Viva Italia!

If you're following us on our Facebook Fan page, you know by now that the film's international premiere is slated for Italy!

While the venerable Venice Film Festival had also requested copies of all Canadian films that were shortlisted for Cannes (of which we were one!), we weren't going to get an answer from the programmers until late into the summer so with time a-wasting and playing the odds, we made the decision to accept the gracious invitation from the Giffoni Film Festival. I'm heading there via Rome in mid-July and can't wait!

This will be our first appearance on the international circuit and we're very proud to have been chosen in competition at the oldest, most prestigious children and youth film festival in Europe. From there, we will be going to the Frankfurt Film Festival in late August (while not October, still a good time for beer and sausages, I'm told) where we're also in competition.

And after that, who knows?

In honour of this new and exotic phase in our film's career, I'd like to share this little "film" with you. A "festival" cautionary tale of sorts....

Click here and enjoy!

Fight, Flight or Festival?

First, I wanted to say a big THANK YOU to our own self-proclaimed, social (media) butterfly, Theresapedia for filling in on the blog last week. And I'd like to extend an official invitation for her to "guest post" any time the mood strikes - especially now that she's going to be just lounging around doing nothing on mat-leave for the next whole year!

Yes, that's right. The time has come, or the term is full... either way, we must now bow to the will of the wild and reluctantly bid adieu to one of our key collaborators and most eloquent cheerleader as she leaves us to embark on a whole new kind of production - a "reproduction" if you will.

Wishing you and your growing family all the very best, T! You are going to be soooooo missed by me and everyone at Dolly HQ. Your contribution to this whole adventure has been more valuable than you can know. xoxo

But now, we must go back to the business... of show.

For things are starting to move ahead at a brisk pace. In fact, the summer is looking very warm and sunny for the second act of our film's story!

Fresh off its hearty "homecoming" in Winnipeg, the film is set to play in Victoria at the end of the month, and to my own admittedly sentimental satisfaction, we're booked to open in Saskatoon in July! Both sets of my grandparents, a beloved aunt and uncle as well as my closest cousin, Trevor lived in Saskatoon as I was growing up. So my childhood is crowded with memories of long, frequent car trips between Calgary and Saskatoon to visit them.

To this day, the smell of egg salad sandwiches still evokes the special mix of tedium and anticipation that characterized those trips toward the "Paris of the prairies" for me.

So the news that my film will be playing at Saskatoon's Broadway Theatre makes me a little nostalgic. Especially because that's the first theatre I ever went to without my parents - at the age of 8 my cousin Trev and I snuck out of his house and walked across the river, in the waning daylight to go see "Cinderella" at the Broadway. Who would've thunk that almost 40 years later, my own film would be playing at that very cinema...? Now that's a fairytale!

That Saskatoon seems to be the final Canadian city our film has been booked into doesn't make for an ending to this film's story though - oh no... far from it. As I mentioned in my Second Acts Can Suck post, there's still the festivals. Ahhh, the festivals. In that same post, I alluded to the challenges of navigating the international festival circuit... Let me explain what I meant: It's a bit of a chess game really, because what are known as the "A" festivals require that your film be at least an international premiere to be considered for selection. So, if you're in serious running for Cannes let's say (which we were - our film was one of only 7 Canadian films short-listed for two sections of the world's most prestigious film festival!!!), you cannot accept any other festival's invitations until you hear whether or not you're in Cannes. And so on...

So, starting with our short-listing and then our coming-up short (spoiler alert: we did not make the final selection) at Cannes, it's all been a bit of a waiting game - a juggle, a gamble, a weighing of the ifs, ands or buts... Do we say no to yet another lovely festival because we're being "considered" by an even bigger festival right around the corner? Given that our film was technically completed in Dec. 2010, our "best before" date is quickly approaching - so we've been facing the question: when do we finally close our eyes and finally just jump into an international premiere and start swimming in those warm waters?

Well, let me announce here that we are finally, officially poised to get nice and wet!

Stay tuned to find out where!

Post from the Peg!

Hi everybody!

This is Theresapedia (Associate Producer and social media butterfly), filling in for Tara today as she is currently in Winnipeg for the film's opening out there.

She sent me the following photos to 1) make me jealous and 2) so that I could post them here to share with y'all!

As an nearly-8-months pregnant person, I can confirm that pictures of cake are always a win for me. But even for all you non-knocked-up readers, these photos will make you drool because look! It's a The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom CUSTOM-MADE CAKE!

Is that amazing or what?

Thanks to the folks at Cake-ology, the cast-and-crew party last night had an extra dose of awesome. (Bonus: if you squint a little, you can also spot producers Barbara Shrier and Liz Jarvis in the background of this photo having lunch.)

This is the designer whose name I don't have (if you know her, send me an email at info@palomarfilms.com) but look how cute she is!

**UPDATE: Pamela from Cake-ology let me know that this lovely lady is Samantha Repa, one of their talented cake decorators. Thanks Pamela, nice work Samantha!**

Super cool.

Were you at the screening in Winnipeg last night? At the party? Did you get to try this fabulous confection? Drop us a line on the Facebook page, I'm DYING to know how it tasted. No, seriously, I NEED TO KNOW.

The film opens at the Cinematheque tonight in Winnipeg and plays until June 12 and then again June 15-16.

Happy Anniversary

One year ago, we wrapped principal photography on The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom. On a secondary highway about an hour and a half outside of Winnipeg in the rain and fading light, we shot our final scene of the film - and of the whole production.

Even though I remember that moment like it was yesterday, so much has transpired in the 365 days or so since. But now, quite appropriately, a year later we are marking our first year production anniversary by heading back to the Peg - to where it all wrapped up. With a finished film tucked under our seat - or in the overhead bin, I'm not sure... Where does one stow a 35 mm print representing the labour of love of so many people over so many months and years? Truth be told, it deserves a seat in first class.

One way or another, the film is finally going home. Going home to the other half of cast and crew that helped create it. With the exception of our dear co-producer, Liz Jarvis, none of the Manitobans have seen the fruits of their labours yet! So I am totally looking forward to our cast and crew screening at the Cinematheque next week - to show the film of course, but also to see these amazing people again! Because through all the film's "coming out" moments these past months, we've been missing them. We've been accepting credit and compliments in their stead. The whole experience hasn't felt really and truly complete as long as the Winnipeg group hasn't been part of it.

So, full circle here we come! And after our private screening, the film will play for the rest of the week at the Cinematheque in the Peg - with hopes of staying on a little longer if luck and numbers are on our side. If Manitoban hospitality is anything to go by, I think it will have a long and very happy stay!

P.S. Has anyone seen a missing blog post titled "Priceless"? It was last seen in this very spot - until sometime on May 13 (Friday, May 13 that is) when it up and disappeared without a trace. If you find this post which is of sentimental value to its owner, kindly contact us at: info@palomarfilms.com

New(s) Cycle

Okay, so I'm throwing my own bulletin into what is arguably the biggest mother of all news days in recent memory.

That's right, I'm choosing this very noisy news moment to jump in to the fray even though my little blurb can't hope to be heard over the reports of the long-awaited capture/assassination/burial-at-sea of the World's Most Wanted Man. Nor can it hold a candle to the Orange Wave blowing political winds of change (and shamelessly mixed metaphors) across an unexpectedly electrified Canadian electorate. In fact, it probably can't even stand toe to toe with whatever "shocking" thing happened on Celebrity Apprentice last night...

But share it I will, because my news is really more like a feeling. An intuition if you will - based on anecdotal, if carefully catalogued, observations. Coming off the circuit of Canadian cinema these last few months, I'm getting the feeling like there might be the first whisperings of a gentle, yet persistent shift in perception...

And if you listen very closely - that's it, with your ear pressed firmly to the ground or the tree - you too might hear the earliest, most primordial creakings and yawnings of a new trend emerging. In one word, that trend is ...

Chicks.

Canuck Chicks, to be geographically exact. Making movies. Gaining in numbers and recognition and respect. Starting, slowly but surely, to take their rightful place in this country's cinematic landscape.

Case in point: In these last few weeks alone, no less than FOUR feature films by Canadian female writer/directors have opened in Canadian (and some U.S.) cinemas : From Katrin Bowen's "Amazon Falls" to Deborah Chow's "High Cost of Living" to Penelope Buitenhuis' "A Wake" to you know who's film, it's slowly starting to feel like women's voices and views are occupying a slightly more proportionate amount of theatrical real estate than ever before! Maybe the captain of the Orange Wave, Jack Layton's whole "proportional representation" thing is catching on in more than just the political arena...

Anyway, as "Dolly" leaves Regina and Charlottetown and heads to Ottawa - with stops tonight in Vaudreuil-Dorion, Friday in Hudson, before moving on to Winnipeg in June, etc. - it feels more and more like we're coming home.

Second Acts Can Suck

Notoriously the hardest chunk of story for any writer to tame, the daunting spectre of the Second Act often looms like a large and blurry bête noire between the Snappy Opening of the First Act and the Satisfying Ending of the Third. Between those distinct narrative bookends that are usually the first to form themselves in the writer's mind - because these are the things that get them juiced and keep them going when the going gets tough - lies the vast, often arid, seemingly unnavigable land of The Middle.

Its name alone is an onomatopoeic omen of the murky challenges to come: "middle" is so perilously close to its ambiguous cousin, "muddle". And not too genetically far removed from "muffle", "waffle" and thus, "wander"...

And so, it is often the place where a good story can go astray. Or, at the very least, lose steam.

Popular wisdom goes that, in order to avoid these classic Second Act pitfalls, there is just one prescription: Raise the stakes. Throw increasingly bigger obstacles in the protagonist's way.

In other words, put your hero(ine) up a tree. And then proceed to throw rocks at him/her. Start with pebbles, go to gravel, continue to work your way through the various geological mineral formations and finish with a nice, fat bolder.

According to the pundits, that'll keep the narrative moving through the marshy, mushy landscape of The Middle to usher the story artfully and effectively to its ultimately satisfying Third Act.

Here then, is about where the river stones should start coming at us. Having sailed through our opening act of major openings in Montreal, Toronto, and most recently Vancouver, our film's theatrical life is now hitting the middle of its story.

With many scheduled, if limited engagements coming up in various places across Canada, we are entering a hopefully long and steady second act. And happily for the sake of sustaining tension in the story, despite generally fantastic press and good word of mouth, all our efforts to build audiences and box office in our snappy First Act are being challenged by the movie-going audience's increasingly solicited entertainment dollar and sundry other sticks and stones in the Second Act.

Duly following the prescription for a tight, tense narrative though, we have raised the stakes by also trying to navigate our way through the unchartered and sometimes mystifying territory of the international festival circuit. And according to the rules of good storytelling, we are still winding up in more valleys than peaks, but on we trek - jumping from tree to tree and working on our stone-dodging techniques.

Homing In

Vancouver welcomed me with clearing skies and shimmering seas. And cherry blossoms, like pink popcorn lacing the trees.

This town always seduces me and turns me into a bit of a pastoral sap. It lifts my spirit. Fills my lungs with fresh, tangy air and my head with visions of a healthy lifestyle and a hard body. When the sun is shining, the ocean is pungent and the mountains are lording it over all us latté loving Vancouverites, the only thing we want to do is be out in it.

But when it's raining - where better to be than out of it and in a cinema? Keeping dry and dreaming different dreams... Right?

I hope. I hope for rain. All weekend. For we open our film here on Friday and it's not been an easy Spring for the Lower Mainland. Beautiful weekend weather would be a box office death knell.

Since I have absolutely no control over the weather however, I came out here a bit early to press some palms and plaster some posters around my old hometown.

So far, my door to door director schtick has mostly been met with a very laid-back nod, a half-smile and a casual point to where I can put up the poster wherever I go. In contrast to Montreal or even Toronto, where it would cost me a good half an hour every stop because people were so eager to talk about the film, my role in it, what it was about... Maybe because this is a bit more of an industry town, people take films and their makers more in stride. Sort of like patrons in a Los Angeles restaurant finding out their waiter is really an actor....

Anyway, so far, that part has been very sociologically interesting - not unpleasant, but not on fire either. The flip side of this, though. is the reaction we've had from acting schools, filmmaking students, filmmaking collectives and local press... There is a real hunger in those circles for the stories behind making movies. And I've already been met and welcomed into a very vibrant fold of filmmakers - spearheaded by people like Paul Armstrong of the Celluloid Social Club, Javier of Raindance (a filmmakers' networking organization originating in Britian and making its way across Canada to Montreal). At their event on Monday, I met Katrin Bowen, writer/director and one-woman powerhouse behind the lauded film, "Amazon Falls" which débuted at TIFF last year and is opening in Vancouver April 15th - an exciting event to which yours truly got invited!

Also this week Julia's mom, Sue Chappel has been gathering likeminded people together for a sort of film-y "salon" at her place on Thursday night, not to mention organizing and throwing the after-party with husband Wayne in honour of our first night's screening on Friday. Sue's sort of like a den mother/mentor/booster to many burgeoning actors, writers, directors here in town and has also hooked me up with an inspiring young man, Julian LeBlanc (alias "Gossip Boy") who is on the rise as an actor and filmmaker but also as a strong voice for Canadian cinema on his blog of the same alias.

Finally but not leastly, my terrific publicist Bonne Smith has created many media opportunities for me here even though she's based in Toronto. If the stimulating, in-depth interviews I've had to date are anything to go by, well then there is actually more to Vancouver than meets the eye. And already, what an eye-full!