Native Sons
Genre: drama
Logline: A white ex-con kidnaps his murder victim’s son to return the troubled boy to his estranged native family.
Synopsis: Set in the rugged back drop of BC’s Inside Passage, ‘Native Sons’ is a moving yet funny, off-beat tale of redemption, rootless ness and belonging.
Wayne Commodore (aka Pallet), an abandoned white child raised by an aboriginal family, had always had a troubled relationship with his foster brother Jimmy. Jimmy, an anti-social thug, terrorized everyone in the Native community including his younger aboriginal brother Isaac, a delicate boy very close to Pallet. Pallet became Isaac’s protector. It came as no surprise to the family when as adults, this fractious relationship ended in the death of Jimmy at Pallet’s hand. Now however, even after twelve years in jail and the forgiveness of his adopted Native family, Pallet still faces some deep personal challenges. These are brought to the fore when Isaac, who was also jailed as an accessory but released two years ahead of Pallet, meets him at the prison gates.
Isaac tells Pallet that he has located Nathaniel, Jimmy’s son who was lost to the authorities when the ordeal tore the family apart. Isaac had always had a way with Pallet, but now Isaac adds new fervour to his persuasiveness. He convinces Pallet to help him facilitate a stolen day with the boy who has been adopted by a rich, white family and has no knowledge of his father, his uncle or his tragic past.
Once in Isaac’s hands, the boy is kidnapped and taken into the woods where Isaac plans to take him on a vision quest to help him connect with his inherent Shamanism. Although outraged by this act of deception from Isaac, Pallet knows that to stop the abduction would mean having to kill Isaac. Feeling responsible for the present situation and fearful for the boy, Pallet is forced to accompany the pair on this strange odyssey.
Followed by police and Nathaniel’s rich, white father the chase soon gathers momentum as a gang of young native toughs, hell bent on avenging Jimmy’s murder join the hunt. Complicating things further is a rising conflict between Isaac and Pallet as old ghosts from the past shed new light on the murder and Pallets true motives for killing Jimmy. Was it solely to save Isaac from his brother? Or was the violent act based on deeper more personal motives? Even the help and brief intervention from a pot growing US Army deserter, can do nothing to stem the inevitable. Pallet must face himself, the boy and the tragedy that has brought them together.
‘Native Sons’ is a story of how a white man and a Native boy, both linked by a common tragedy, find that their fate and future is irrevocably intertwined.
Bio: Mr Bradbury has written two other screenplays:
‘The Burning Tree’
‘Boo Hoo, Boo Hoo’.
He has written five plays.
DAS KABARETT (with Heide Guggi) Vancouver International Fringe
THE DARLING BUDS OF MAY Scene First/Gateway Theatre
CHAPLIN 2002 Shaw Festival Season
TRUE PATRIOT Canadian Stage Workshop
SCREWED, BLUED AND TATTOOED Factory Theatre Toronto
Simon Bradbury and Brent Stait,writers
| bradbury_simon@hotmail.com staiter@shaw.ca |
Or contact Praxis
Nick Jr.
Genre: family drama
Logline: Nick Jr. is the only child in a mixed race family, alienated in new school without his only friend, hockey. After his father’s brush with death, he discovers he is the son of Santa Claus and stumbles along a path of learning to fly, forgive, and believe in order to bring Christmas to the world in three days.
Synopsis: How many children have the confidence to shake off the plague of pre-pubescence in order to help an ailing father run a multi-national company? Nick Jr. is not one of the few. He is an only child in a mixed race family who attends an unfriendly Junior High and regularly comes home to a fatherless house. However, his world changes drastically when Nick discovers he is the son of Santa Claus. As the heir of the Gift, Nick is in for the ride of his life. Nick Jr. learns quickly that being Santa Claus is more than giving up hockey to learn to fly. After his father’s near brush with death, Nick is forced on a journey to the North Pole to discover the confidence needed to bring Christmas to the world. Will he succeed in overcoming the trappings of instant popularity and wealth? Not if Uncle Rudi succeeds in his hostile takeover of the company and rids Christmas of its old fashioned dependence on Magic. This journey begins before a reindeer can reach a star, before an Elf can wave a magic hand, or a Dwarf can craft a toy. It begins with a mother’s support, an Elf’s guidance, a Dwarf’s determination, and a father’s honesty. The journey ends with courage to believe in love. And with love comes magic.
Bio: Raised in the lower mainland, Trina holds bachelor degrees in both Psychology and Fine Arts (Performance Program) from UBC. She worked on stage, TV and film before approaching art from a different perspective. A love of writing and film has lead to several short films and three feature length scripts ranging from an adaptation of the classic Aeneid to Nick Jr., an inspiring Christmas fantasy. Trina was awarded the British Columbia Film Fellowship in Spring 2004 for Nick Jr. from the Praxis Centre for Screenwriters. She went on to enjoy the Fall Workshop where the script was read and critiqued by some of Vancouver’s finest creative minds.
Trina McClure, writer
gandt@telus.net
Or contact Praxis
No Immediate Danger
Genre(s): Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
Logline:
A self-centered journalist discovers her compassion and integrity when opportunism pulls her into the center of a tragedy.
Synopsis:
Cassie Evans promised herself she'd be in the big leagues by the age of 25. But here she is at 28, covering zoning disputes and soap box derbies at the Nanaimo Citizen on Vancouver Island. When a corpse washes up at the Indian reserve, stark naked and painted purple, Cassie knows this could be the ticket to her dream job -- the crime beat at the Vancouver Herald.
As Cassie pieces together clues -- some of which arrive a little too conveniently -- the evidence points to a band of peaceniks squatting at the edge of the reserve to protest the US Navy's submarines visiting the Base across the bay. Poking around the reserve, Cassie discovers five tiny white crosses in an overgrown cemetery. Maybe the peaceniks were involved in these deaths and the stranger discovered it. She shares her speculation with her boyfriend, Rod, who's second in command at the naval base, and with her friend Sue-Li, the local coroner. When a submarine sailor turns up dead in an alley soon after Cassie questioned him, her investigation takes a new and far more dangerous turn.
In the end, she has no job, no proof, no credibility, and definitely no shot at the Herald. But she has her life and the truth -- at least part of it. From a shack on the reserve she will continue the research that has cost at least two people their lives. And if she has to write fiction to tell the truth, then so be it.
Author Info:
KIM GOLDBERG is an award-winning journalist and author specializing in environmental and Native issues. Her 1991 book Submarine Dead Ahead: Waging Peace In America's Nuclear Community details the efforts of a Vancouver Island peace group to end the US. Navy's nuclear submarine visits to Nanoose Bay. She is the 1992 winner of the Goodwin's Award for Excellence in Alternative Journalism and an active member of the Writers Guild of Canada, The Writers' Union of Canada, the Canadian Association of Journalists, and the Periodical Writers Association of Canada. She has a second screenplay available - an environmental thriller set in British Columbia's ancient rainforest. Latest Book: Where to See Wildlife on Vancouver Island.
KIM GOLDBERG, Writer
35 Prideaux Street,
Nanaimo, BC
V9R 2M3 CANADA
(250) 741-8577
(250) 741-8577 Fax
goldberg@freenet.carleton.ca