter and producer currently working in Toronto, Canada. A graduate of the University of Manitoba, John has developed his craft working on low-budget features (SPOILED, HIGH SEAS) and producing over 130 commercials with broadcaster Citytv. An avid video gamer and collector, John is also working as script consultant for upcoming Apple iOS video game Clandestine: Anomaly.
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Logline An incarcerated young mother fights for her life and her child when trapped in a corrupt clinical trial.
Synopsis After giving birth in prison Simone Albriton is forced to give up her baby. Recruited for a clinical drug trial in exchange for early release she’s transferred to a lush medical facility. Simone’s health improves but the drugs unlock deep memories. Her mind spirals out of control. Discovering that her identity has been erased and she’s nothing but a guinea pig for the drug company it’s now up to Simone to save her own life.
Writer Bio - Margaret Lester Margaret Lester is a recent graduate of UCLA where she wrote a historical drama STEPIN FETCHIT, a 2012 Page Awards finalist. Her first novel The Cocktail Hours was shortlisted as a 2010 Amazon Breakthrough Novel of the Year (young adult). The novel follows her protagonist, Charlie Sommers, from aspiring actress, to waitress, to girl who isn’t sure if L.A.’s “size 0 tanorexic culture” is worth shooting for. Lester holds a B. Sc. from Northwestern University.
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Longline Todd, an overleveraged deal man caught in a downward spiral, conspires to bring in the score of a lifetime by usurping his tyrannical father’s ranchland estate.
Synopsis Todd Golding is an overleveraged real estate broker teetering on the edge of a mid-life crisis when a crucial deal blows up and he loses everything in a spectacular flame out. With nowhere left to turn he opts to go out in a booze-fueled blaze of glory, but is pulled from the brink by a call from his domineering father to return home to the ranch in rural Alberta where he was raised. Once back in the decrepit farmhouse he plots a return to glory by forcing his elderly but tyrannical father to develop his vast land holdings into a luxury resort, and will stop at nothing to get his way.
Writer / Director - Thelon Oeming Thelon is a writer and director and a graduate of the Canadian Film Centre, Sheridan College’s Advanced Film & TV program, and the playwriting program of The National Theatre School of Canada. His short films include NEXT MESSAGE, NIGHT SHIFT, ASYLUM, SAVIOUR, CONSENSUS, LAKEHOUSE, and THE RINK. Thelon has created and produced several award-winning docudramas for CBC Radio, and has been a member of the writing labs at Tarragon and Factory Theatres.
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