Canadian Crossing

The Filmmakers shows what Canadian female directors go through to make a film

"This is The Filmmakers: the place to watch the best Canadian films and meet the people who make them. We pull back the curtain taking you behind the scenes with candid conversations. This season, we're shining the spotlight on female filmmakers."

Johanna Schneller and Amanda Parris start out each episode of Season 2 of The Filmmakers on CBC with their own synopsis of the film before the director interview. Unlike in Season 1, 2 of the 3 segments are devoted to the director with only 1 for the panel.

Each director interview gets a "surprise" early in the second segment where the show plays a video from someone involved in the production.

At the end of each episode, the hosts offer up their take on a scene or element to watch for in the film.

The focus was on female filmmakers with veterans Mina Shum (Meditation Park), Patricia Rozema (Into the Forest), and Ann Marie Fleming (Window Horses). The secondary theme was on female filmmakers without much experience. Gabrielle was Louise Archambault's second full-length film.

The other female filmmakers were showcased with their full-length film debut: Alethea Arnaquq-Baril (Angry Inuk); Rebecca Addelman (Paper Year); Stella Meghie (Jean of the Joneses); as well as Sadaf Foroughi (Ava), who was scheduled but did not appear on the show.

CBC ran an episode featuring Mina Shum (Double Happiness) from Season 1 instead of the interview with Foroughi.

Season 2 of The Filmmakers showcases female Canadian film creators

The Filmmakers on CBC helps the audience to appreciate Canadian film

The Filmmakers to run before Canadian films this summer on CBC

The Film 101 segments from Season 1 were informative but interrupted the flow of the program. Having Johanna Schneller and Amanda Parris as hosting equals made for a smoother presentation. The emphasis on the director made sense for the female filmmakers, some of whom are still learning on the job.

Addelman, known mostly as a sitcom writer for shows such as New Girl, said she had to nominate her name to be director since she hadn't thought about directing the film she wrote.

Archambault was the only French-Canadian director on Season 2. Anne Émond, who directed Nuit #1; Our Loved Ones; and Nelly, would have been an outstanding choice.

Anne Wheeler and Alanis Obomsawin would have been easy choices for the list.

The filmmakers from Season 1 were celebrated for their long career in films. Season 2 had trouble celebrating filmmakers with not much experience. Having only 7 new episodes instead of the 10 from Season 1 was also a disappointment.

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

We are hoping for a Season 3 of The Filmmakers with many of the improvements and curious as to what the theme will be in the 2019 version. The Filmmakers is a great way for Canadians to appreciate the world of Canadian film.

photo credit: CBC/The Filmmakers

Film review: The Fireflies Are Gone

In The Fireflies are Gone, Léo (Karelle Tremblay) is stuck in Saguenay, Quebec. She wants to leave but she doesn’t know what she wants to do.

Léo has daddy issues on several levels. Her dad was a union organiser forced to leave town in part due to the man who is now her mother’s boyfriend, now a conservative radio talk-show host. She spends time with Steve (Pierre-Luc Brillant), her guitar teacher and an older man, who lives in his mother's basement, but is definitely not his girlfriend.

2018 TIFF Canadian film wrapup

2018 TIFF preview

2018 TIFF Canadian film preview

Sébastien Pilote brings us into a summer of angst for Léo. She doesn’t know what to do for a summer job, ending up with a job supervising the ball diamond. Léo doesn’t really spend time with girlfriends but also runs hot and cold with the men in her life. She learns a lot about men throughout the summer.

The pace of the film is slow and not much happens along the way. Watching Tremblay as Léo drift is surprisingly entertaining. Tremblay made a similar impact in Our Loved Ones from Anne Émond. Brillant, who you might remember from C.R.A.Z.Y., does a fine job in the complicated role of Steve.

CanadianCrossing.com film reviews

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

Saguenay looks nice in the summertime. The city is located near Lac-Saint-Jean about 200 kilometres (120 miles) north of Quebec City.

Even though the film is French-Canadian, the soundtrack is in English and includes songs from Canadian artists Rush and Arcade Fire.

The Fireflies are Gone won the Best Canadian Feature Film award at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival.

video credit: YouTube/TIFF Trailers
photo credit: The Fireflies are Gone film

Film review: Family First

Family first is an ideal philosophy but even that concept has its limits. The family in Family First (Chien de garde) tests those limits.

Uncle Dany runs a drug cartel and uses his nephews JP (Jean-Simon Leduc) and Vincent (Théodore Pellerin) as muscle. Their mother (Maude Guérin) is a recovering alcoholic.

JP lives in the family house with his brother and mother. His girlfriend (Claudel Laberge) is trying to get him to leave the house: think of her as Marilyn Munster, the only reasonably normal one.

JP is trying to better himself to become an electrician. The film watches him get closer and closer to making the decision to leave.

Chien de garde is Canada's Best Foreign Language Film entry

If you saw Théodore Pellerin in Never Steady, Never Still last year, Vincent is the opposite, a mashup of various -paths (psychopath, sociopath). Vincent doesn't have an off-switch. He headbutts people with little provocation. He is entirely inappropriate to women, especially his mother and brother's girlfriend. No one seems concerned or cares. Uncle Dany likes Vincent because he will be violent anytime, anywhere.

Vincent's redeeming quality, as such, is that he is loyal to the family. This includes threatening the brother's girlfriend if she takes him away from the house.

Writer-director Sophie Dupuis, in her full-length feature debut, runs into a few problems with this film.

• Xavier Dolan had a troubled teenager who was a terror in his film Mommy. Antoine-Olivier Pilon as Steve Després gave a multidimensional portrayal. Vincent comes across more as a cartoon character right down to his atypical haircut.
• From the moment the film starts, you can predict almost every action in the film. The lone exception is the level of creepiness Vincent can reach.
• The film could use some context, any context. Character depth is also highly limited. Dany is as evil and the mother is clueless as Vincent is without boundaries. Outside of JP, the other major characters feel 1-dimensional. This doesn't feel quite like a TV movie but does have many similar elements.

Vincent has Family First tattooed on his arms in English yet the film is in French, unless that is a way to remind viewers of the English-language title.

The characters exist in Verdun, a neighbourhood in the southwestern part of Montréal. We see bits of that in the early part of the picture. Other than a shot of downtown Montréal late in the film, we lose the sense of place.

CanadianCrossing.com film reviews

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

Pellerin's performance is the only reason to pay to see this film. The sad part is with a bit more dimension and a much better script, Pellerin's performance would shine brighter.

You might recognize Jean-Simon Leduc from last year's Et au pire, on se mariera from Léa Pool. Leduc conveys JP's anguish well over leaving a really bad situation.

Chien de garde received 8 Prix Iris nominations and won 3 awards, including Best Actress for Guérin and Revelation of the Year for Pellerin. The film is also Canada's nominee for the Best Foreign Language Film award at the Academy Awards on February 24. We should know in January whether this film made the Top 9 cut.

video credit: YouTube/Bandes Annonces Cinéma
image credit: Chien de Garde film

Video review: Cannibal Girls

Canada has a well-deserved reputation for excellence in horror films. We want to introduce you to a horror film that involves people you normally associate with comedy.

Cannibal Girls is an early work for director Ivan Reitman and stars soon-to-be SCTV veterans Eugene Levy and Andrea Martin. Martin also was in Black Christmas, a horror film directed by Bob Clark of Porky's fame.

Levy and Martin play a young couple — Clifford Sturges and Gloria Wellaby — taking a trip to a small town. They haven't known each other long. Cliff says he knew her 2 weeks; Gloria said they've known each other for a month. He wants to have sex with her on this trip; she isn't as eager to be that physical so soon.

Farnhamville, Ontario is a small town with some unusual characters. Then there are the cannibal girls who work in a restaurant recommended by the motel proprietor.

The young couple are led to believe that the saga of the cannibal girls is a long-ago story. That isn't the case as the young couple soon finds out.

Cannibal Girls has enough gore and blood for a horror film (for its time circa 1973) but also have a few twists along the way that it feels like a regular film that is a bit more scary than normal.

CanadianCrossing.com film reviews

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

The film celebrates being Canadian and has a feel similar to small towns in rural Ontario.

Reitman co-wrote the screenplay with his film partner Dan Goldberg. Reitman and Goldberg were also responsible for The Columbus of Sex, a film known mostly for the obscenity charges that was brought in Ontario.

Video review: Ginger Snaps

The film isn't as well-crafted as Black Christmas (1974), being a bit more raw. The plot is above-average for the genre. Seeing Levy and Martin trying not to be funny is fun to watch. Cannibal Girls is definitely a film to see in a class learning about how to make a film. Like our Ginger Snaps review from last Halloween, Cannibal Girls is a horror film that can be appreciated as a film by those who aren't too much into horror films.

video credit: YouTube/Media Graveyard
photo credit: Cannibal Girls

2018 Windsor International Film Festival preview

We criticized the 2017 Windsor International Film Festival for cutting back on Canadian films, going from 31 to 20. Well, the 2018 Windsor International Film Festival Canadian films list has 16 films. The 2016 version was above average in terms of Canadian film, but a film festival in Canada should celebrate Canadian film.

There are only 2 French-Canadian films. Deux!?

The number of documentaries has shrunk to 4, down from 9 in 2017.

Some of the major anticipated highlights from TIFF 2018 include the latest Thom Fitzgerald film Splinters. Splinters is the Canadian film at WIFF 2018 I am looking most forward to seeing. Other top choices would be Giant Little Ones, featuring American actors Kyle MacLachlan and Maria Bello, and The Grizzlies about the indigenous lacrosse team from director Miranda de Pencier.

I will see The Fireflies Are Gone in the Chicago festival. The winner of the TIFF 2018 Best Canadian Feature Film is half of the French-Canadian output along with 1991, the latest installment from Ricardo Trogi.

Documentaries of note include Anthropocene: The Human Epoch, the latest from Jennifer Baichwal; Unarmed Verses, winner of the Best Canadian Feature Documentary Award at Hot Docs 2017; Sharkwater: Extinction, the final film from the late Rob Stewart; and Transformer, the Audience Award winner from the Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival 2018.

2017 Windsor International Film Festival preview

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

The festival has scheduled a screening each for 2 films with local ties: current release The Control and Baby Blues (2008). They have scheduled both in the same time period so filmgoers will have to flip a coin.

Fans of horror films of various types will enjoy these Canadian titles: Level 16, Summer Of 84, and What Keeps You Alive.

The other documentary is Ferris’s Room, which tells the story of Toronto artist Sarah Keenlyside's recreation of the bedroom from the John Hughes film Ferris Bueller's Day Off. That would seem to be more about Chicago than Canada.

The other feature film is Roobha, a story of a South Asian romance between a middle-aged man and a trans woman.

Films in the festival with a Canada co-production credit are C'est La Vie, Just a Breath Away, and Love, Gilda.

The 2018 Windsor International Film Festival runs October 29-November 4.

photo credit: Windsor International Film Festival

Video review: Love and Human Remains

As we noted in our Stardom review, Denys Arcand directed 2 English-language films in between Jesus of Montréal and The Barbarian Invasions, Love and Human Remains was the first of those films.

Thomas Gibson, who also was in Stardom, plays David, a famous child actor who returns to Edmonton. The audience gathers things are bad when he says he makes more money as a waiter.

David, who is gay, and Candy (Ruth Marshall), David's heterosexual female roommate, are looking for love while a serial killer strikes their hometown of Edmonton. Candy debates about switching teams with Jerri (Joanne Vannicola) while David gets a much younger admirer Kane (Matthew Ferguson).

This film marked the cinematic debut of Mia Kirshner, who plays a dominatrix even though the actress was just 18. Her character Benita seems of a counsellor in the context of sex who seems wise beyond her years.

CanadianCrossing.com film reviews

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

There are a few Edmonton references thrown into the film, including Rose Bowl Pizza, gay bar Flashbacks, and the city's CFL team on TV within the film.

David acted on The Beavertons on the CBC. That should be a real show instead of a funny joke.

The love/sex/need for affection angles are much more enriching to the audience than the serial killer subplot. The subplot doesn't really add anything to the plot throughout most of the film. The reveal of the murderer is the element you will least likely remember a week after watching the film.

Video review: Stardom

Those looking for a typical Denys Arcand experience will struggle with the idea since Arcand didn't write this film: Brad Fraser wrote the screenplay based off his stage play Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love. No disrespect to Fraser, but films where Arcand writes and directs have more of his signatures within the film.

Still the characters are interesting and well-written. Arcand does well with the material at hand. For those fans of Arcand's French-Canadian work, seeing Stardom as well as Love and Human Remains adds missing chapters in a more thorough fashion than say Denis Villeneuve's recent English language titles.

video credit: YouTube/Films du Québec
photo credit: Love and Human Remains

Chien de garde is Canada's Best Foreign Language Film entry

Chien de garde will represent Canada in the category of Best Foreign Language Film for the 2019 Academy Awards. The Sophie Dupuis film is set in Montreal's working-class Verdun neighbourhood involving a young man in a family-run drug cartel. The film feature 2017 TIFF Rising Star Théodore Pellerin, who you might have seen in Never Steady, Never Still and the Xavier Dolan film Juste la fin du monde.

The title translates to watchdog, but the English title is Family First.

One obvious choice was yet another Denys Arcand film The Fall of the American Empire. Days of Darkness was the last Arcand film selected in the category. That film made the shortlist but not the Top 5 Oscars cut. Arcand is the only Canadian director to win the best foreign language film Oscar for The Barbarian Invasions.

Dupuis is the first female director since Louise Archambault (Gabrielle) to be nominated by Canada for this Oscars category. While Dupuis has directed 5 short films, this is her full-length feature debut.

2018 TIFF Canadian film wrapup

2018 TIFF preview

2018 TIFF Canadian film preview

2018 TIFF Rising Stars

Xavier Dolan is not giving up on Quebec for future films

Chien de garde has already played in Quebec and is on demand in the rest of Canada. The film won 3 Prix Inis awards for Quebec film. Maude Guérin won for Best Actress, Revelation of the Year went to Théodore Pellerin, and Dominique Fortin took home Best Editing.

I had a 12-year streak of seeing the Canadian entry for Best Foreign Language Film. Seeing Hochelaga, Land of Souls would extend that streak. Really don't want a 2-year losing streak.

Based from the trailer, the film looks excessively violent. Please don't hold your breath for imagining this film will likely make the Oscars shortlist based on the violence.

Countries shouldn't nominate films only in the hope of winning, but also should consider films that might have some hope for Oscars success.

CanadianCrossing.com film reviews

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

The 2019 Academy Awards will be held February 24.

video credit: YouTube/Bandes Annonces Cinéma
image credit: Chien de Garde film

Video review: Kissed

If Canada has a controversial film, Kissed would be that film. Let’s get the word out of the way before the review kicks into gear: necrophilia.

Yes, the film goes into the truly controversial topic. If you delve further into the film, you will see this is a story about more meaningful societal factors.

Sandra Larson knows she is different than other people because she is fascinated with death. She embraces the idea of what death feels like. She even dances in honour of the dead.

We see her as a young woman who has a solitary friend. Her friend even goes into the dance along with Sandra. And then Sandra crosses a line and the friendship ends.

You need a strong, young actress to play out the palette of emotions from the character. This was Molly Parker’s major breakthrough role and she masters this character as misunderstood with a secret she wants to keep secret. Her physicality displays awkwardness and grace, sometimes in the same glide of her walk.

Larson thinks she might have found someone she can trust in Matt. Matt is interested in her secret, perhaps a bit too interested. Larson explains to Matt that the experience is like “crossing over” in a way to understand death.

Peter Outerbridge is brilliantly cast in this also difficult role in trying to understand something society has told us has no explanation. You might remember Outerbridge for Better Than Chocolate in a very different role.

CanadianCrossing.com film reviews

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

Lynne Stopkewich co-wrote the screenplay based from the Barbara Gowdy short story and directed the film. Stopkewich doesn’t require the audience to understand why or what about Larson’s obsession. That approach helps the audience not pick sides in this battle. The treatment also allows the story to be about anything that is different, even an obsession over Canadian film.

We go on a lot about how Canadian film can handle a difficult subject with maturity. Kissed is a supreme example of this theory.

If the subject matter might throw you off, consider this film for outstanding acting, limited characters on screen so characters are fully developed, and how a mature theme can be handled in an independent film. If you like Molly Parker, you should see this film.

Kissed received 8 Genie nominations. Parker took home the award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role.

video credit: YouTube/Lakeshore Entertainment
photo credit: Kissed film

2018 TIFF Canadian film wrapup

The top Canadian film prizes for the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival went to a pair of quiet films.

The Best Canadian Feature Film went to The Fireflies Are Gone (La disparution des lucioles) from director Sébastien Pilote. This puts the film in strong contention for Canada's entry for Best Foreign Language Film that should be announced soon. Pilote once again takes us into rural Quebec. Karelle Tremblay stars in the film where she falls for an older guy in an small industrial town.

The Best Canadian First Feature Film went to Roads in February from director Katherine Jerkovic. While the film starts out in Montréal, the majority of the scenery is in Uruguay. Sarah (below) has just lost her father and visits her paternal grandmother in Uruguay.

"The only thing left to do now is learn from what people will see and say. I've come to a point where I need to share the film with the world." — Xavier Dolan on letting people see The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, which debuted last week at 2018 TIFF.

There will be no spoilers. The film has made its world premiere. Hopefully, I will see the film in Windsor and hoping for a halfway decent U.S. run.

Natalie Portman and Thandie Newton are both featured in the Xavier Dolan film The Death and Life of John F. Donovan. Portman and Newton were both interviewed by Tom Power on Q. Newton's interview covered a few topics including the Dolan film. The Portman interview talked about Vox Lux, but not the Dolan film. We know that happens sometimes: Ellen Page had 3 films in the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival. But Q could have mentioned the Dolan film in that interview even at the end.

2018 TIFF preview

2018 TIFF Canadian film preview

2018 TIFF Rising Stars

Xavier Dolan is not giving up on Quebec for future films

Jerkovic was part of the 35% of filmmakers at TIFF 2018 who are female. TIFF has a goal of 50/50 for female filmmakers by 2020.

Geena Davis suggested the problem of onscreen inequality should start with kids content. Davis spoke at a Time's Up rally during TIFF's Share Her Journey. "Onscreen representation is the most urgent — why are we training kids to have unconscious gender bias at an early age, when we know it's so hard to get rid of?"

Davis was in Don't Talk to Irene, a Canadian film that played at TIFF 2017.

CanadianCrossing.com film reviews

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

Drake normally represents Toronto on a massive scale but cancelled at the last minute for the opening night premiere of Monsters and Men, for which Drake is an executive producer.

Some films that aren't Canadian have some Canadian roots. A good example is The Sisters Brothers based on the novel from Canadian author Patrick deWitt.

TIFF Rising Stars

We profiled the 2018 class of TIFF Rising Stars here. Here is the list from all the years.

2011 Sarah Allen, Katie Boland, Sarah Gadon, Keon Mohajeri

2012 Tatiana Maslany, Connor Jessup, Charlotte Sullivan, Charlie Carrick

2013 Megan Park, Johnathan Sousa, Evelyne Brochu, Cara Gee

2014 Shannon Kook, Sophie Desmarais, Alexandre Landry, Julia Sarah Stone

2015 Deragh Campbell, Stephan James, Aliocha Schneider, Karelle Tremblay

2016 Jared Abrahamson, Grace Glowicki, Mylène Mackay, Sophie Nélisse

2017 Daniel Doheny, Mary Galloway, Théodore Pellerin, Ellen Wong

2018 Devery Jacobs, Lamar Johnson, Michaela Kurimsky, Jess Salgueiro

Best Canadian Feature Film

I have seen a few of these films, including Closet Monster.

Best Canadian Feature Film
Year	Film	Director
2018	The Fireflies Are Gone	Sebastien Pilote
2017	Les Affamés	Robin Aubert
2016	Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves	Mathieu Denis, Simon Lavoie
2015	Closet Monster	Stephen Dunn
2014	Felix and Meira	Maxime Giroux
2013	When Jews Were Funny	Alan Zweig
2012	Laurence Anyways	Xavier Dolan
2011	Monsieur Lazhar	Philippe Falardeau
2010	Incendies	Denis Villeneuve
2009	Cairo Time	Ruba Nadda
2008	Lost Song	Rodrigue Jean
2007	My Winnipeg	Guy Maddin
2006	Manufactured Landscapes	Jennifer Baichwal
2005	C.R.A.Z.Y.	Jean-Marc Vallée
2004	It's All Gone Pete Tong	Michael Dowse
2003	Les Invasions Barbares	Denys Arcand
2002	Spider	David Cronenberg
2001	Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner)	Zacharias Kunuk
2000	Waydowntown	Gary Burns
1999	The Five Senses	Jeremy Podeswa
1998	Nô	Robert Lepage
1997	The Sweet Hereafter	Atom Egoyan
	The Hanging Garden	Thom Fitzgerald
1996	Long's Day Journey Into The Night	David Wellington
1995	Live Bait	Bruce Sweeney
1994	Exotica	Atom Egoyan
1993	Kanehsatake: 270 Years Of Resistance	Alanis Obomsawin
1992	Requiem Pour Un Beau Sans-Coeur	Robert Morin
1991	The Adjuster	Atom Egoyan
1990	H	Darrell Wasyk
1989	Roadkill	Bruce McDonald
1988	The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick	Allan Goldstein
1987	Family Viewing	Atom Egoyan
1986	Le Déclin De L'empire Américain	Denys Arcand
1985	Canada's Sweetheart: The Saga Of Hal C. Banks	Donald Brittain
1984	La Femme De L'hôtel	Léa Pool
Best Canadian Feature Film (1991-present); Excellence in Canadian Production (1984-1990).

 

Best Canadian First Feature Film

Haven't seen too many of these films: exceptions being Sleeping Giant, Marion Bridge, and Last Night. Finally saw Old Stone. Some of those titles are quite enticing.

Best Canadian First Feature Film
Year	Film	Director
2018	Roads in February	Katherine Jerkovic
2017	Luk' Luk'l	Wayne Wapeemukwa
2016	Old Stone	Johnny Ma
2015	Sleeping Giant	Andrew Cividino
2014	Bang Bang Baby	Jeffrey St. Jules
2013	Asphalt Watches	Shayne Ehman, Seth Scriver
2012	Antiviral	Brandon Cronenberg
	Blackbird	Jason Buxton
2011	Edwin Boyd	Nathan Morlando
2010	The High Cost of Living	Deborah Chow
2009	The Wild Hunt	Alexandre Franchi
2008	Before Tomorrow	Marie-Hélène Cousineau
		Madeline Piujuq Ivalu
2007	Un Film Sans Fusil Continental	Stéphane Lafleur
2006	Sur La Trace D'igor Rizzi	Nöel Mitrani
2005	The Life And Hard Times Of Guy Terrifico	Louise Archambault, Michael Mabbott
2004	La Peau Blanche	Daniel Roby
2003	Love, Sex and Eating The Bones	Sudz Sutherland
2002	Marion Bridge	Wiebke Von Carolsfeld
2001	Inertia	Sean Garrity
2000	La Moitié Gauche Du Frigo	Philippe Falardeau
1999	Just Watch Me:	Catherine Annau
	Trudeau and The 70's Generation
1998	Last Night	Don McKellar
1997	Cube Vincenzo	Natali
As determined by the Toronto International Film Festival.

video credit: YouTube/TIFF Trailers
photo credit: TIFF

A Canadian film idea to showcase female Canadian acting talent

The Toronto International Film Festival is a good time to talk about future films as well as showcase the current crop of films. In the spirit of Crazy Rich Asians and Black Panther, we offer the following film proposal designed to highlight the amazing female talent in Canada.

This film has a bit of The Expendables (huge cast) and Ocean’s 8 (female-dominant cast) except they are on a peacekeeping mission (because they’re Canadians).

Like Bon Cop, Bad Cop, this film will freely mix English and French with a requirement that anglophone cast members be ready to speak a little French in the film.

The ringleaders should be played by Tatiana Maslany and Evelyne Brochu. They have previous chemistry in Orphan Black and represent the English and French that will dominate this film.

There will be larger and smaller roles for the team members. Even a small part is crucial to spotlight as much young female Canadian talent. Here are some of the names we would like to see in contention for the primary team members:

Ellen Page, Sarah Gadon, Charlotte Sullivan, Cara Gee, Julia Sarah Stone, Karelle Tremblay, Mylène Mackay, Sophie Nélisse, Ellen Wong, Emily Hampshire, Ksenia Solo, Andrea Bang, Karine Vanasse, Tattiawna Jones, Cobie Smulders, Amybeth McNulty, Samantha Wan, Tricia Helfer, Alison Pill, Jessica Pare, Caroline Dhavernas, Sarah Polley, Elyse Levesque, Annie Murphy, Rachel McAdams, Susan Kent, Rachelle Lefevre, Nazneen Contractor, Sonja Bennett, Dani Kind, Sandrine Holt, Sarah Podemski, and Mia Kirshner.

Some of these actresses may not be able to put that much time into this film due to their day jobs. We can work within their schedules, even if they are working on the film for only a day.

The film should have some scenarios where people have worked together such as Pill and Wong with Scott Pilgrim Saves the World or Vanasse and Brochu with Polytechnique.

There will be scenes with “older” veteran peacekeepers. Contenders for these roles will include Grace Park, Jennifer Podemski, Pascale Bussières, Liane Balaban, Molly Parker, Marie-Josée Croze, Jill Hennessy, Suzanne Clement, Sandra Oh, Neve Campbell, and Anne Dorval.

We could have a powerhouse ultimate “senior” person, someone such as Genevieve Bujold, Sheila McCarthy, Catherine O’Hara, Caroline Rhea, Tantoo Cardinal, Patricia Rozema, or Margaret Atwood. We should consider Atwood and Rozema for cameos if they aren’t picked for this role.

The plot will be how well these women work together to provide peacekeeping for a crucial country in the world where the Canadian presence will improve their existence. Ideally, this would be a country where French would come in handy or be understood in this region.

While peacekeeping missions can be dangerous, we should not see any of the team members firing a weapon. They can be shot at, but hopefully none of them will die, unless dying would improve the film.

The action should be focused around camaraderie, lifting up rather than tearing down.

As for possible nudity, there shouldn’t be any. But having a scene where they almost get naked but laugh it off as not wanting to be sexist would be helpful for the spirit of the film. They can be encouraged to remove their bras though not on camera.

The actresses should be encouraged to expand their characters to give as much background as the plot will allow. They should also explore their actual Canadian backgrounds and talk more about where they are actually from. For example, Maslany’s character could be from Regina and Page’s character could be from Halifax. We might need an exception if an area of Canada is underrepresented (is anyone famous from New Brunswick?). There should be good-natured teasing about where people are from but make sure the jokes are even and not insult comedy. Bon Cop, Bad Cop sets a good tone as an example.

The title could be as simple as The Peacekeepers.

Writer(s) and the director should be female. Look to the production of Alias Grace as inspiration. Most of the scenes should pass the Bechdel test. The test could be referenced as a feminist insight.

If this project does get off the ground, I would like credit for the idea, a producer credit, and tickets for the opening night premiere of the film, especially if the film debuts at the Toronto International Film Festival.

photo credit: Orphan Black