News/Events

Great news! Patti Larsen and Renee Laprise have been invited by Telefilm Canada to speak at the 2017 Banff World Media Festival in Banff, Alberta from June 11th-14th.

With delegates from Disney to NBC, CBC, Discovery, Wattpad, and Amazon, the Banff World Media Festival is one of the most important buyers’ markets in the world.

Patti and Renee will be participating in a panel discussion June 13th as part of The Partner Presentation’s “Discovering New Voices” moderated by Francesca Accinelli, the director of Telefilm’s national promotion and communication. This will be a chance to introduce industry leaders, broadcasters and attendees to the Lovely Witches Club.

LWC will be live tweeting (look for #LWCBanff2017 and #Banff2017), posting to Instagram and Facebook and sharing the entire time.

In the meantime, look for the final two episodes of the Lovely Witches Club web series this Monday, June 5th.

Patti and Renee would like to thank Telefilm and Talent Fund for their support through the Micro-budget Production Program and Innovation PEI for their investment investment as well.

IMAC is so excited to announce that “Wharf Rats”, a web-series developed by Jason Arsenault, Robbie Carruthers and Dennis Trainor and produced by Jenna MacMillan, has won the Telefilm Micro-budget Production Program fund this year.

Of the five years that this program has been in place PEI projects have won three of them. IMAC’s Executive Director, Renee Laprise has been closely following the project since it was submitted for consideration, “I knew as soon as I saw the project that it would be a no brainer for the Telefilm jury. The application was extremely well crafted and the project is funny as heck. It was too good to say no to.”

“Wharf Rats” has also been shortlisted for the highly competitive Independent Production Fund.

With an already established viewership (some videos have over 300,000 views already) we anticipate Wharf Rats will become a huge success. Check out their facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/wharfratspei/

Congrats All!

Lovely Witches Club, the 7 episode webseries created by Renee Laprise and Patti Larsen, launches today! Lovely Witches Club is funded by Talent Fund and Telefilm through the Telefilm Micro-budget Production Program grant.

LWC is a multi-media project that combines dramatic narrative storytelling with ‘extras content’ embedded in the video to give the audience a deeper view into the world and its history. Accompanying each episode is a ‘novelette’ that dives deeper into the story of the episode. There is also a real life members-only club that is accessible on a pay-what-you-wish scale so that anyone can join and enjoy the content. Once all the episodes are released the series will be marketed at at a variety of venues.  The webseries will be entered in festivals, the books will be featured at book conferences, hand crafted goods and LWC merchandise will be sold at craft markets and events such as the upcoming Witches Ball will feature all of the LWC content.

Lovely Witches Club (webseries 7 episodes)

A young woman is the key to saving the cursed magic of an entire Island but will she embrace her power to save the witch sisterhood or run away screaming!

Episode 1 – Rebel witches decide to take matters into their own hands and summon a long lost heir (Reese) to see if she has the power needed to break the curse destroying their Island’s magical core. Extras content embedded in the video and links are below.

Lovely Witches Club webseries air date schedule. http://lovelywitchesclub.com/webseries/

Join the club at www.lovelywitchesclub.com and have some witchy fun!

IMAC in partnership with the Black Cultural Society and Cinema Politica celebrate Black History month with a screening of Ninth Floor, Whitewash and from our own Scott Parsons the trailer for Jupiter Wise vs. The King.

Sun, Feb 12
2pm (doors open at 1:45)
City Cinema
By Donation

THE KING VS. JUPITER WISE

Trailer by Scott Parsons (director), Ryan Gallant (writer)

The King vs Jupiter Wise is a fictional adaptation of the life of Jupiter Wise, a slave on PEI in 1785. Jupiter wants to get on a boat and escape slavery on PEI. He wants the woman he loves who is owned by the Governor to go with him. As he is beginning his “run” he discovers that his owner’s son is being kidnapped and one of their buildings on fire. Jupiter decides to rescue the boy from his kidnappers. Thus begins a tale of truth, love, hardship and redemption. Screen play written by Ryan Gallant. Original soundtrack by Scott Parsons and Jonny King. Produced and directed by Scott Parsons and Eye Witness Productions Canada.

WHITEWASH

by Nadine Valcin / Canada / 6:20 / 2016 / English

Whitewash examines slavery in Canada and its omission from the national narrative. The country prides itself as being the benevolent refuge where enslaved Africans who were brought to United States gained their freedom via the Underground Railroad. That powerful image overshadows the fact that slavery was legal in Canada for over 200 years under both French and British rule. Whitewash brings to light some of the slave families that were brought to Prince Edward Island by Loyalists and looks at how nine generations of descendants have assimilated to the point of leaving very few visible traces of their origin.

The New Trailer from Scott Parsons: THE KING VS. JUPITER WISE

NINTH FLOOR
CANADA | ORIGINAL VERSION: ENGLISH | SUBTITLES: NONE

Over four decades after the infamous Sir George Williams Riot, Ninth Floor reopens the file on a watershed moment in Canadian race relations and one of the most contested episodes in the nation’s history. Making an audacious foray into non-fiction, writer and director Mina Shum engages the original protagonists in a compassionate cinematic exercise of reckoning and redemption.

Director: Mina Shum
Cast: Rodney John, Clarence Bayne, Senator Anne Cool
Year: 2015
Duration: 82 min

In 2016 the Island Media Arts Cooperative ran the Young Island Voices project. Our Youth Program Co-ordinator Noah Hoskins travelled across the Island to introduce teens to IMAC as a resource hub for young Island filmmakers. IMAC challenged youth to tell their own stories with film and three industrious teens took us up on our offer with fantastic results. Keelin Fremlin, Alexander Cairns, and Zaneta Ambassa created unique pieces with strong themes and engaging plot lines.

Seventeen year old Keelin Fremlin submitted two short films. The first, A Cup of Tea, follows a little girl (played by Evie Grace Mawson) living with an alcoholic mother. She dreams of a land and characters much like the ones written by Lewis Carroll in Alice in Wonderland to distract herself from her harsh reality. Keelin’s second piece Melody is an avant-garde, two and a half minute montage of her friends and peers speaking, playing music and making art while an angelic voice recites a monologue about the importance of music and creation. So inspiring! We look forward to following Keelin’s exciting career as a filmmaker.

Alexander Cairns (17) and his collaborators explore themes of teen drug and alcohol abuse in his short-film YOLO. The film follows a young man on a steady path to success. Unfortunately he falls off the tracks and ends up fraternizing with the wrong crowd with very poor results. The realness of this short acts as a warning to youth. Alex says the biggest thing he learned from this project was how to properly collaborate with his partners, “Even when your plans start to fall apart, you can make compromises and still finish with a great product.”  We hope to see more work from Alexander in the future!

Twelve year old Zaneta Ambassa’s short film Muted follows a young musician who has been unintentionally muted by The Big Guy in the Sky as he relaxes in his “control room.” Seeing this character interact and attempt to communicate with her peers as she come to terms with her inability to speak is charming and comical. Zaneta wrote the script with her sister in a mere three days, “We didn’t want to forget anything and we didn’t want to take any breaks just in case!” Zaneta is a star in IMAC’s books and we look forward to seeing her next short!

To encourage these enterprising young filmmakers, IMAC’s Executive Director Renee Laprise proudly awarded each a $250.00 grant in support of their next project. “IMAC is thrilled to support young, local artists and their dreams. We are here to help you tell your stories.” Youth interested in filmmaking are encouraged to contact IMAC. We want to see more films by youth in 2017. Tell us your story!

IMAC would like to acknowledge the support of the PEI Community Cultural Partnerships Program and the Canada Council for the Arts.

Links to the films:

Keelin Fremlin: A Cup of Tea/Melody

Alex Cairns: YOLO

Zaneta Ambassa: Muted

Want to make a feature with Telefilm? Here’s how to qualify for their Micro-Budget Production Program (up to $127,500 from Telefilm).

IMAC has had 2 of its applications to the program accepted over the last 3 years. The feature film ” Kooperman” Jason Rogerson/Harmony Wagner and the webseries “Lovely Witches Club” Renee Laprise/Patti Larsen. 

 Click here for more details.