11 minute read
MOVIES
MOVIES Mosleh’s “Breakthrough” takes a startling turn
by Charlie Smith
Advertisement
Vancouver filmmaker and producer Panta Mosleh decided to create a movie in 48 hours for a simple reason: she wanted to add a thriller to her directing reel.
The Run N Gun 2021 48-hour film competition was accepting submissions earlier this year. So Mosleh and some of her long-time collaborators, including cinematographer Jay Kamal, decided to go for it.
They created a short film, “Breakthrough”, which opens with a harrowing scene augmented by sinister music, sharp editing, and close-ups that convey the agony of two people being held captive.
Moments later, these prisoners are seen laying flat on a descending open platform, yelling for their lives at their captors. As this unfolds, a woman in charge casually walks down a staircase observing them.
“We found an excellent studio in Langley, thanks to our production designer Shawn Major,” Mosleh told the Straight by phone on July 9. “As we walked in the location, I saw that staircase and the lift [platform] and I fell in love with it.”
The men are thrown into prison cells and locked to the wall.
“Breakthrough” was one of the five finalists for best film in the Run N Gun competition, which was won by “Shit Sponge”. The three other finalists were “Netmare”, “Rule of Nine”, and “The Better Forever”, which won the audience-choice award.
“Breakthrough” is not a run-of-the-mill thriller, not by any means. That’s because under the rules of the 48-hour competition, each filmmaker had to incorporate certain elements in their production, which could not last longer than four minutes. These prompts were delivered at the start of filming.
“We didn’t know what the script was going to be,” Mosleh conceded. “The prompts might have even ruined our premise idea.”
One of them required the use of tape, whether it was a cassette, adhesive tape, police tape, etcetera. That worked for a hostage drama. But Mosleh described another prompt as a “curveball” because it required that the film address the theme of the “greater good”.
“We were [saying], ‘How is a hostage situation going to work for the greater good?’” Mosleh recalled.
Fortunately for Mosleh, one of the executive producers, David Aboussafy, is a psychologist with a PhD. A quote from a study he had written about BDSM came in extremely handy.
“It’s a nice little surprise,” Mosleh said. “I like to throw in little surprises for people when I direct films... It was lovely how it worked out.”
Mosleh credited the sponsors, including Sim Camera Vancouver, which provided hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of camera gear for free. MBS Equipment Co. donated the use of technical gear that she said were worth tens of thousands of dollars. She also thanked Caveman Café, Circus Technologies Inc., and Canada Wide Communications for their support.
Mosleh, an LGBT+ Persian Canadian director-writeractor-producer, ensures there’s as much diversity behind the camera as there is on-screen in her films, and “Breakthrough” is no exception.
Vancouver actor Mostafa Shaker, who stars as Ali, was also an executive producer and cocreated the story with Mosleh and Ian Frayne.
Amira Anderson, a Black actor, plays Taylor, the woman in charge. She received a credit for cowriting the script with Carolyn Woolner. Major, the production designer, was cast as the hostage named Jay. Two other actors, Donia Kash and Moheb Jindran, play captors in “Breakthrough”.
So is it possible that “Breakthrough” could one day be expanded into a feature or a series? “It could be an interesting topic to explore,” Mosleh replied. g
Ali (Mostafa Shaker) doesn’t know what will happen when he enters a cell with Dominiq (Donia Kash) in “Breakthrough”.
– director Panta Mosleh
“Shit Sponge” cleans up at Run N Gun competition
by Charlie Smith
Ashort film about a female rapper with a history of substance abuse took three top honours in Vancouver’s Run N Gun film competition on July 10.
The judges declared “Shit Sponge” the best film at a raucous awards ceremony at the Rio Theatre.
Brianne Nord-Stewart won best director for her depiction of a hotel desk clerk’s visit to the room of a burned-out star, played by Arghavan Jenati (“Faryad”, “Running Behind”, Arrow). Jenati won for best solo performance.
Run N Gun’s awards ceremony is more profane and outrageous—and low budget—than what people are used to at other entertainment-awards events.
After some people complained on the YouTube livestream about the sound disappearing for a short while, Run N Gun’s Joel McCarthy jokingly directed a stream of expletives at them. And after the best film was announced, McCarthy gave director Nord-Stewart a cannabis plant. That was in addition to her other prizes, which included a $1,000 cash award for best film and $200 for best director.
“Is it legal to give out a pot plant as an award?” McCarthy asked. “I don’t fucking know.”
Nord-Stewart confessed that she’s never owned a pot plant before. She also volunteered that making “Shit Sponge” was the best weekend that she’s had in the past 18 months.
The audience choice for best film was “The Better Forever”, with second place going to “Untouched” and third place to “Netmare”.
The audience-choice award was named in honour of film, TV, and voice actor Bruce Blain. A previous winner of the audience-choice award for “Mad Santa”, Blain died on May 15.
As he talked about Blain, McCarthy expressed real remorse and sadness, marking a departure from his outrageous banter from the stage with cohost Sasha Duncan, who threw a few F-bombs herself.
This year, there was a record 100 entries in Run N Gun, which requires filmmakers to create their short (four minutes or less) movies within a 48-hour period while following specific rules.
Every filmmaker had to include tape (and it could be a cassette) and a specific line, plus it had to have a theme to “serve the greater good”.
In addition, they were prohibited from mentioning COVID, vaccines, quarantining, or unoriginal jokes about 5G. Directors received these prompts at the start of filming.
Other winners at this year’s Run N Gun included Belen Garcia (“Marsha’s Knitting Club”) for best cinematography, Robert Phaneuf (“Netmare”) for best sound design, “Rule of Nine” for best ensemble and best writing, “Departed 2” for best editing, Alexander J. Baxter (“Untouched”) for best production design, “Marsha’s Knitting Club” for best makeup, and “Gig-Nickle” for best student film. g
Arghavan Jenati won the Run N Gun award for best solo performance in Vancouver’s 48-hour film contest for playing a burned-out rapper in director Brianne Nord-Stewart’s “Shit Sponge”.
MUSIC Shred Kelly helps put Fernie on the musical map
by Steve Newton
You can learn a lot about Shred Kelly from the band’s music videos.
A good starting point is the clip for “Take Me Home”, an upbeat track off the band’s latest album, Like a Rising Sun. It’s set entirely on the front porch of frontman Tim Newton’s home in the small ski town of Fernie, B.C., and timelapse photography depicts him hanging out and jamming with band members—including his wife, Shred Kelly singer-keyboardist Sage McBride, with whom he’s shown dancing and romancing in the dark.
The days and months pass, and before long their wee daughter, Mercy, shows up. She was actually born right when Shred Kelly started recording the album.
“We put this record out during the pandemic,” Newton says on the line from that clip’s cozy-looking abode, “so we decided to shoot kind of a simple video that didn’t require a big crew and all that. We came up with the concept of a time-lapse ‘life is racing by’ kinda thing, like the lyrics suggest. I’m the main character, with my wife, Sage, and we’re sort of in and out of all these daily life situations.”
One thing you definitely pick up from Shred Kelly’s videos is that the members don’t take themselves too seriously. That’s abundantly clear by the wacky clip for another new track, “Roman Candle Eyes”, which sees them running around Fernie in all manner of crazy costumes, with all types of nutty props.
“The song is, literally, about the moment my daughter was born,” Newton says, “and looking into her eyes for the first time and having this explosive revelation of what life is and the love for this child. So I went, ‘Why don’t we start the video off like that?’ I’m in the delivery room and I faint and I’m cast into this crazy dream world that is really fun.”
Making Shred Kelly music videos isn’t all fun ’n’ games and goofiness, though. It can require a lot of time and work, too, as seen in the older clip for “Sing to the Night”. Filmed at the Fernie Alpine Resort, it starts off with Newton strolling along a snowy path with his ski boots on before stepping into a pair of skis and setting off down a hill, where he’s joined by other skiers soaring off ramps and various limber folks twirling hula hoops and performing cartwheels.
All the nifty videos in the world wouldn’t amount to much if there wasn’t some worthy music involved as well, and Shred Kelly has that covered. Their energetic, banjo-driven folk rock has has taken them to Europe and Australia. Like a Rising Sun is the band’s fifth album in its 12-year existence.
“Normally, I’ve been writing songs sort of inspired by different things around my life here in Fernie, but on this record I had all kinds of explosive life events happen to me all at once,” Newton explains. “My daughter was born in March and then my father passed away in April, so within a month that all happened, right when we starting the writing process of this record.
“So this is probably the most honest songwriting that I’ve ever done, and I just mean honest in that I had a clear direction of what my emotions were and what I needed to write about.”
Shred Kelly includes guitarist Ty West, bassist Ric Behan, and drummer Ryan Mildenberger, and the quintet’s music brings to mind Spirit of the West, though perhaps a little less Celtic and a lot more poppy.
“That’s a compliment,” Newton says, “thank you. And it’s funny you say that, because Spirit of the West were honoured at the BreakOut West [music festival and conference] a couple of years ago, and we were invited to actually cover ‘Home for a Rest’ at the award ceremony. So we got to play that very iconic song in front of the band, and I didn’t even know the band was gonna be there. It was one of my career highlights, for sure.” g
Tim Newton (second from right) finds inspiration for Shred Kelly’s music videos in the day-today happenings of his life in Fernie with his wife, Sage McBride (centre). Photo by Matt Kuhn.
Artistic director Michelle Demers Shaevitz seeks out talent that is part of the Canadian canon. Photo by Malory Larson.
– Tim Newton
Shred Kelly performs as part of the Mission Folk Music Festival, which runs online from July 23 to 25.
Shaevitz brings necessary voices to Mission fest
by Steve Newton
Artistic director Michelle Demers Shaevitz goes way back with the Mission Folk Music Festival. She actually started volunteering for the annual event in 1991, the year she graduated from high school.
“I started handing out volunteer tags that first year,” she says by phone while on a family trip in Washington state. “And after that, they let me drive the performer van.”
When artistic director Francis Xavier Edwards retired in 2016, she stepped into a general-manager role before being named artistic director in 2017. She says that she learned a thing or two working under Edwards.
“He really went out into the world and sought out interesting and innovative voices,” Shaevitz says. “So bringing in groups like Mariza, the [Portuguese] fado singer, and someone like Thomas Mapfuno—I mean, he really shaped my musical education and imparted my love of world music.
“But he also modelled deep respect for the artists,” she adds, “so that’s one of the reasons that in my programming I always make sure to include artists that are part of our Canadian canon, artists that maybe aren’t top of the charts but have depth and breadth and are necessary voices.”
The Mission Folk Music Festival is normally held at Fraser River Heritage Park, but, as was the case in 2020, this year’s event is an online production. Performances by 15 acts—from blues to bluegrass and indie folk to Afro-flamenco—will be streamed from July 23 to 25. When asked which of the artists she has booked she is most psyched about seeing, Shaevitz equates it to a mother being asked to pick her favourite kid. But she comes up with some choices anyway.
“I’ve been really wanting to program [Indigenous singersongwriter] Leela Gilday over the last three or four years,” she points out. “I think that the perspective that she brings to her work and the depth to her songwriting really transports the audience to a particular place and time, and I really like that.
“And Talisk, from Scotland, I had the privilege of seeing them at Celtic Colours [music festival] in Cape Breton, and they are these young, dynamic, innovative players. They have a fiddler, guitarist, and concertina player, and together they play trad music, but they do so in a way that is really exciting.”
Another festival event Shaevitz is thrilled about is the Sunday night “Fathers and Sons” show, which will see Canadian folk- and roots-rock veteran Barney Bentall performing with his son Dustin Bentall, and Blue Rodeo’s Jim Cuddy performing with his kids Devin Cuddy and Sam Polley. “That’s a project that has been my secret bucket-list project for about five years now,” she reveals. g
