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Tuesday August 11 2015 11 By DALI CARMICHAEL Fort Smith author Richard Van Camp has dreamt for years of bringing his stories to life through lm using his hometown as the set. Last weekend his dream came true when a group of independent lmmakers touched down in the small town to shoot Hickey Gone Wrong based on Van Camps graphic novel of the same name. Hickey Gone Wrong is so important to me because we have Fort Smith actors we have a Fort Smith producer and were mentoring Fort Smithers on set Van Camp said. I al- ways felt like I let a lot of people down when we tried for seven years to get The Lesser Blessed shot in the Northwest Territories... With Mohawk Midnight Runners we also let Fort Smith down because we were so close to shooting in Fort Smith. The process of staffing and producing the project was fast and efcient. Auditions were held in the basement of the community recreation centre the night of Aug. 7. By the following evening the cast was selected and attending dress rehearsals on set at Target an out-of-commission gas station in town. Filming was completed by Aug. 11. The lm stars high schooler Daniel Wiltzen as main character Clarence Ryanna Bourke as his mother Calum McCarney as his father and Douglas Meidl as his best friend Grant. The crew consists of director Jay Cardinal Vil- leneuve and cinematographer Damien Eagle Bear who hail from Vancouver. Local lm- maker Carla Ulrich is credited as the lms producer and Yellowknifer Travis Mercredi is the location sound and audio tech. Hickey Gone Wrong tells the tale of Clar- ence receiving his rst hickey and the hilar- ity that ensues as a result. According to Van Camp the story is based on his own adoles- cent experiences working at Kellys gas sta- tion as a teen. Van Camp profusely thanked all who au- ditioned at a community event on Saturday and told those who did made the cut not to worry for they too will get a chance to make it to the silver screen when production on his next lm Three Feathers begins in October. Three Feathers is going to be a very com- plex shoot. Well be shooting every scene in all four of the ofcial languages of the South Slave region he said. Were not going to shoot the entire movie in one go. Were going to use several days in October several days in full-on winter and several days in full- on spring. This will give each of the actors time to master all four of their dialogue sec- tions before theyre actually on set even though we will have Aboriginal language coaches on set. Three Feathers will star Joel Evans - the lead actor in Van Camps previous feature- length lm The Lesser Blessed - and David Burke a Fort Smith actor who recently had a role in the Hollywood production Cut Bank. With any luck the work wont stop there. Next summer Van Camp hopes to lm one of his currently unreleased graphic novels A Blanket of Butteries in Fort Smith as well. In the meantime Hickey Gone Wrong will have its premiere at the end of the month. It will be shown alongside a Youth Rise Project lm being produced during the last week of August. Eventually Van Camp and Ulrich plan to run Hickey Gone Wrong through the independent lm circuit. Im just so proud to be a Fort Smither today and to welcome a production com- pany into our community to really honour a hilarious Fort Smith story Van Camp said. I really do feel that The Lesser Blessed was such a dark at-the-crossroads story of re- venge and redemption that I kind of got that theme of darkness out of me but now its really time to celebrate and thats what this movie means to me. First of several film productions starts rolling in Fort Smith Author executive producer Richard Van Camp proud to work with local crew ARTS CULTURE FILM PhotoDaliCarmichaelBy MEAGAN WOHLBERG Kirsten Carthew believe it or not actually has a hard time watching horror lms. I get scared really easily she said with a laugh. So its not that Im against the hor- ror genre at all...but I had nightmares as a kid watching horror movies and I just try to stay away. When it comes to making lms Carthew has shown she can denitely work through those fears. The Yellowknife lmmakers horrorsci- debut Fish Out of Water screened last week at the prestigious Fantasia lm festival in Montreal the largest genre lm festival in the world to two sold-out audiences. CreatedaspartoftheDeadNorthlmmaking festival in the NWT over the winter the short thriller follows a woman ghting to survive in a post-apocalyptic northern landscape before the story takes a bizarre and vengeful turn. I think of it as an out-of-this-world cre- ation she said. But this is denitely my rst horror...and I really really really liked it. ThoughCarthewhadalwaysfantasizedabout creating ascience ctionlmshe said the idea for the lm was inspired by the parameters of the Dead North festival and by working in Yellowknife with the local lm community. Although the version screened at Dead North was a rough cut it still managed to snag Best Screenplay and grab the attention of Mitch Davis a Dead North judge and pro- gram director for Fantasia. I really felt so grateful and happy and inspired that Mitch liked the lm because I knew where I wanted to take it she said. Its sometimes hard when youre showing a rough cut for someone else to see its potential. So that was really encouraging for me for sure. Though she didnt attend the screening her- self her young actor Ella Bertelsen was able to see it in the theatre before a packed audience. To have Ella there seeing herself on the screen in front of a room full of people made me so happy Carthew said. It was paired with a lm that has an established cult fol- lowing so the screening was sold out and screened twice so in terms of being able to showcase it before a packed audience that was great. Since landing the Fantasia slot Carthew said she has been contacted by fans lm crit- ics organizations and other festivals wanting to screen her lm including fests in Scotland the U.S. and Osaka Japan. Itsagreatopportunityformeasalmmaker because Fantasia is very credible she said. Its also possibly prompted her to stay in the genre when it comes to lmmaking. What Im learning about horror is that its a very friendly and welcoming community. Its so supportive and enthusiastic. I really enjoyed making the lm and Im so glad peo- ple enjoyed watching it she said. Its been a really positive afrmation that this is a good lmmaking road for me. Dead North repped at industry mixer Along with Carthews lm Dead North coordinator Jay Bulckaert attended Fantasia and the coinciding Frontieres International Co-Production Market as a representative of the festival and the NWT lm community. He said the conference which serves as a concentrated forum for people in the indus- try to form connections and share resources was overwhelming and inspiring. My role there was to learn what a lm- maker and producer is required to pitch and distribute a lm how to get a feature lm up and running in Canada he said. The people up here are denitely in the league of being able to go down there and pitch projects. We have the same talent and ability. So my goal for next year is to go down with a feature project thats ready to be pitched. One of the most benecial aspects was watching lmmakers pitch their projects to a room full of producers and distributors looking for nancing and support - an activ- ity he said hes denitely going to include in next years Dead North festival to help link lmmakers with the supports they need. While he was blown out of the water by the lms from across the globe that screened at Fantasia he said the goal of Dead North will remainthesametogetlmmakersintheNorth tomakeandshowtheirownlms.Thesuccess of that has already proven itself in the ability of lmmakers like Carthew to get their Dead North productions shown at other festivals. We could never compete with Fantasia and I dont want to Bulckaert said. What were doing is unique and if it stays a lm- making festival it has the most value for the territory and Northern lmmakers. NWT horror short screens at Fantasia Film Festival Northern delegate returns inspired from film industry mixer ARTS CULTURE FILM Ryanna Bourke left and co-star Daniel Wiltzen shoot a scene of Hickey Gone Wrong.