Scripts for Option

A Winter Girl

Genre: Drama

Logline:
Charlotte, a fifteen year old runaway, meets an ex-con on a bus and falls in love. Two thousand miles later, she realizes . . . there's no place like home.

Synopsis:
Two days before Christmas, fifteen-year-old Charlotte jumps on a prairie bus bound for Vancouver. She's running off to marry her sweetheart from Grade Nine. But on the bus she falls for Noel, pale and edgy from spending the last seven years in prison. He's bound to get back what he left behind.

As Charlotte runs away from her parents, Noel hopelessly searches for his. But they're not where he left them and nowhere to be found. Charlotte's determined to help, but adds to Noel's confusion by throwing her useful wiles in his path.

Charlotte soon learns she's not the only one with eyes for Noel. Jean, a woman dressed in black, also rides the bus, looking for her match. She's waiting to snap up Noel just when things are starting to get hot. Charlotte soldiers on, despite a confrontation with her Grandfather who's been searching the prairie bus stops for her. 'Two thousand miles later, she realizes what she's known, and needed, all along.

Author Info:
GLYNIS DAVIES is an actress living in Vancouver. Her writing credits include Revisited, a 24 minute drama nominated for a Genie Award (2000) for Best Live Action Short, and a LEO (1999) for Best Screenwriting. Revisited, a 24 minute drama nominated for a Genie Award (2000) for Best Live Action Short, and a LEO (1999) for Best Screenwriting. Lift, another live action short nominated for a LEO (2001) for Best Screenwriting. Her second feature Desolation Sound was produced by Sleepwalker Films, Mary Anne Waterhouse in 2004, Directed by Scott Weber, starring Helene Joy, Jennifer Beals, Ed Begley Jr. Lothaire Bluteau and Ian Tracy. A Winter Girl was a semi-finalist at Sundance and in the Chesterfield Screenwriting Competition.

GLYNIS DAVIES, Writer
2929 West 4th Avenue, Apt. 102
Vancouver, BC V6K 4T3
(604) 732-4199
glyn@intergate.ca

Or contact Praxis.

Abby's Place

Genre(s): Drama

Logline:
Rodney fixes up a lake cabin in northern Alberta as a healing place for his wife, Abby, who prepares a path for him to discover after she is gone.

Synopsis:
Abby is dying. Rodney, her husband, knowing she is preoccupied with water, buys a cabin on a lake in northern Alberta, hoping it will be a healing place. Rodney's eager hands fix up the cabin and gradually Abby gets better. She and Rodney find a new understanding in their love for each other and kindle an unlikely romance between Rodney's assistant, Maxi, and Clyde, the operator of the town dump. Clyde opens his heart to Maxi, a self-styled crone who presents her quilts as poetic, magical markers for the journeys in life of those she loves. After the inevitable happens, and time begins to fall out of Abby's hands, Rodney discovers the gift that has been laid for him at Abby's Place.

Bio:
KATHERINE KOLLER's plays for CBC Radio include Cowboy Boots and a Corsage, Magpie, and Going to the Dump. Her stage plays have been produced at the Edmonton Fringe Festival and Jagged Edge Lunchbox Theatre. Katherine has won several awards for her radio, stage and screenplays, including two Praxis fellowships and two Alberta Screenwriting competitions. She has also attended the NSI Writer's Workshop, the Banff Writing for Series Television course and the NSI Writers' Roundtable.

KATHERINE KOLLER, Writer
Tel: (780) 436-7272
Fax; (780) 436-7272
kkoller@donovans.ca

Angels

Genre(s): Mystery/Suspense/Thriller/, Drama

Logline:
A psychologist who is helping the police to investigate the abduction of two children, finds herself connected to the victims in a way she couldn't have imagined.

Synopsis:
Katherine Ward is independent and determined. She's had to be to make it as a criminal psychologist in spite of a hearing disorder. But when the crisis she's trained for arrives, she's not prepared for the emotional toll or the physical danger.

In this case children are disappearing, and Katherine struggles desperately to discover the predator's pattern before another child is kidnapped. She faces indifference and even hostility from the police, especially Lt. Valerie Gill, a poker-faced cynic who has to prove her competence through contempt for Katherine's methods.

As the case unravels, so do Katherine's emotions. Childless herself and trying to adopt, she finds her personal passions merge with her work, especially when a startling link between the victims reveals a plot to exploit reproductive technology and leads back to her own family.

The predator will threaten her. The truth will overwhelm her.

Bio:
BRIAN WATSON is a screenwriter who has studied theatre and film in BC. He has written several feature length scripts and worked as a script coordinator. In the summer of 1999, Brian was granted a Professional Internship from British Columbia Film and interned in the story department of the Phil Savath/Susan Duligal CBC series These Arms Of Mine.

BRIAN WATSON, Writer
(604) 273-9962
Watson_lapres@hotmail.com
Or contact through Praxis

Bleed

Genre(s): Drama

Logline:
An edgy contemporary drama about three women, their relationship, their sex lives, and a stalker who threatens them all.

Synopsis:
Bleed is a contemporary dramatic thriller about three women facing their demons with men. Recently single, Alexis is a cold, attractive VJ who is unwittingly being stalked by Jason, an obsessed fan. In an attempt to get to her, Jason sleeps with her room-mate Jeanette, discovering that she has a penchant for video taping intimate liaisons. Ines leaves her boyfriend when he says no to keeping their baby. She moves in with Alexis and Jeanette and together they battle with their stuff around men, their friendship and lives threatened by the machinations of the obsessed and disturbed Jason.

Bio:
A graduate of the film program at Simon Fraser University, PENELOPE BUITENHUIS has worked as a director/filmmaker in Canada and Europe for the last 16 years. Her feature film credits as director include Boulevard with Rae Dawn Chong, Lance Henriksen and Lou Diamond Philips; the thriller Dangerous Attraction; and Trouble, written and directed in Berlin, which received Best Film honours at numerous festivals.
In television, Buitenhuis directed the Gemini-nominated CBC MOW Giant Mine, as well as several television series episodes including Hope Island, Madison, Wind at my Back, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, Lonesome Dove and the pilot for Cold Squad. She has also written and directed three documentaries and fifteen short films. She is in development with a new feature script, Punk Not Dead.

PENELOPE BUITENHUIS, Writer
2098 E. 19th Ave.
Vancouver, BC   V5N 2J3

Agent: Carl Liberman
The Characters
Tel: (416) 964-8522

Capital Murder

GENRE: Drama

LOGLINE:
Ross MacKay, a brilliant but troubled young lawyer. battles to save the lives of two men - the last two men condemned to execution by hanging in Canada.

SYNOPSIS:
Ross MacKay, recently seperated from his wife and children, is an addictive gambler and alcoholic. He’s just lost his first capital murder case and his client, Ronald Turpin, awaits a reprieve on death row.

An FBI witness and his girlfriend are brutally murdered while hiding out in a Toronto rooming house. Circumstantial evidence points to a Detroit gangster named Arthur Lucas, black, raised in poverty with a low IQ. He is extradited to Toronto to stand trial before an all white jury. Ross is forced to take on this risky and high profile murder case.

Judge Maddock, Crown Prosecutor Henry Bull and local MP Mickey Carroll, believe in punishment by hanging. Convinced of Lucas’s innocence, Ross must not only battle the legal, criminal and political systems that uphold the death penalty but his own struggles with alcohol and gambling debts.

With the help of lawyer and friend Alan Freeman and the influential newspaper reporter, Sarah Wright, Ross becomes a driving force fueling the radical changes necessary to abolish capital punishment in Canada.

CAPITAL MURDER is based on the true story of the most exciting year in Canadian criminal history. On a cold December night, Ross continues to fight up to the final minutes for the lives of Arthur Lucas and Ronald Turpin as they stand back to back on the gallows while a riot rages outside the walls of Toronto’s Don Jail.

CHRIS BRITTON, WRITER
604-714-0114
chris@chrisbritton.ca
or contact Praxis

Charlie's War

Genre(s): Drama • Mystery/Suspense/Thriller

Logline:
19 year-old Charlie Boyle falls under the spell of a charismatic white supremacist and tracks down an anti-racist vigilante who is trying to kill him.

Synopsis:
Charlie Boyle is a high school dropout with attitude to burn. Playing guitar with his new band is the only thing that truly turns his crank. When the band finds itself without a place to practice, Karl Hoffert lets them use an old cabin on his property. Hoffert has a secret agenda -- he is a white supremacist. Two members of Charlie's band belong to his National Front and he figures the music will attract kids to the movement. But he's going to have to bide his time; Charlie has made it clear he 's not interested in playing in the 'house band'.

When Charlie's father finds out what he's up to, he orders Charlie to stay away from Hoffert. But Charlie has never listened to his father and he's not about to start now, not when the band has landed its first gig and he 's fallen in love with Hoffert's 17 year-old daughter, Julia. Charlie storms out of the house and into Hoffert's welcoming arms.

Julia knows Charlie is making a mistake in trusting her father; she begs him to get out before it's too late. But when an anti-racist vigilante blows up the band's cabin, nearly killing a little girl, the die is cast. Charlie joins forces with Hoffert in a hunt for their enemy. The hunt sets off a deadly chain of events that forces Charlie to confront his dark side before it destroys both himself and the love he has found with Julia.

Author Info:
MICHAEL BETCHERMAN is a Toronto-based screenwriter. His first feature film script, Still Waters, won the Gold Award for Best Thriller at the Houston Film Festival (WorldFest Houston). His television credits include Street Legal, Side Effects and Exhibit A. He is currently writing and producing Justice Denied, a 90 minute pilot for TNT about the wrongfully convicted.

MICHAEL BETCHERMAN, Writer
142 Robert Street
Toronto, ON
M5S 2K3
(416) 924-2143
(416) 924-1617 Fax
bumper@interlog.com

Cryin' Time

Genre(s): Comedy, Drama

Logline:
Cryin' Time is a boisterous hard-driving romantic comedy set in rural Nova Scotia. Dreams are what movies are made of, and the theme of this feature film/M.O.W. is taking chances, making choices and risking it all for a dream.

Synopsis:
Country music is the musical mythic archetype that surround sounds the action and underscores the changing world of the characters in a place that has turned in on itself, as past, present and future are tossed against each other in the tilt-a-whirl pursuit of love, lust, and ultimately, the control of personal destinies; whether the battleground is a sexy lingerie mafia with Mary Kay fantasies, a circus ride repair sculpture, or a white trash trailer filled with cardboard cut-outs of the gods and goddesses of country music.

To quote a recent Telefilm reader's report, "What we have here is a strong central character, an interesting metaphor and a rich collection of incidents. It's a story of personal discovery with a delightful edge of black comedy; a hard drinking, sexually charged world peopled by engaging and often funny characters; this could make a winning movie."

Author Info:
T.H. HATTE is a nationally produced playwright, screenwriter, and director. Mr. Hatte's screenplay Finn's Rock is currently in development with Salter Street Films. The documentary he directed, Alana, was broadcast on Vision Television in January.

A writer of over a dozen half-hour dramas on film and video, including A Fist A Nail and Two Windows, which was produced when Mr. Hatte was a writer resident at the Canadian Film Centre, and winner of the Silver Bar Award, at the Austrian Film Festival.

Most recently, Moose Meat, a half-hour drama written and directed by Mr. Hatte, was broadcast on CBC's Sunday Arts and Entertainment program, and his stage play, The Last Words Of Duct Schultz toured theatres across Canada.

Mr. Hatte's teen feature film script, Anchor Zone (produced by Red Ochre Productions of Newfoundland) was released theatrically in Canada through Norstar Entertainment, and distributed around the world through Alliance Releasing.

T.H. Hatte lives in Halifax.

T.H. HATTE, Writer
PO Box 31110
Halifax, NS B3K 5T9
(902) 453-0347
thatte@ns.sympatico.ca

Daisy Baby

Genre:
Drama

Synopsis:
Independent, smart and sometimes reckless, Holly’s blazed her way through teen ballerina, model and actress and at the tail-end of her 20s is making the most of pole dancing in a strip club.

When she finds herself pregnant and single, she tries to imagine a new life as a regular mom. She longs for a family, but her wild world seems like no place for a child.

So she hits the road on a small-town dance tour, looking for adventure, and enough money for a new beginning. But her plans go sideways when a one-night hookup lands her in the home of a sexy drug dealer trying to go straight, his troubled teenage son, and the kid’s pregnant 16-year-old girlfriend.  The rural McMansion in a chain link compound is no white picket fence dream -- but they need Holly, and for once she finds she has something to give.

But as her new boyfriend’s world of crime threatens to destroy the life they’re building, Holly must use her strength and wiles to protect  something that matters: the family she never imagined, but now can’t live without.

Bio:
Elaine Littmann's writing has twice landed her the highly competitive Praxis Screenwriting fellowship. Her short fiction has been published in anthologies and journals, and was nominated for the Journey Prize. Recently, "DAISY BABY," made it to the quarter finals of the 2009 Nicholl Fellowship. A graphic designer by day, Elaine is knee-deep in her latest screenplay: a Cinderella story of an ordinary girl who sets out to rescue a teenage prince ... of darkness.

Elaine Littmann
elainelittmann@gmail.com
604-255-5513

The Emperor Of China

Genre(s): Period Drama

Logline:
After losing his job as Ambassador in Paris for seducing the English King's daughter, Rafe Montagu betrays his king, marries a lunatic and wins a dukedom.

Synopsis:
The second son of a minor 17th Century nobleman, Rafe wins a Dukedom with the help of four brilliant, scheming women: his sister Lady Harvey, his mistress Barbara, Duchess of Cleveland, his friend Hortense, Duchesse de Mazarine, and his first wife Elizabeth, Countess of Northumberland. Widowed in his 50s, Rafe pretends to be the Chinese Emperor to win the hand of a lunatic heiress.

This true story unfolds in London, Paris and Northamptonshire.

Author Info:
KATHARINE MONTAGU is a British Citizen and a Canadian Resident. After five years of globe trotting, she settled in Vancouver in 1990, completed a BFA in Creative Writing from UBC, and spent three years researching and writing The Emperor of China. Katharine works as a writer and story editor. She has produced five short films and various corporate and promotional videos. She won a BC Film Producing Internship in 2003. She has a number of other screenplays at various stages in development.

BC Film awarded The Emperor of China development funding in the Fall of 2001. Kat continues to work with her Praxis story editor John Frizzell. This script is not available for option... yet.

KATHARINE MONTAGU, Writer
Office (604) 732 4530
Cell (604) 760-9553
wse@telus.net
WriteShootEdit.com

Geraniums Are Red

Synopsis:
A woman who leaves her “house on the hill” for an outlaw is usually seeking adventure. But it is not adventure that drives Anna Kerbey. It is the desire for understanding and acceptance. Her handsome husband gives her neither. But Jean Guy, the Cajun bank robber, does.  Or is he a con man? Is it all a sham? How far will she go to protect a man bent on self destruction? How far will he go to prove his love is real?

Anna has struggled with marriage to Eddie, a man who pays attention to little other than his own personal pleasures, which include hunting, fishing, gambling and drinking. He does love her. He just doesn’t know how. Having a sickly child doesn’t help the situation. Eddie feels lost and angry. Anna feels lonely and betrayed. She finds solace in her work as a teacher and writer until a man sitting in a jail reads a story she has written and decides to contact her.

When Anna leaves her job and her husband to go on the run with her daughter and her new found love, she knows things will not be easy. Her lover is an escaped convict. She will live a life on the run. What she has not counted on is Jean Guy’s need to be chased, to be punished, to be living on the constant edge of danger.

Her love is put to the ultimate test when Jean Guy calls Kansas to see if he is still being hunted. His love is put to the ultimate test when he discovers she is permitting herself to be sexually abused to save his life.

Bio:
Carolyn Mamchur, professor, writer, consultant is author of twelve scripts, two children’s books, two books of poetry, four books and over thirty articles on education and psychology. A Jungian, she uses archetype to teach writers, directors and producers.   Another screenplay, Sunnyside Canal, is optioned by Stuart Margolin. She works as creative consultant and story editor for Telefilm and CBC. Currently, she is completing her third trilogy of novellas, The Sun, the Moon, the Stars. You can see her complete CV on her web site www.educ.sfu.ca/mamchur/

CAROLYN MAMCHUR, Writer
(604) 736-4060 Fax

Agent: Shain Jaffe
Great North Artists Management
(416) 925-2051
Or contact Praxis

His Cake

Genre(s): Comedy, Drama

Logline:
Mal, a queer party animal with a heart of ice awakens one day with a sudden realization: he must reproduce.

Synopsis:
Coming of age with a twist. No nubile teens exploring sexual identity; we're talking club kids hitting the harsh reality of thirty in an unforgiving urban landscape, and wondering what they'll be when (and if) they ever grow up.

Mal provides the 'His' in His Cake. Cute, still able to pass as twenty-something, working sporadically in a low-rent portrait studio, Mal finds that even living for the moment requires a bit too much commitment. He'd call himself gay, but that might imply he wants a relationship. Let's just say: he fucks guys. The 'Cake' is what puts sweetness in life - finding out where it is and what to do with it takes Mal on a funny, poignant (and sometimes frightening) journey.

The story: Mal and his straight friend Rob are inseparable. They hang out, drink heavy, and play hard - leaving a trail of dumped lovers in their wake. Hey, it's their thing: but then something happens. One day, while consoling a sobbing, camera-shy child, Mal finds himself close to tears. His 'biological clock' has sounded, shattering his cool, well-insulated world. He needs to have his own kid - now! After all, how hard can it be? A bit of slippery interaction, a few months waiting, and presto, one beautiful baby to love and protect forever.

But nothing's ever as easy as it sounds. Of course there's always longtime friend Julia, who keeps saying she wants kids but not marriage. They've talked about it, but it's always been a boozy, late night, let's-play-house kind of chat. Now he’s serious, but Julia’s busy, fed up with his Peter Pan act, about to leave town. How to convince Julia that he has what it takes, dad-wise?

His latest gesture - 'forgetting' to drive her to the airport - doesn't make Julia any more receptive. In her view, 'babies don't raise babies'; and charming, witty, selfish Mal, who's drunk every night and has never had a boyfriend for more than a day, won't be getting her vote for Father of the Year. She offers him a few insights, and by the time she boards her plane, it's pretty clear - despite her affection for Mal, they won't be starting a child together any time soon.

But Mal's had an epiphany, and he's not giving up. With Julia gone, he turns to Rob, seeking support for his quest and the changes it demands. Support, however, isn't Rob's strong suit. A career slacker, he plays the artiste, but never puts brush to canvas, his 'vocation' a ploy to get women into bed. 'Til now he and Mal have been on the same page: drinking, partying, helping each other seduce the gullible. They've spent years mirroring each other, one gay, one straight, but in other ways almost indistinguishable. So what's with the sobriety and faithfulness shtick; what does this abrupt rejection of their shared lifestyle really say? The new Mal is a personal insult, a threat - Rob will do whatever he can to derail him.

Enter Pascal, twelve, a textbook 'child at risk,' living in the neighbourhood with his drug-hazed mom. Just your average lying, homophobic, manipulative youth, he conceals his need for attention so tidily that he appears untouchable. His first, chance encounters with Mal are edgy, tinged with violence. Sure Pascal's bright - he can also be obnoxious, devious, and downright scary. Yet somehow there's a connection, and as Mal slowly gets to know the kid better, a new imperative appears. It's like he has to reach Pascal; not just as some arbitrary 'test' of fathering potential, but because this kid, his future, his unique, quirky humanity, is important.

Meanwhile, Rob's started painting again, has even smarmed his way into a gallery show; and he seems to have forgiven Mal's desertion of their old way of life. Things are looking up everywhere. Pascal has found a real friend in Mal. And Mal has sobered up, he's got a 'real boyfriend' and a new sense of direction. He sees his virtuous efforts paying off at last.

Then everything - loyalty, love, Mal's dreams of fatherhood - falls apart, all on the day of Rob's big opening. Suddenly Rob's acting weird, sending Mal an all-new vibe, like they're more than just friends - or could be more. But Rob's straight, and Mal's committed now, isn't he? That same night, Mal sees an (even) darker side of Pascal, who has now teamed up with Doug, Mal's suspicious and maybe violent rival for Pascal's attention. And that's when Julia, the lodestar in Mal's life, returns, not to make it all better, but to unveil a secret that changes everything.

One rainy, dangerous night, Mal must face questions about the nature of love, truth, and commitment, and choose: between what's real and what's just one more slice... of His Cake.

Author Info:
BYRON FAST has published film, theatre and other media reviews for the Georgia Straight, Xtra West, Taxi Magazine and various sites on the internet. He wrote and produced At the Watercooler, a held-over hit at Vancouver's Fringe Festival in 1994. He also wrote, produced and appeared in Queer Things I Hate About You: a short video which premiered at Out On Screen in Summer 2000. Next he will be serving as co-writer and performer in Lorn: a collaborative video, produced and directed by Andrew Power and featuring Marlene Madison. His second screenplay, Things to do Today, is a very Canadian look at the "I want it all" generation.

BYRON FAST, Writer
(604) 879-6599
byronfast@netscape.net

Horse Apples

Genre: Drama, Comedy

Logline: With the eminent closure of its turn-of-the-century ice rink, the community of Shinny Saskatchewan must band together not only to save hockey, but also the town itself.

Synopsis: Who would have thought that beer, manure and Anne Murray memorabilia could be such a potent mixture!

Like most 12-year-old boys growing up on the Canadian Prairies, Espo Beckerjeck dreams of one day playing in the NHL. He has all the talent. The problem is that he just might not have the ice, as Shinny, Saskatchewan’s turn-of-the-century rink, is about to be forcibly shut down. Much more is at stake than the end of organized hockey though, as like so many small prairie communities, the end of the rink more often than not means the end of the town itself. Suddenly this group of a few hundred finds itself with less than a year to raise half a million dollars.

Who will save the day?

Could it be Mr. Zamboni, the French Canadian bingo caller? Perhaps Paul Hendrickson, the expatriate American Dead Head? What about Gretzky, the hockey playing canine? Maybe even Buzz Busby, the town’s stereotypical beer drinking hoser?

Horse Apples follows this quirky community’s attempt at survival as it explores the imagination and dreams embedded in the mystical side of the Canadian national pastime.

Author Info: JAMES PHILLIPS has completed 6 feature film scripts. He's recently been writing for various local television drama including Stargate SG-1 and Cold Squad, which he is currently the story editor. He graduated from Simon Fraser University with a degree in Business Administration

JAMES PHILLIPS, Writer
#31 - 1175 East Road
Anmore, BC   V3H SB4
(604) 461-2229
jtphillip@hotmail.com

Agent: Brent Sherman
Characters Talent Agency
(416) 964-8522

Or contact Praxis

Kanada

Genre(s): Action/Adventure, Drama

Logline:
The year is 1941. The escapees are German prisoners. The country is Kanada.

Synopsis:
Kanada begins in an Alberta POW camp during World War II, where Wesser, a young German fighter pilot, dreams of escaping and making his way home to his loved ones. The breakout is successful; but Wesser finds himself saddled with two unruly companions--Koenigsdorf, a bitter but worldly ideologue whose brutality caused even the SS to court-martial him, and Schussberg, a happy-go-lucky bombardier whose single goal is desertion.

Accustomed to elite combat in the clear blue sky, Wesser soon finds himself mired in a flesh-and-blood ground campaign which is anything but clean. By raft, car, train, and plane, on horseback and on foot, with the aid of unsuspecting civilians and the help of a shaky network of enemy sympathizers, he leads the trio across the prairies, leaving an ever-widening trail of violence behind him. Battling his strong-willed companions, the unforgiving harshness of the frozen landscape, the authorities in their relentless pursuit, and the deception and betrayal practiced by both ally and foe, Wesser gradually sheds his decency and his honor as his noble escape plan degenerates into a struggle to survive at any cost.

An intense drama with suspense, action, unexpected reversals, and a cast of strong characters battling for their lives, KANADA turns the roles of pursuer and quarry, enemy and ally upside down in the ultimate fugitives-on-the-lam adventure, all unfolding against the bleak, majestic winterscape of a heartland still half-wild.

Author Info:
ALAN LEVIN, recipient of a 2003 Leo Award (for Best Screenwriting in a Youth or Children's Program or Series) has written episodes of the animated series Yakkity Yak, Yvon of the Yukon, What About Mimi? and D'Myna Leagues and has held two BC Film writer internships, one in the story department of the dramatic series Cold Squad. After working for several years as an aerospace engineer, he earned an MFA in Creative Writing in 1995. He has published stories and poems in numerous journals in Canada and the US, and has a selection of feature film scripts available. These include: Helen Towns - a swing-era singing sensation evolves into a civil rights campaigner; Absolutely Beat - freedom goes toe-to-toe with responsibility as aging Beatniks and their hipster disciples battle the establishment and each other; Redemption Song - a Desert Storm veteran finds it difficult to adjust to civilian life as he struggles to protect his troubled family in racially-charged Los Angeles; and Cross The Line - a young adult drama set in the world of soapbox car racing.

ALAN LEVIN, Writer
(604) 874-9402
alevin@intergate.bc.ca

Lady S

Logline: Adapted from Jane Austen’s novel “Lady Susan”. Desperate to stay ahead of her creditors without marrying for money, beautiful Lady S deceives and beguiles her grown daughter, her family, and a wide range of men, ’til passion for an unsuitable lover overcomes her calculations, exposing her to the vengeful hypocrisy of 18th century high society.

Synopsis: Pretty, recently-widowed Lady S has problems: huge debts, a troublesome teenage daughter, and a very bad reputation.  Plus, the clock’s ticking ... she’s almost thirty-six!  In 18^th century England, wedding some rich old man should be her ticket out, but —  been there, done that —  she really doesn’t want to, especially once she hooks up with sexy, penniless, married Manwaring. 

What to do?  Lady S tries to get by on wit and charm, ‘singing for her supper’ as permanent house guest of the rich and famous, but though she’s a model of discretion, every time it’s the same story: the men get horny, the women get jealous... and Lady S gets the boot. 

All she wants are the freedoms men enjoy, but she’s definitely not a guy, and the double standard rules.  Sense and sensuality clash as she struggles —  to educate her daughter Frederica in the harsh ways of the world, to repel marriage proposals from snobs and dolts without losing the roof currently over her head, and to keep her wayward passion for Manwaring properly hidden — but, as her feelings grow, so do the risks she takes to be with her lover.

At last a reckless choice puts Lady S at the mercy of the hypocrites who govern her world; yet even when she’s driven from Society, forced to wed a gormless marquis (whose IQ is even smaller than his waistline), and banished from England, her dignity never falters.  In a final ironic twist, her daughter, despite poverty, dreaminess, and (in her mother’s view, at least) a shocking lack of self-control, ends up gaining the love match that Lady S cannot achieve for herself.

Bio: Michele Adams has an across-the-spectrum interest in writing. She has scripted three feature screenplays —  Lady S (adapted from Jane Austen's first novel Lady Susan), Sex Lives of the Saints, and The Kindest Thing — and is currently at work on two more. Her screenwriting has received development and support from Harold Greenberg, Movie Central, Telefilm, Manitoba Film and Sound. One of her short scripts won the first Praxis Out-of-the-Hat contest; another won the CBC/BC Film Signature Shorts competition. She also freelances as copywriter/editor, has worked for CBC Radio as a writer/broadcaster, and recently co-authored a commissioned radio drama, Year of the Crab, for the Mother Corp.  Her stories have been published (Geist, The Fiddlehead, Event, Canadian Fiction), dramatized on CBC Radio, and performed at arts festivals (Banff, Harrison, etc.). In 2006 she won The Fiddlehead fiction prize and in 2008 she was one of the winners of the BC Federation of Writers short story competition; her novel Grim Sausages was short-listed for the Metcalf-Rooke Award, and her collection Bright Objects of Desire was recently published by Biblioasis. In addition to writing, Michele has an ongoing commitment to teaching; she has taught Literature, Communications, Creative Writing, and Screenwriting at UBC, VCC, OLA, VFS, and SFU. She is also a script analyst for Praxis and is on the Harold Greenberg Fund, Praxis, and Telefilm lists of story editors.

MICHELE ADAMS, Writer
1149 Lily Street
Vancouver, BC V5L 4H5
(604) 253-5828
madams@shaw.ca

Agent: Dacia Moss
Lucas Talent
(604) 685-0345
Or contact Praxis.

Looking For Lewis

Genre(s): Drama

Logline:
Part mystery, part coming-of-age, Looking For Lewis is the engaging story of Daniel, a Native American whose search for his missing uncle leads him to find himself.

Synopsis:
Lewis Keeper has vanished like smoke. He came to Winnipeg from Little Grand Rapids reservation three weeks ago and then disappeared. Lewis' nephew, twenty-one year old Daniel Keeper, plasters the city with Missing Persons flyers.

That night Daniel meets Simon, a queer skater-kid. An unexpected awakening occurs for Daniel and a romance is sparked. Daniel's cousin Frank discovers Daniel's new love interest and makes it his business to straighten him out.

The conflict between the cousins quickly escalates. Finally, one stormy summer night, a violent confrontation ensues that leads them to the truth about Uncle Lewis and ultimately, themselves.

Author Info:
MICHAEL SEAN KAMINSKY is a writer/director involved in both film and new media. Since graduating from the University of British Columbia, he has completed four feature film scripts and an off-Broadway play The Late Edition, which he co-wrote and performed in. He recently completed production on his documentary Ritual Nation and is working on his fifth screenplay. Kin (re-titled Looking For Lewis after a major revision) was part of the Praxis Fall 1995 Workshop, where Sean worked with producer Christine Vachon (Safe, I Shot Andy Warhol)

SEAN KAMINSKY, Writer
28 West 46th Street, #3F
New York, NY 10036
kaminsky@usa.com

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Melting

Genre(s): Drama, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller

Logline:
A family of four is caught in a drama of survival in a gigantic traffic jam.

Synopsis:
On a sweltering Labor Day weekend, the Lewis Family -- Martin, Barbara, and their sons Jeff and Owen -- are returning from their cabin on the lake. They get stuck in a traffic jam on a causeway that goes through a marsh while waiting for the ferry that will take them on the last leg of their journey home. Eugene Danner, a man in a car behind theirs, approaches Martin with a problem: a trouble icon on his dashboard won't go away. Danner believes that the icon portends some nameless disaster. He's so desperate to escape the traffic jam that he trades his luxury car for Jeff's bicycle and cycles away.

Owen wanders off and when Martin searches for his lost four-year-old, he encounters the world of the jam: a man dismantling his car's engine because it won't stop dieseling; a survivalist auctioning off a truck load of frozen meat that's starting to thaw; a taxi driver who leaves the meter on, "Just for the hell of it; it doesn't mean anything" he reassures his distraught passenger.

Carrying the remaining supplies from their summer cabin, the Lewises are better off than most, but tensions inside and outside the family rise. Martin feels an embarrassing sense of competition growing between himself and his eldest son, Jeff, on the cusp of adolescence. Then he finds a photo-radar traffic ticket in Barbara's purse, and the photograph shows a stranger with her in the car.

Barbara can't get Danner's premonition out of her head. Her fears aren't helped by the vague news reports on the radio. No one seems able to find an end to this seemingly limitless traffic jam. Barbara wants to walk home, but Martin, who looks upon their 30-year-old Vista Cruiser as a member of the family, refuses to abandon it until Barbara gives him an ultimatum: she's walking out with the kids whether he comes or not.

As they pack a few supplies in preparation to leave, a motorcycle cop arrives and tells them that they must remain with their car until traffic begins moving again. It's starting to look like Danner was more prescient than crazy. What began as a two-hour wait for a ferry becomes something more bizarre: a struggle to live within the self-contained world of the traffic jam, and ultimately, to escape it.

Author Info:
During production of a radio drama for the CBC over fifteen years ago, DAVID JONES overheard a recording engineer grumble "This is more of a film than a radio script." Taking the complaint to heart, Jones began writing screenplays on purpose.

Since then, he has had three of his screenplays – Daycare, People I Don't Even Know, and Melting workshopped through Praxis. A fourth, Wide Awake, is currently in development with Forefront Entertainment, and Daycare is in development with Ranfilm Productions.

Jones' fourth non-fiction book, North American Wildlife, was recently published by Whitecap Books.

DAVID JONES, Writer
796 East 13th Avenue Apt. 3
Vancouver, BC V5T 2L3
(604) 873-2106
davejones@telus.net

Agent: Dacia Moss
Lucas Talent
(604) 685-0345

The Phantom Skater

Genre(s): Drama

Logline:
A burned-out hockey scout follows rumors of a hot skating sensation called the Phantom Skater to a remote northern lake where he runs into his ex-wife who runs the only B & B in town.

Synopsis:
Bobby, a bitter hockey scout, is sent up North on a wild goose chase to find the world's fastest skater -- a phantom only glimpsed from a distance racing across a great frozen lake. When he arrives in a village full of comic eccentrics, Bobby checks in to the only hotel in town. Unfortunately the place is run by his ex-wife, still angry at the way their marriage ended.

Things go from bad to worse when Bobby discovers his ex is sleeping with the competition, a smooth-talking scout from Florida who's never even played the game. And the Phantom Skater everyone is talking about seems to be a ruse invented by the villagers to swindle the yokels from the South.

Out in the middle of the giant lake, under a starry sky, Bobby finally catches up to the elusive skater. The Phantom challenges him to a game of one-on-one -- and teaches him what life is really all about.

Author Info:
AARON BUSHKOWSKY writes plays, fiction, and poetry as well as screenplays. His work has received numerous nominations and awards, including nominations for B.C. Book Awards and double finals in Theatre B.C.'s Canadian National Playwriting Competition. He was a Screenwriting Resident at the Canadian Film Centre in 1995, and prior to this participated in the Film Centre's Television Workshop. He has another feature film script and a children's TV series in development.

AARON BUSHKOWSKY, Writer
(604) 872-5001
aaronbushkowsky@telus.net

The Pyramids of Marathon

Genre(s): Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Romance

Logline:
The Pyramids of Marathon combines romantic comedy with the spike of a thriller — a contemporary road movie with a menacing stop-over in a one-industry town that forever bonds two stranded travelers.

Synopsis:
The Pyramids of Marathon is a romantic comedy that turns deadly serious. The journey follows the Trans-Canada highway around the autumn curves of Lake Superior to the small Franco-Ontario community of Marathon.

George (Georgina), an artistic thirty-year old, on the mend from a broken heart, is driving home to Winnipeg. She is a passionate photographer, in love with abstract black and white imagery. Lately though, the images in her photographs seem more real than her life.

Traveling the same road, is the dangerously charming Franco, a former biker trying to go straight. Nineteen, he is a sleek leathered rider with an open smile and seemingly no particular destination.

The Trans-Canada Highway washes out and, stranded, George and Franco find themselves sharing the last hotel room in Marathon. It is a one-industry mill town totally dependent on the marketplace, and things have been collapsing for quite some time. Fewer loggers are employed, the fate of the mill is in question and now, a vocal contingent of environmental protesters has arrived, accompanied by the flash and scrutiny of the media. The last thing Marathon needs is more bad news.

With a questionable future, the Town struggles to find a solution to Marathon's slow demise. Led by their mayor, a former hockey hero, Eugene, they will do almost anything to keep their town on the map — maybe even murder — and George and Franco have driven right into their midst.

Author Info:
MICHAELIN McDERMOTT is an independent producer/writer/director. She spent three years as a Service Producer for the Discovery Channel and a decade as a stills photographer on various features, mows and television series. Michaelin has produced and directed a rock video, two half-hour dramas and work-shopped two of her short screenplays. She is presently writing the action-adventure feature The End of Later

MICHAELIN McDERMOTT, Writer
(604) 687-5702
mikenpaul@telus.net

Sex Lives of the Saints

Logline: A quirky coming-of-age set in the not-so-swinging 60s. Thirteen-year-old Michael’s trek into lust, betrayal, and the world of the Spirit takes him where he’s never been, and — finally — to the place where passion and purity collide.

Synopsis: Sex Lives of the Saints tells the story of Michael, an edgy Grade Seven student at Holy Ghost Parochial in 1961 Winnipeg, where classes are routinely interrupted by nuclear war drills.  No biggie — as the son of two Polish war survivors, apocalypse is in Michael’s blood.  His problems lie elsewhere.  For one thing, he’s trapped: between home — where life with damaged parents plays like a looped WWII movie — and the jerk-off world of his peers.  Comfortable nowhere, he slides by as a loner... ’til he starts noticing how different girls are, and everything goes crazy.

It begins with his Mom, scarily female with her tears, rages, and gory tales.  Then there’s Michael's love object: ethereal Sister Lioba, a teaching nun at his school. Beautiful, challenging, her chill purity turns Michael on even as it awes him.  He yearns for Lioba, yet also finds himself secretly drawn to odd-ball Danuta, the school’s Fat Girl.  Though he can’t like like Danuta, there’s something magnetic about her goofy insights and lush femaleness; soon, furtive late-night talks burgeon into hot make-out sessions on her screened front porch. 

When Danuta insists they ‘go public’ at the local diner, fat jokes and fists start to fly.  Police show up, Sister Lioba is appalled, and soon Michael’s torn between the demands of two women . . . and two creeds. He chooses, then finds out Danuta and Sister Lioba both hold secrets, contradictions that explode his world of opposites —  and signal that love, lust, and the Sacred may not be mutually exclusive after all.

Bio: Michele Adams has an across-the-spectrum interest in writing. She has scripted three feature screenplays —  Lady S (adapted from Jane Austen's first novel Lady Susan), Sex Lives of the Saints, and The Kindest Thing — and is currently at work on two more. Her screenwriting has received development and support from Harold Greenberg, Movie Central, Telefilm, Manitoba Film and Sound. One of her short scripts won the first Praxis Out-of-the-Hat contest; another won the CBC/BC Film Signature Shorts competition. She also freelances as copywriter/editor, has worked for CBC Radio as a writer/broadcaster, and recently co-authored a commissioned radio drama, Year of the Crab, for the Mother Corp.  Her stories have been published (Geist, The Fiddlehead, Event, Canadian Fiction), dramatized on CBC Radio, and performed at arts festivals (Banff, Harrison, etc.). In 2006 she won The Fiddlehead fiction prize and in 2008 she was one of the winners of the BC Federation of Writers short story competition; her novel Grim Sausages was short-listed for the Metcalf-Rooke Award, and her collection Bright Objects of Desire was recently published by Biblioasis. In addition to writing, Michele has an ongoing commitment to teaching; she has taught Literature, Communications, Creative Writing, and Screenwriting at UBC, VCC, OLA, VFS, and SFU. She is also a script analyst for Praxis and is on the Harold Greenberg Fund, Praxis, and Telefilm lists of story editors.

MICHELE ADAMS, Writer
1149 Lily Street
Vancouver, BC V5L 4H5
(604) 253-5828
madams@shaw.ca

Agent: Dacia Moss
Lucas Talent
(604) 685-0345
Or contact Praxis.

Stealtown

Genre: Drama

Logline: A road crew of poker hustlers head to Hamilton to take on a local gangster.

Synopsis: Jimmy, Dan, and Liz are poker hustlers who know that the only way to win is by cheating. They are a road crew. They work small town games, traveling across Ontario, cheating the locals during poker nights at the Legion Hall and Lion's Club conventions.

But something is eating at Liz. She's desperate to go back to her home town of Hamilton and settle a score. She drags Jimmy and Dan with her to take on Milan Bosic and his father, Vlad – an ex-Serbian army war criminal and smuggler. The three conspire to cheat Milan and Vlad out of $300,000. But when Jimmy gets involved with a teenaged prostitute and Dan's ability to manipulate the cards goes south, they face far more than they ever bargained for.

Author Info: WILLIAM ZMAK is a screenwriter living in Toronto. He has achieved quarter-finalist status in both the Nicholl fellowship and Chesterfield Writer's Film Project competitions. He is currently a resident in the Professional Screenwriting Programme at the Canadian Film Centre.

WILLIAM ZMAK, Writer
(416) 892-9468
wilzmak@funcow.com

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