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GIMLI FILM FESTIVAL TENTH ANNIVERSARYActor who plays “heavies” is lighterBy Roger NewmanStephen Eric McIntyre is somebody to avoid in a back alley.Roger NewmanDirectors and actors debated their relationship during a film festival panel discussion. They are, left to right, director Sean Garrity, actor Stephen Eric McIntyre, actor Rossif Sutherland and director Gary Yates.Roger NewmanWomen directors decided they have fewer problems than their predecessors during a panel discussion at the Gimli film festival. Front row, left to right, are Paula Kelly, Norma Bailey and Lisanne Pajot. In back are Danishka Esterhazy, Liz Jarvis and Alethea Arnaquq-Baril.The Winnipeg actor is regularly chosen to play hard-edged villains in movies such as High Life” which screened last week at the Gimli Film Festival.lie was unhinged ex-convict Bug in “High Life”, a recent bank heist movie from Winnipeg director Gary Yates. Earlier, he was Luke the drug dealer in the Falcon Beach TV series shot at Winnipeg Beach.“I’m always a bad guy,” says McIntyre who will strut the screen again this fall in a small town Ontario murder mystery starring Jill Hen-nessy.In the meantime, McIntyre came to Gimli to take in the festival and participate in a panel discussion about the actor-director relationship. In person, he turned out to be affable rather than angry, with an extensive resume that includes theatre and playwrighting in addition to films. He also has an Interlake connection in that his actor-writer girlfriend Merry Lang used to live in Gimli.McIntyre’s Winnipeg stage work ranges from Shakespeare in the Ruins productions to “Zadie's Shoes” at Prairie Theatre Exchange and “Possible Nudity” by the Theatre X company. He has been seen on television in “Less Than Kind”, a Winnipeg-lensed comedy series; “Cashing In”, a casino drama on the APTN Network; and “The Capture of the Green River Killer” mini-series. Both “Cashing In” and the Green River Killer were directed by Gimli-raised Norma Bailey.McIntyre is now entering new territory. “I am writing my first screenplay,” he said. “I'm going to pitch it to Buffalo Gal productions in Winnipeg.”He was joined on the Gimli panel by Rossif Sutherland, another “High Life” cast member who is the son of well-known Canadian actor Donald Sutherland and half-brother of TV star Kiefer Sutherland. Rossif, a 32-year-old bom in Vancouver, preceded his appearance in “High Life” with roles on the “ER” and “Monk” TV shows plus movies like “Red Door”, “I’m Reed Fish” and “Poor Boy’s Game”.Both McIntyre and co-star Sutherland said actors work best when they build a relationship of trust with their directors. “My worst directing experience was my first movie when the director called me *kid' and kept yelling at me to speak louder,” Sutherland said. “Actors are very vulnerable and can get self-conscious. Instead of yelling, there is the power of silence — take a breath and calm down ”Sutherland told an anecdote about a director who found a sneaky way to motivate his famous father when the latter was both the star and producer of a play.“To keep out of trouble, the director gave only one suggestion a day to my father,” Rossif said. “But he gave a daily list of four suggestions to my mother knowing she would be going to bed with his star that night. That way my father thought everything was his own idea.”Also on the panel were Winnipeg film directors Yates of “High Life” and Sean Garrity of “Seven Times Lucky”. They said it is really hard to find theatre audiences for Canadianfilms because of the competition from U.S. movie-makers armed with $30-million marketing budgets to promote potential blockbusters. Still, Yates said Canadian movies can eventually make money from other revenue streams such as television distribution.Liz Jarvis, a producer at Buffalo Gal, chaired another panel discussion on the challenges and obstacles facing women in the film industry. Jarvis said that although women constitute 50 per cent of the population and 44 per cent of film school graduates, they only receive 11 per cent of federal tele-film funding.However, this issue has apparently lost somesteam since U.S. director Kathryn Bigelow won the Oscar in April. The two youngest panelists — Alethea Amaqug-Baril of Nunavut and Lisanne Pajot of Winnipeg — said they have never faced any problems as women directors.“It has never occurred to me,” Pajot said. “It is probably because of the long road walked by other people who went before me.”Veteran Norma Bailey, one of Canada’s busiest directors, said that to her knowledge, she has never lost a directing job because she is a woman. On the flip side, she said she has been hired to bring a woman’s perspective to a movie and has also been helped by a couple of menduring her career.“I make movies that interest me,” she said. “ like to be a doer and not whine about things.”With the gender issue at least partly solved the women directors turned to the universa complaint about the lack of financing available for today’s movies. Bailey said both the CBC and the National Film Board have less monej for films, with the result that it is more difficul to get into the industry.“There are so many directors out there anc no money,” she saidBailey also said the film industry is beim affected by the growing popularity of Interne media. “Everyone is afraid because they don’ know what’s going to happen,” she said.Despite present uncertainty, none of the women directors are looking for other occupations.“I am never more alive than when I’m on lt;set,” said Paula Kelly who was in book publishing before she became a Winnipeg filmmakei “That’s what keeps me doing it — it’s an addiction.”The two acting-directing panels — plus lt;third featuring leading Canadian movie producers — demonstrated the Gimli festival's growing importance to this country's filmmakers More and more of them are coming to the festival to make contacts, network and perhaps tall about future projects.The third panel, for example, included Core) Marr, the Toronto producer behind the new hi “Passenger Side”; Jody Shapiro, also of Toronto and a producer of Guy Maddin films; Lynne Skromeda, president of production at Winnipeg's Frantic Films; and Jarvis of Buffalo GalsMarr is enjoying the success of “Passengei Side”, a Matt Bisonnette directed tale about twe brothers taking a meandering car trip in Los Angeles. He said this movie’s modest budge enabled it to make money shortly after its recen release. Still in theatres, it was screened twice during the Gimli festival.“I love the movie industry because you're working with some of the most incredibly passionate people you'll ever meet,” Marr said.Shapiro’s sentiments were similar. “Producing is satisfying because you're helping to bring peoples' work to the screen,” he said. “There ilt; a sense of pride because you've carried a bab) all the way through.”Winnipeg actor Stephen Eric McIntyre and his actor-writer girlfriend Merry Lang, formerly of Gimli, were busy people during the Gimli Film Festival.
Newspaper Details
Stonewall Interlake Spectator
Stonewall, Manitoba, CA
Fri, Jul 30, 2010
Page 22
Full Page
Clipped by
Edward L.
CA 19 May 2019
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