Drama
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
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
Bottom's Dream
Genre(s): Comedy, Romance, Drama, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Logline:
William Shakespeare solves a murder that his best friend, Hamlet Sadler, had been accused of, and in the process uncovers a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth the First.
Synopsis:
A young (22) William Shakespeare, married to Anne Hathaway (28), is a father to three small children and unsuited to follow in his father's trade as a glover. Stuck in the backwater town of Stratford-upon-Avon, he is at loose ends. Thus...
Shakespeare is caught poaching the rabbits of Sir John Lucy and is viciously flogged for his efforts. He swears, despite the penalty of death, to poach Lucy's prize stag.
A riot at the annual Stratford Fair, caused in part by Shakespeare's friends led by Hamlet Sadler, has town elders on edge and worried about seditious behavior in these troubling times. Before the young men can be apprehended, a merchant is murdered and Sadler is accused.
To complicate matters, Queen Elizabeth is visiting Stratford, ostensibly to raise troops to fight the Spanish Armada, but in reality to secretly gain intelligence about an assassination plot against her life.
Bio:
JIM HAMM is a Vancouver-based writer, producer and director of documentary films. This script is based on his own short docudrama, Smile and Dial. The Boiler Room reached the finals in BC Film's New Views competition.
JIM HAMM, Writer
3993 Perry Street
Vancouver, BC V5N 3X2
Te: (604) 874-1110
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
Cowboy Boots and a Corsage
Genre(s): Drama
Logline:Roxanne, seventeen and full of spark, can hardly wait to get out of small town southern Alberta, but it means leaving her newly-widowed mother, Jeannie, who is unemployed and screaming at cows.
Synopsis:
Ever since her dad dropped dead at Harry's Bar, all Roxanne wants is to get out of small town southern Alberta, but she's going nowhere fast. Her mom, Jeannie, has lost hold of Roxanne and clings to her half-section of prairie grass. When Roxanne considers dropping out of school, Jeannie takes the only job she'll ever get -- at Harry's Bar. While Roxanne dumps her steady boyfriend and experiments with guys passing through town, Jeannie finds unexpected satisfaction and even romance at the bar -- until the night she nearly gets her daughter killed. The whole town and the prairie that surrounds it share in this struggle of a girl trying to graduate and a woman trying to start over. In the end, it's rebuilding their family that matters most, and Roxanne finds out from Jeannie where they first began in a private mother-daughter celebration.
Author Info:
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
(780) 436-7272
(780) 436-7272 Fax
kkoller@donovans.ca
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
The Cure For Death
Genre(s): Action/Adventure, Drama, Romance
Logline:
The lives of a young African American, a white Klansman, and a young boy are all linked by their common father, Darby Turner.
Synopsis:
Willis Turner wakes up one rainy night to hear someone stealing his only asset, his motorcycle, from the carport downstairs. A couple of weeks later, the police retrieve the bike in Delaney, Texas, 300 miles southeast. When Willis tells his mother Leona he's taking the bus to Delaney, she warns him to stay home and forget the bike. Delaney has changed. An African American is the sheriff, an African American woman the deputy. But racism hasn't gone away, it has merely gone underground.
Willis’s half-brother A.J. Turner is a hate-fueled cross-burner for the local KKK. Fresh out of prison for burning a black church, A.J. dreams of his role as head of the local Klan, believing he can bring on the Armageddon prophesied in the Bible. Willis’s father, Daryl Turner, a business leader in the small community, is a weak man torn between the knowledge that people are all the same under the skin, and conflicted by his need to conduct business in a community that refuses to let go of its hate.
Willis retrieves his stolen motorcycle, but the bike was damaged and needs repairs. Working on it in A.J.’s outboard repair shop, he learns of a Klan cross-burning planned for a farmer's field. Willis sneaks into the ceremony and risks his life to thwart the Klansmen’s plan to burn down a mixed-race church with everyone in it. He narrowly escapes the hooded Klansmen and their dogs pursuing him through the woods.
In town, Sheriff Jack Raine and deputy Dee Bogue, tipped off to the plot, evacuate the church and defuse the explosives. A.J. escapes, but is caught the next day in the backroads of Louisiana. Dee finds love in the arms of A.J.'s girlfriend. Willis rides off on his repaired motorcycle. And the world returns to equilibrium.
Author Info:
JOHN SHINNICK was born in East Texas, educated briefly by Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. He built schools as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Gabon, operated rural development programs in Senegal, and emigrated to Canada in 1970. He studied creative writing with W.O. Mitchell at the Banff School of Fine Arts in the late Seventies, won fiction competitions in the Okanagan, and served as an editor with Pacific Yachting Magazine for 13 years. Today he operates an online used and rare-book business, freelances for various magazines and is writing his fourth spec screenplay between bouts of editing B.C. Shorelines Business Letter and Media-Wave.com, an online publication devoted to film and television.
JOHN SHINNICK, Writer
916 West Broadway, #580
Vancouver, BC V5Z 1K7
(604) 618-7086
(604) 618-9570 Fax
john@media-wave.com
The Dolly Rockers
Genre(s): Comedy, Drama
Logline:
The Dolly Rockers is a rock 'n roll road movie about an all-girl band chasing a dream down the Trans Canada in the winter of '74.
Synopsis:
Winter, 1974. The Dolly Rockers, an all girl rock band, are about to hit the Trans-Canada in a rusty Econoline to meet an oil rich Calgarian who has promised them a record deal.
For Frankie, the talented lead guitarist with the soul of Jeff Beck, the road trip means escape from her beautiful girlfriend. She is tortured by her homosexuality and heavily into denial. Instead she takes too many drugs, loses herself in her amazing blues-influenced guitar work, and insists the band get on the road. This means taking on Honey, an opinionated small town singer seemingly out of her depth in this heavy duty band.
For Liz, the aging drummer with bad wrists, the trip is an all or nothing bid to relive a moment of lost glory and bury the ghost of her sister, a sixties rock legend who died from an overdose. She fights off the talent scouts who want to sign Frankie, and pulls her sixteen year old niece, Waif, yet again out of school. Waif, the reluctant bassist, is a chain-smoking juvenile cynic -- and the dead sister's daughter.
Add to this mix April Hicks, a sexy Detroit rocker girl turned record company hired gun, who is hot on the band's trail and willing to do whatever it takes to sign Frankie, including exploiting Frankie’s obvious attraction to her.
Life on the road is a comedy of errors, but neither cheating bar managers, booze, drugs, aggressive rival bands, or internal feuding can change the reality that these women belt out powerful and original music. As the band zigzags through freezing cow towns, high schools and beer halls, they ultimately discover the truth about themselves and how far they are willing to go with the Calgary record backer.
Author Info:
COLLEEN CRAIG is a Toronto-based playwright. Her plays have been produced in Toronto, Calgary and Cape Town, South Africa.
COLLEEN CRAIG, Writer
(416) 429-5655
Or contact Praxis
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
The Fall of Hollands
Genre(s): Drama, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Logline:
Population 2,400 . . . and dying.
Synopsis:
For over thirty years, Tom Goodings has kept the peace in Hollands, not by enforcing the law, but by allowing it room to breathe. When one of his flock turns up dead, the questions needing to be asked are the same ones best left unanswered. Too bad some secrets have a will all their own.
Author Info:
COLIN SCOTT is a Squamish-based playwright and editorial cartoonist. His one-act play Pork Ponderings won the Howe Sound Playwriting Competition and his 1999 play Transit was recently performed to rave reviews. With five screenplays now completed he plans to spend 2000 exhausting their potential as well as continuing his looning.
COLIN SCOTT, Writer
Box 253
Squamish, BC V0N 3G0
scottcolin@hotmail.com
Or contact Praxis
His Cake
Genre(s): Comedy, Coming of Age, 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
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
Genre(s): Dark Comedy, Drama, Romance
Logline:
To maintain her freedom and improve her lot in life, a seductive, impoverished widow plays both ends against the middle with her grown daughter, her family, and various men, but is undone by an ungovernable passion for an unsuitable lover.
Synopsis:
Jane Austen's first novel – dark, funny, sexy, with a heroine quite unlike the well-behaved virgins of her later works – is the basis for this screenplay.
In terms of content and tone, Lady S suggests a late-night tryst between Dangerous Liaisons and Sense and Sensibility. The book, like the lady, is controversial. Some Austenites tend to suppress this early work, finding it too disturbing for the gentle-Jane canon. At first glance, this story does seem far removed from the girlish goings-on of later Austen; but in fact Lady S introduces a vigorous female spirit whose wit and strength of will are very much in keeping with the bright, assertive, deliciously outspoken heroines of Emma or Pride and Prejudice.
Lady S spans one year in the life of a notoriously alluring female libertine, a woman who, according to one rival, “has to have all the men”. At thirty-six, lovely, wicked Lady Susan is considered decades too old for the multiple amours she’s conducting; but such perceptions do not deter her. Recently widowed, encumbered with an awkward teenage daughter, large debts, and a bad reputation, she knows the marriage market may now be her only salvation. Yet, passionately drawn to a wholly unsuitable man – penniless, seductive, married Manwaring – and repelled by the prospect of renewed marital imprisonment with some wealthy 'protector', she risks all to live and love on her own terms. Her attempt to follow her heart, to survive husbandless on charm and wit alone, is doomed; but even when her greatest feat overtakes her and she is forced to wed a rich, brainless fop, her dignity never falters. Ironically, her daughter, despite dreaminess and (in her mother’s view) a dangerous lack of self-control, ends up gaining the love match Lady Susan is denied.
Lady S offers many pleasures: a tale of erotic intrigue in which mother and daughter vie for love, sex, and money; a comedy of manners wherein social and sexual hypocrisy are exuberantly laid bare; a compelling narrative whose satire is rooted in Freud’s timeless question 'what do women really want?'. Above all, in the person of Lady Susan – complex, seductive, indomitable – the screenplay brings to light an original and fascinating character.
Author Info:
MICHELE ADAMS has an M.A. in English literature, and a special interest in the 18th century. She has published fiction and reviews, recently completed a novel, worked for CBC Radio as a writer/broadcaster – and continues to freelance as writer/editor in a variety of forms. Her second screenplay, Fat Girl, set in 1963 Winnipeg, tells the tragi-comic story of a love triangle involving a fourteen-year-old boy, a beautiful nun, and the quirky “Fat Girl” of the title.
MICHELE ADAMS, Writer
1149 Lily Street
Vancouver, BC V5L 4H5
(604) 253-5828
madams@idmail.com
Agent: Dacia Moss
Lucas Talent
(604) 685-0345
The Living Room Hour
Genre(s): Drama
Logline:
During the 1930's a young Jewish violinist in need of a job adopts a French name and becomes a fiddler in a Quebecois country music band.
Synopsis:
Two old men meet for coffee in Montréal. Edward Golden, a Jewish anglophone, and Real Menzies, a Catholic Québecois, haven’t seen each other in fifty years. As they reminisce awkwardly, their story unfolds against a background of cultural diversity and tension in Depression-era Quebec.
A young and impoverished Eddie has been forced to leave university and search for work, but there’s no call for his only skill, playing classical violin. A family friend who owns a furniture store hires him onto the band that plays for the store’s radio show, “The Living Room Hour” – but it’s French-Canadian country music. Eddie’s family and friends are horrified, and Real and the other musicians are downright hostile.
Re-christened with a French stage name, Eddie catches on musically, and he and the band embark on a series of adventures in 1930’s Montreal and rural Quebec. The band's exuberant, foot-stomping style brings a few hours of happiness to villages hit hard by the Depression. And Real's animosity gradually transforms into a friendship with the outsider that he takes under his wing.
Eddie moves between his own immigrant neighbourhood and the raucous lifestyle of the band, a tavern brawl, and conflicts with the Catholic church. Eddie’s attempt to bring the two worlds together at a dinner cooked by his very Jewish mother yields hilarious results.
Eddie is attracted to Andree, the band's beautiful and strong-willed singer who is culturally off limits. A love affair begins, only to end in tragedy.
The meeting of Eddie and Real half a century after their unlikely friendship began ends on a bittersweet note, with memories of friendships that ultimately failed to last. It ends, as well, on a musical note as the two old men play together one last time.
Author Info:
NORMAN WEXLER was raised in Montreal and educated at McGill University, the University of British Columbia and Osgoode Hall Law School. He has practiced law in Vancouver since 1974. The Living Room Hour was inspired by his father's experience in Quebec during the 1930's.
NORMAN WEXLER, Writer
650 - 1500 West Georgia Street
Vancouver, BC V6G 3A9
(604) 718-6890
(604) 685-7901 Fax
normw@axionet.com or
nwexler@ewlaw.bc.ca
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
Or contact Praxis
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
Open House
Genre(s): Comedy, Drama
Logline:
An ordinary family agrees to be taped 24 hours a day for a reality television show, and eventually the producer manipulates their lives and destroys them.
Synopsis:
The Bradleys are the perfect nuclear family for a reality TV show. The father is loutish, the mother is matronly, the daughter is outspoken, and the son is spineless. But when a national hit becomes a ratings clunker, producer David Watson slowly begins to tweak events to keep the show alive. Soon, the family finds itself monstrously manipulated and must somehow break free.
Open House won a Spring 1995 Praxis fellowship and was first runner-up in the BC Film Next Wave program to fund a first feature film.
Author Info:
ANDREW CURRIE has earned international success with a series of short films. They have sold to Canal + (France) and Channel 4 (UK). He has written several feature screenplays, including Fido (Mainline Pictures - also a Praxis Workshop finalist, co-written with Shelley Eriksen, Robert Chomiak and Dennis Heaton); Tripping Jack (development funded by Telefilm Canada, The Harold Greenberg Fund (FUND), and 1999 Praxis fellowship); and Sperm (Anagram Pictures).
Andrew attended the Canadian Film Centre Resident Director Program in 1997, and had great success with Night of The Living, which he co-wrote and directed. It played at the 1997 VIFF (Telefilm Canada Award for Best Director) and at the 1998 Victoria International Film Festival (Best Short Film), and the 1998 Yorkton Film Festival (winning a Golden Sheaf Award). Recently Andrew was nominated for a Gemini Award (Best Director) for Twisteeria, a half-hour comedy for YTV. Mile Zero is Andrew's feature film directorial debut.
ROBERT CHOMIAK is a Vancouver-based writer who received his BA in Dramatic Arts from the University of Lethbridge (Alberta) and completed two years of film production at Simon Fraser University. He was awarded development funding for his feature-length screenplay Dark Hearts through the 2001 BC Film "Features in Focus" program. Dark Hearts won a Praxis fellowship for both the Spring 1999 session and Summer 1999 workshop, it was selected for script workshops in both the 2002 Victoria Independent Film & Video Festival and the 2002 Alibi Unplugged Reading Series, it placed in the top 10% of screenplays considered for advancement to the Quarterfinal Round of the 2001 Nicholl fellowships, and it was a finalist in the 2001 WriteMovies.com competition. His feature-length drama The Irony Cellar was shortlisted for the Spring 2001 Praxis competition.
Robert was live-action dialogue writer for the Gemini-nominated, Leo award-winning half-hour children's special Twisteeria. He also writes ADR scripts for the Ocean Group on anime TV series (Zoids, G Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam, Saber Marionette J), animated features (Jin-Roh [The Wolf Brigade] and Escaflowne) and PlayStation 2 games (Gundam: Journey to Jaburo and Gundam Zeonic Front).
Open House won a Spring 1995 Praxis fellowship and was first runner-up in the BC Film Next Wave program to fund a first feature film.
ANDREW CURRIE & ROBERT CHOMIAK, Writers
(604) 739-9117
Email: Andrew Currie
Email: Robert Chomiak
Agent: Jennifer Hollyer
Jennifer Hollyer Agency Inc.
(416) 928-1425
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
The Reunion
Genre(s): Drama
Logline:
The Reunion is a drama about Graham Carpenter who attends his ten-year high school reunion only to discover that his best friend Randy Hawkins, who died on grad night, also shows up and wants to resolve the past.
Synopsis:
Graham Carpenter is haunted by an event from the past--his best friend Randy Hawkins was killed in a car crash on grad night. Since Graham was driving, he blames himself for Randy's death. Traumatic memories resurface, increasing pressure on Graham as he struggles to hold down his job as a photographer and keep his marriage together with his new wife Laura. Finally Graham decides to attend his upcoming high school reunion and face his past. As he packs for the trip to his home town he hides a gun in his suitcase, planning suicide.
At the gathering, Graham is reunited with his old buddies Wade Bracket and Lumpy Kershaw who haven't completely resolved Randy's death either. Graham's personal turmoil escalates until he gives a heartfelt speech to his former classmates. At the climax of his address, Graham reaches for the gun in his jacket. But before he has a chance to use it, he is stunned to see his dead friend Randy.
Laura tries to comfort Graham, but is upset to discover the gun. Graham breaks away, rushing after Randy, followed by Lumpy and Wade.
The four young men all meet at the water tower where they used to hang out as teenagers. Incredibly, Randy is back with the living for just one night. Despite Graham's protests, they pile into Randy's souped-up old Plymouth Satellite and hit the highway -- just like the old days.
On the road, the guys relive the rowdy times they once shared. Graham, however, sees the past repeating itself and he wants no part of it. Randy has other plans; he wants to settle the score.
Out on the back roads, their partying takes a dark turn as the four friends re-enact the fateful night Randy was killed in a dangerous game of "up and over" -- two passengers climb out the windows and cross over on the roof while the car speeds down the highway. It's a wild ride and they all nearly end up dead in another crash that mirrors their grad night. This time, however, Graham saves Randy's life.
Through these dramatic events, Graham comes to realize his perception of the past was wrong -- Randy's death wasn't an accident, and it wasn't his fault. More than a ghost story, The Reunion is about the eternal bonds of friendship and the redemptive power of love.
Author Info:
MONTGOMERY BURT has written teleplays for Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone, one of which won second prize in the Writer's Digest Writing Competition. His radio drama Leonard McTivey's Last Day at Work was produced for CKNW Radio. For the past twelve years Montgomery has headed Upwords, an ongoing screenwriters workshop that develops new talent. Outskirts of Paradise is his third feature film script; he is currently writing a thriller called Oceanview Motel.
MONTGOMERY BURT, Writer
1288 East 14th Avenue
Vancouver, BC V5T 2P3
(604) 875-0660
montyburt@telus.net
Or contact Praxis
Role Playing
Genre(s): Comedy, Coming of Age, Drama
Logline:
On the eve of his high-school graduation, a 15-year-old former child prodigy comes of age in a Canadian army town.
Synopsis:
Patrice Fortier is a former child prodigy who considers himself washed up at 15. Still, he's about to graduate from high school two years early, which presents him with a couple of problems. First, as a nerdy kid two years younger than his classmates, he's always been an outsider, and that's lead to a crippling lack of self-confidence. And second, he's being pressured to make important decisions about life after high school - decisions he feels completely unready to make. Throw in his parents' messy divorce and you can understand why Patrice regularly escapes into a Dungeons & Dragons-style fantasy world. Enter Candace, a free-spirited social chameleon who takes a liking to Patrice and starts hanging out with him. Patrice is secretly attracted to her, but convinced that he's doomed to love her from afar. When a suicide attempt in his family throws his world upside down, Patrice is forced to grow up in a hurry, face his fears, and make some crucial choices that could affect his entire adult life. Role-Playing could be described as Say Anything meets Rushmore with a healthy dose of Lord Of The Rings thrown into the mix.
Author Info:
ERLE MUNDLE began in film at the age of 17, writing and directing short films in New Brunswick. He attended film school in Vancouver where he studied screenwriting, directing and producing. Other scripts in development include... Old Emotions - an intimate, character-driven drama about loss, letting go, and moving on... Acquainted With The Night - after a research scientist is bitten by a vampire, he searches for a connection between the way sunlight affects vampires and the way UV rays cause skin cancer in humans... and Small Potatoes - a comedy about the making of a truly disastrous Canadian movie and how it destroys the lives of everyone involved
ERLE MUNDLE, Writer
(604) 605-8911
erlemund@direct.ca
Or contact Praxis
Sex Lives of the Saints
Genre:Coming of Age • Romance • Dark Comedy • Drama
Logline: Set in 1963, a tragi-comic coming-of-age triangle unites fourteen-year-old Michael with a beautiful nun and teenaged Danuta - over a year of change, he discovers lust, betrayal, Lives of the Saints, and learns that passion and purity aren't mutually exclusive.
Synopsis: A sweet-bitter coming of age story set in a prairie town (Winnipeg), during and after the 1963 Cuban Missile Crisis. The protagonist, Michael, is an edgy Grade Eight student at Holy Ghost Parochial, where classes are routinely interrupted by air raid sirens and 'Nucular' war drills.
No big deal for Michael, son of two Polish war survivors; apocalyptic expectation is in the blood. His problems lie elsewhere. For one thing, he's trapped ... between home, where life with his wounded parents plays like an endless WWII movie, and the would-be-macho world of his peers. Comfortable in neither sphere, he's become a talented escape artist, sliding by on loner cool. But when the classic coming-of-age issue – Encounter with the Eternal Woman – surfaces, Michael's 'cool quest' is fatally undermined.
It begins with his crazy Mom, powerfully, even horribly female, with her emotional demands and gory tales, all starting with the same exhortation: "Listen!" And you do, as long as you can stand it – but, pretty soon, you gotta go.
Then there's Michael's love object, ethereal, elegant Sister Lioba, a nun at the Holy Ghost. Beautiful, brilliant, challenging, her chill purity turns Michael on even as it awes him. images of the saints' varied martyrdoms, once just part of the Catholic wallpaper of his world, suddenly grab Michael's attention in a way that's not pious. Soon he's having visions of his chaste mentor, scantily clad and pierced by celestial swords.
Yet, while he yearns after Lioba, Michael is also drawn to an oddball classmate: vulgar, plump, mouthy Danuta, iconic 'Fat Girl' of the school. He doesn't like like Danuta – but there's something about her goofy humour, weird insights and, above all, her blonde lush femaleness, that's more than OK, even compelling ... as long as no-one knows. Hot prairie summer continues; loopy late night talks turn into make-out sessions on Danuta's front porch. Michael tries to keep it a secret, but inevitably everyone finds out... even Sister Lioba.
How painfully uncool to be linked to the Fat Girl: and then Danuta ups the ante, insisting they 'go public' at the local diner. The resultant tug of love leaves Michael caught between the very different demands of two women – and two creeds. His 'correct' choice speaks to the linear thinking that automatically opposes flesh and spirit. But life – and women – aren't so simple. Danuta and Sister Lioba both hold secrets, contradictions that will finally explode (like the Nuclear bomb) Michael’s facile world of polar oppositions. In the end Michael, revealed to himself as the 'Fool of Cool', discovers that love, lust, and the Lives of the Saints aren't mutually exclusive after all.
Author Info: MICHELE ADAMS has published fiction and reviews, recently completed a novel, worked for CBC Radio as a writer/broadcaster – and continues to freelance as writer/editor in a variety of forms. Her first feature script, Lady S, a satiric romantic comedy, is an adaptation of Jane Austen's first novel. Her current screenplay project traces a contemporary, tragi-comic tale of deceit, smoked meats, and the dark anguish of unrequited love.
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.
Samuel Hearne: His Journey
Genre: Action/Adventure - Drama - Historical
Logline: The story of Samuel Hearne’s attempt to discover the ultimate meaning of existence via a journey through the Northwest Passage.
Synopsis: This is the story of Samuel Hearne and his historic, three year, three thousand mile trek, in the eighteenth century, across the North American subarctic to find the fabled Northwest Passage. Even more, it is the story of this individual's attempt to discover the ultimate meaning of existence, a discovery he believes will be realized at the furthest extreme of the unknown where West meets East. It is a journey that involves incredible hardship, violence, aching misfortune and perfidious villainy, love in all its guises-- lust, passion, and devotion-- and unsurpassed camaraderie between himself and a charismatic Native American leader. In the end, an old alchemist is instrumental in his realization of his long sought desire.
Author Info: MARK PARRY began writing Samuel Hearne after teaching theatre and film at the University of Manitoba. It developed after many months of studying Jung, Campbell, Wilber, and meditating on the conundrum..."Seer and seen, beholder and beheld are one".
P. MARK PARRY, Writer
#30-4949 Ontario Avenue
Powell River, BC V8A 5T7
604-485-3937
Or contact Praxis
Summer Fallow
Genre: Coming of Age, Drama
Logline: A troubled boy is sent to a prairie farm after the death of his sister, where he develops an unusual relationship with an elderly hermit.
Synopsis: A troubled boy is sent to a prairie farm after the death of his sister, where he develops an unusual relationship with an elderly hermit.
In the strained aftermath of his stepsister's suicide and his father's disintegrating marriage, Gage Bernquist is sent to stay with his uncle and aunt on their Prairie farm. Painfully aware that he neglected his sister in her time of need, and guilty to the point of self-injury, Gage seeks relief from his torment in any way he can.
Gage cannot respond to his aunt and uncle's attempts to reach out to him. Instead he is drawn to their nearest neighbour, Angus Thorpe. Angus, a caustic old hermit who hasn't left his land since his own father’s death, wants nothing to do with Gage or anyone else. Having relied upon his sister Eve to bring him his groceries and serve as his sole liaison with the outside world, Angus has grown accustomed to a comfortable seclusion in which he's been able to raise his cattle and farm his land with little interference. The isolation he has taken for granted, however, comes to an abrupt halt when Eve suffers a stroke that leaves her confined to a wheelchair. Suddenly vulnerable for the first time in three decades, Angus panics as he considers the consequences.
Gage offers to take over Eve's grocery run, believing he'll find in Angus the one person capable of understanding his pain. Angus quickly conscripts Gage to help him bring in his harvest, and Gage zealously embraces the hard labour as part catharsis, part penance for his sister's death. He soon realizes, though, that Angus may not be the kindred spirit he had hoped for. Tensions rise as they work together to bring in the grain.
There is someone who does want to understand Gage's pain, if only he would let her. Melanie Jensen is Eve's granddaughter, a generous and ambitious girl who sees in Gage what he's not willing to see in himself. Wary of her affection, Gage struggles with his feelings, finding it easier to continue blaming himself for his sister's death than to accept the possibility that he still deserves love.
Angus and Melanie represent for Gage two different ways of coping. Through them, Gage must decide whether to face his guilt and begin to heal, or hide behind it and let it destroy him.
Author Info: JASON BRINK is a Vancouver-based writer, but an Alberta prairie boy at heart. He graduated with distinction from the University of Victoria's Creative Writing program, where he wrote and directed the short film Ramona Moans Alone. He is currently developing a dramatic series for television and another feature length script. Summer Fallow was chosen for the Praxis Fall 1998 Workshop, where Jason worked with veteran screenwriter Peter Behrens (Cadillac Girls).
JASON BRINK, Writer
1405 - 1146 Harwood Street
Vancouver, BC V6E 3V1
(604) 408-1090
(604) 408-1090 Fax
jbrink@telus.net
Or contact Praxis
The Undaunted
Genre: Action/Adventure, Drama
Logline: In 1883, two men are forcibly brought from China as laborers for building the trans-Canada railway through the Fraser Canyon.
Synopsis: Wong Chi, a dispossessed farmer, and Siang Yun, an ex-convict, form an uneasy life-long bond when the latter saves the former's life. In 1883, shanghaied from China, they arrive in Yale, B.C. and are put to work building the trans-Canada railway. In spit of the harsh environment and dangerous working conditions, each is sustained by a personal agenda: Wong Chi to get rich quick and buy land in his native place, and Siang Yun, a member of a quasi-religious revolutionary movement, dreams of returning to overthrow the oppressive Manchu regime in China. The machinations of their white bosses, and the greed of their compatriot, quickly impact upon them.
Matters come to a head when Wong Chi rescues Nell, a chamber maid at a brothel, from being raped by Morgan McDermot, his racist foreman. Afterward, Morgan only recalls his attacker was a coolie with stripes across his back. Nevertheless, the incident incites a riot. The Chinese work camp catches fire and a powder magazine nearby explodes, burning down half the town. As the town struggles to get on its feet again, coolies' rage against the explosive compradore Mr. Liu boils over. They kill him and recognize Siang Yun as their leader and spokesman henceforth.
As the work force moves up the Fraser, Wong Chi is detailed to remain behind to care for injured coolies. Wong Chi encounters Nell again and they fall in love. The coolies discover the illicit affair and alter Siang Yun. Fearing repercussions, he breaks up the romance by ordering Wong up-river where the final sections of track are being laid.
Determined to complete the railway on schedule, Olson, the railway's main engineer/contractor, must work through the winter. A landslide cuts the overland supply route. Olson devises a daring plan to bring in rails and other supplies by boat. This sets off a wild bout of betting activities in Yale, with townsfolk making huge wagers against Olson. Olson wins against heavy odds by using coolies to drag a paddle-wheeler upstream through the Hell's Gate rapids.
As the last tunnel is blasted through the mountain, Morgan accidentally discovers Wong Chi is Nell's rescuer. A confrontation takes place in the tunnel as the last charges of dynamite explode. Wong is critically injured. Siang Yun takes Wong Chi through the rapids in a rowboat in a desperate attempt to seek help in Yale. However, he dies. As Morgan follows them to Yale, bent on vengeance, his past finally catches up with him; a sheriff's deputy, intending to arrest Morgan, kills him instead.
As the first train arrives in Yale, Siang Yun returns to China.
Author Info: MICHAEL DAVID KWAN was born in Beijing, China. His several careers include social worker, and broadcaster before carving a niche in the airline and travel industries. During his teaching stint in his native Beijing (1987-90) he began writing seriously.
Kwan's writing credits include, a play, The Day of the Phoenix, which was a winner in Theatre B.C.'s Canadian National Playwriting Competition, 1992. His second play, A Season in Purgatory won the Du Maurier Arts Canadian National Playwriting Competition, 1995. His memoir, Things That Must Not Be Forgotten recently won the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize, 2000 for non-fiction.
Michael David Kwan lives and works in Vancouver, B.C.
MICHAEL DAVID KWAN, Writer
Agent: Robert Mackwood
Contemporary Management
(604) 734-3663
rmackwood@ccpr.com
Or contact Praxis.
A Winter Girl
Genre: Coming of Age, 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.