News & Events

And the Winners Are... Spring 2008 Competition

After much deliberation the jury has decided on the following writers and projects for our upcoming Spring 2008 Workshops to be held in Vancouver in February.

The five finalists are:

• Brand High by JoAnne Bennison, Roberts Creek, BC
• Jacob by Cal Garingan, Vancouver, BC
• Native Sons by Simon Bradbury and Brent Stait, Vancouver, BC
• The Pooja Project by L.A. Tomin, Vancouver, BC
• Skin to Skin by Marlene Rodgers and Ines Buchli, Vancouver, BC

Please see below for more information on our finalists and their scripts.

The following projects made the jury's shortlist and will be each awarded a detailed Praxis Reader's Report:

• Capital Murder by Chris Britton, Vancouver, BC
• The Dancing Morris by Tyler Mitchell, Vancouver, BC
• To Earn a Home by Joanne Wannan, Vancouver, BC
• Down 2 Earth by Teri Armitage, Saskatoon, SK

The jury also had an honorable mention listing for the following screenplays:

• Fanclub by Alexis Hillier, Edmonton, AB
• Going West by Michael Mew, Vancouver, BC
• Light Land Love by David Margolis, Vancouver, BC

Spring 2008 Finalists...

  

Bio
JoAnne Bennison is journalist-turned-soccer mom raising two daughters and champion black-standard poodles with her pollster husband in the Gumboot Nation of Roberts Creek on BC's Sunshine Coast.  A ten-year career in journalism included stints as a radio talk show host/reporter, TV anchor and producer, newspaper editor and magazine writer for radio and television stations, newspapers and magazines across western Canada.

Synopsis - "Brand High"
A rebellious teen, Lilly, suspects students at her new school are being used as lab rats in a personality branding experiment..... unaware that she is the prototype for a new Rebel Brand.

Cronos Inc. is a Big Brother for the new millennium, turning its cameras and technology on its unsuspecting employees and their children to market test the new All-Inclusive Lifestyle Brands. Free-spirited Lilly is horrified to discover her mother has designed a behavior-modification implant for troublesome teens. She suspects it may have played a role in her brother's death, and fears she may have the same chip embedded in her brain.

Inspiration for "Brand High"
Brand High is my perfect storm of pet peeves: brand worship run amok, rampant consumerism with its slavish devotion to fad and fashion.....the loss of individuality in the melting pot of an image-obsessed culture ..... and the insidious creep of technology into our daily lives.

Corporations are the new Big Brother - using technology and computers to track our every move.. They know where we shop, what we buy, our favourite music and movies and websites...... They're building databases and computer profiles designed to pitch us products and services we didn't even know we wanted.

Welcome to Brand High, where brand worship has been elevated to an art form, and the consumer is now the product! If you can brand it, they can sell it!

Try the Paris Trendsetter Brand - complete with haute couture, plastic surgery, and a designer Chihuahua.... a Barack or Hillary Power brand for the up-and-coming politician (Roving Bill is optional). On a budget? Check out a generic All-Star Brand for your budding Beckham.

Brand High is the story of a non-conformist trapped in a branded world, a free-spirit struggling to stay true to herself in the face of crushing conformity.  It's dedicated to my daughters, Clare and Elisabeth, the inspiration for my strong-willed and fiercely-independent heroine Lilly. A Dona Quixote for the new millennium.

Bio
Cal Garingan has an undergraduate degree in Psychology from UBC and an MFA in Film and TV Production from Chapman University, where he wrote, directed and produced several film projects, including the award-winning “Out on a Holiday.”  In 2005, Cal completed the NFB documentary “Why Thee Wed,” on BC’s historic same-sex marriage case, which has since been aired on Knowledge Network and sold to broadcasters in Europe.  Cal’s script “The Lake Story” was a finalist for the MPPIA Short Film Award, while his other script “Waiting for Goliath” won the Citytv/Out on Screen writing competition.  Whenever Cal is not counting animated sheep in his sleep, he spices up his life by making a mean butter chicken and dancing an even meaner chilly cha-cha.

Synopsis - "Jacob"
JACOB is about a psychopath who learns that the best way to be “just like everybody else” is by becoming his victims and taking their lives.

This is the story of a young man named Jacob who is everything anyone can ask for in a neighbour.  When Loring’s mentally confused father suddenly goes missing, Jacob offers hope and joins the search.  When Nan is acquitted for murdering her husband but ostracized by the entire neighbourhood, Jacob is there to welcome her with open arms.  Even his girlfriend, Vivian, thinks he’s the best thing in bed since the discovery of the electric blanket.  But as most appearances go, nothing is farther from the truth.  For truth is the secret Jacob keeps closest to his cold-blooded heart.  As evolution would have it, to stick out and not blend in is a criminal act of nature.  And for Jacob, getting caught is not a crime he’s ready to commit.

Inspiration for "Jacob"
I like writing complex characters.  We get to see their world through our eyes; and each word, each glance from them reveals a different expression of our humanity.  Writing “Jacob” also means going back to my early days as a writer.  My first screenplay was a suspense-thriller.  Since then, I’ve written some drama, some comedy, even a little bit of romance.  It’s like visiting a place you’ve been to before but seeing it through a different set of eyes.  Inasmuch as you know where to go, there are some surprises along the way.

Bio
Simon Bradbury has been an actor for twenty-eight years and has been writing for twenty.  He is the author of four stage plays and two screenplays: "Screwed, Blued and Tattooed", Factory Threatre, 1990; "True Patriot", Canadian Stage Workshop", 1991; "The Prodigal", Shaw Festival, 1998; "Chaplin", Shaw Festival, Courthouse, 2002.

Mr. Bradbury has written numerous articles and was a major contributor to Front Row, an arts column in the St. Catharines Standard, 2000-2001.

He has acted in major theatres across Canada, the US and the UK.  He has also taught acting in universities across Southern Ontario.  He has lived in British Columbia for three years.

Synopsis for "Native Sons"
A white ex-con kidnaps his murder victim's son to return the troubled boy to is estranged family.

Wayne Commodore (aka Pallet), an abandoned white child rasied by an aboriginal family, always had a troubled relationship with his foster brother Jimmy.  Jimmy, an anti-social thug, terrorized everyone in the native community including his younger aboriginal brother Isaac, a delicate boy very close to Pallet.  Pallet became Issac's portector.  It came as no surprise to the family when as adults, this fractious relationship ended in the death of Jimmy at Pallets hand.  Now, however, after fourteen years in jail and the forgiveness of his adopted native family, Pallet still faces some deep personal challenges.

Inspiration for "Native Sons"
What appealed to both of us about this story was the rootlessness in both of the main characters. The idea of a white man immersed in a First Nations environment and a First Nations child immersed in a European one is something we could identify with. Europeans are all exiles forced to find belonging in an environment that many believe they have no place in. First Nations are forced to reconfigure their beliefs within a dominant culture that has little or no understanding of those beliefs. The story is a metaphor for the turbulent history of North America; one of its essential myths.
 
The challenge to weave an inspirational story within such drama without being cloying was considerable. We are not sociologists but storytellers. So, a murderer attempting to help his murder victim’s son is a story that we both found completely compelling. It is a story of redemption personal to us and recognizable to others. We wanted to show how these two disparate people, a white man and a native boy hurled into one another’s company, discover a sense of belonging that inspire them to heal and move on. They and us also needed to have a few laughs on the way. So, there is more than a dose of the farcical in this tragicomic story. Humour was essential to the telling of it. 

Bio
L.A. Tomin was part of the avant-garde scene of post-wall Berlin in the early 90s, working in both film and music following her studies at the London International Film School. Tomin, who began writing and directing shorts on 16mm, chose writing as her focus. Her first screenplay, Deliah’s Light, was optioned with Opal Film GmbH. In 1999 Tomin returned to academia and specialized in literature at the University of Toronto. She then left Toronto, the city of her birth, to write, teach and travel in India for 3 years. In 2007 Tomin moved back to Canada where she resides on Vancouver Island with her family.

Synopsis - "The Pooja Project"
Relocation to India fails to repair Linda and Ian’s marriage. The bickering chill of their discord is pronounced against the sensual smorgasbord and heat of India. Yet, it is Pooja, an innocent beauty of fifteen from a poor nearby village, who ushers in warmth and calm as a nanny to her son. An unlikely female friendship blossoms.

The bond between the two women is skewed, however. Linda becomes the incarnation of Western benevolence, and Pooja the graceful recipient of her blinkered visions. Dating, women’s rights and mango sex, become part of Linda’s attempts to “liberate” Pooja.

But peace breaks when Pooja’s mother dies in poverty. Necessary lies, which once cloaked their lives for survival, now surface. Unveiled, Pooja, a tribal caste whose abused mother had divorced, stands little chance for a decent arranged marriage. She is destitute.

Linda consents to help but condemns the rigid and complex Indian codes that seem to imprison Pooja. She urges Pooja to consider a more progressive prospect in Canada. On the Internet she markets Pooja as a niche bride, secures a rushed proposal, and departs.

In Toronto, Pooja fails to flourish. Mired in a new kind of poverty with an abusive husband, she seeks Linda’s help. But Linda denies the burden of responsibility and has hit the nadir of her own life. Sadly, they drift apart on their solitary seas of turmoil. Then domestic tragedy strikes Pooja, and she must overcome alone.

One night, on the Queen St. streetcar, Linda recognizes Pooja as she disembarks onto the dark snowy street. Snowflakes melt as they hit Pooja’s warm face through the closed doors. The streetcar lunges forward and Linda rings the bell in a frantic rush of shame. She runs after Pooja, shuffling ahead. Now, more than ever, she needs Pooja’s charity.

Inspiration for "The Pooja Project"
The Pooja Project is really a story that evolved after I was asked to find a husband for a rural girl, much like Pooja. It was a serious request from a girl whom I loved and it got me thinking: what would happen if this request fell into the hands of a Western do-gooder? Someone who elevated her own culture over another, yet someone who recognized the imprisoning fate of a young woman in rural India?

From this musing Linda—and a whole plethora of characters and situations—evolved over 5 years. The Pooja Project is a fictional work, of course, for I was never involved in a matchmaking drama. But the increased trafficking women on the global market remain a reality for many women: like Pooja, they move from one marginalized and vulnerable situation to another. Studies conducted by the Status of Women in Canada provide ample evidence for these global phenomena of Live-In Caregivers and Mail-Order Brides.

There are many other issues that have inspired parts of the story: India and time, ideal womanhood, neocolonialism, what constitutes the perfect marriage, etc. But ultimately it is about a girl who possesses a fragile internal beauty that seems to me to be increasingly rare in this rapidly changing world.

Bio - Ines Buchli
Ines has over twenty years of theatre experience in directing, dramaturgy and collective creations. She is the former Associate Artistic Director of Necessary Angel Theatre Company and Associate Artist for Theatre Direct.  Ines' first film, EXPOSURE, which she wrote and directed, screened at numerous international festivals, winning an award at Houston, and was broadcast on  CBC and the Knowledge Network.   MINISTRY, Ines' second film, was also selected for CBC's Reflection series and premiered at the Rendezvous with Madness festival and the Local Heroes Soup festival.   She co-wrote KEEPER, a Canadian Film Centre short that was distributed worldwide. Her film, the Genie-nominated FOXY LADY, WILD CHERRY, has won numerous awards around the world and continues to be broadcast internationally. Ines’ feature film, Skin to Skin is in development with Features First and Movie Central. She is an alumna of the Canadian Film Centre and she holds an M.F.A. in directing from York University, where she teaches acting and directing.

Bio - Marlene Rodgers
Marlene Rodgers is a writer, producer and story editor based out of Vancouver.   She has worked in script development for a number of years, as an executive at Telefilm, the Ontario Media Development Corporation, and the CBC Movies and Mini-series unit.  Marlene has taught screenwriting and led workshops across Canada, and she has consulted with many of Canada’s top writers and directors as a story editor.

Marlene wrote and produced the short film, "Foxy Lady, Wild Cherry", which won a Leo Award for Best Screenwriting in a Short Drama; the film played in several festivals including TIFF and Clermont-Ferrand, and was sold to broadcasters internationally.  She also produced the short "Cleveland Wood's Last Day on Earth" which was exhibited and broadcast internationally.

Currently, she is developing a feature film, "Skin to Skin", with support from Movie Central and NSI Features First.  Marlene is also a story producer on the Food Network’s prime-time series, "Glutton for Punishment".

Synopsis - "Skin to Skin"
As preparations for their sixty-five-year-old mother's wedding ensue, three sisters find themselves grappling with their own issues around intimacy in erotic relationships.  While the eldest and the youngest sisters confront self-destructive patterns in their sexual relationships, Katrina, the favourite child, finds herself replaying damaging mother-child dynamics with her daughter, and placing her own marriage in peril. 

Inspiration for "Skin to Skin"
We are intrigued by the sharp symbiotic edge of parent/child relationships and the effect that they have on our sexuality and sense of identity.  The erotic dynamics that underpin family interactions are frequently phantom-like - difficult to illuminate and name - yet nonetheless they can intrude into our consciousness and wreak havoc in our emotional lives.  This is the story of four women who are grappling with their strong, but potentially crushing, love for one another.