November 16 Silva Basmajian Executive Producer from the NFB Toronto office is coming to Thunder Bay to meet with local filmmakers.

Flash Frame is organizing this visit. There will be a chance to participate in 3 events:

1) Local Filmmaker "Show And Pitch Session."
Our priority is for local emerging filmmakers to showcase their talents and meet in a small group with Silva. If you have a documentary or animation proposal you are working on please send us a one paragraph summary by Tuesday the 9th. Send a brief bio as well. Let us know what you would like to show - we will allow up to 4 mins. clip of your previous documentary work or a trailer or clip from a current project. We will screen it using the projector. Please let us know what you would like to present. Keep it brief so we everyone gets an opportunity.

2) A panel and public meeting in the hall

3) One on one interviews with Silva
We will also be booking one on one interviews with Silva for the following morning for filmmakers who have a proposal ready to go and would like more time to pitch their project or get advice from Silva. Don't forget that the NFB also supports fiction films with its FAPS program - local filmmakers had access when we were still part of the Winnipeg office.

16th November
10:30 -11:30 - Finnish labour Temple (home of the Bay Street Film Festival and Flash Frame) 314 Bay Street main hall above the Hoito.

8 or 10 x 6 minute presentations from local filmmakers and their work in the hall. Flash Frame will invite the filmmakers to show a few minutes from their films or films in progress (we had record numbers who screened their films this year at the festival) and talk briefly about their current projects. They will also bring their CV's and a one page written description of their projects.

11:30 - 12:30 Silva talks to filmmakers about the various programs at the NFB - how to apply for a FAP, how to pitch a documentary or new media project etc.

12:30 - 1:30 Lunch at the Hoito with Bay Street Film Festival Board of Directors

3:00 pm - Public presentation and panel back at the Hall. The general public is welcome here as well as local cultural and Film related organizations and institutions.  Flash Frame will invite these parties.
Kelly Saxberg Chair of Flash Frame will be on the panel as a NFB filmmaker to talk briefly about working with the NFB and ONF on the several films she edited and the two films she directed for the NFB. Silva will then give a talk about the role of the NFB in Canada as a cultural institution and give us the heads up on where the NFB is heading now and how we as a community can access the NFB. Then we can have a question and answer session. We have internet in the hall and can also put the website up on the big screen and talk about New Media projects.

Today five students from the First Year Confederation Film Program took time out to work at a fundraiser. The huge yard sale took place on Moodie Drive with a flood of people visiting. Myra Beck was the host. In the picture from Left to Right, Lenny, Veronica, Ian and Paige. All were ready to go and to help out to raise funds for their trip to Mexcio. The group is planning to attend the 2010 Monterrey International Film Festival in August. There are several other fundraisers coming up, with A Sex and the City event on May 29th., a bbq next weekend, a social film night at the royalton and also a mexican bbq and backyard. If you would like to support any of the fundraisers.

Mexican Film NIght, April 8, 2010

Bay Street Film Festival proudly presents a film appreciation night for Mexico at the Paramount Thearte on Thursday April 8th

Both movies will be subtitled.

Admission: $5.00 per person or $3.00 for students.

The reason for the film night is to raise money and funds so that interested film students can travel to this years Monterrey International Film Festival (MIFF). As you might be aware we had the Director of the MIFF here in Thunder Bay during the Bay Street Festival and we wish to continue to build our exchange of people, culture and talents.

7:00pm - Al Ortro Lado (In the Other Side) - Al otro lado is a 2004 Mexican film directed by Gustavo Loza. The film follows the story of three children, one from Mexico , Cuba , and Morocco , as they attempt to deal with realities of immigration in their societies. The film won three awards at the Lleida Latin-American Film Festival in 2006, including Best Film and the Audience Award; Vanessa Bauche won best actress at the festival for her performance. Al otro lado was also the Mexican candidate for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 78th Academy Awards, but was not selected as one of the final five nominees.

9:00pm - Considered to be a “Golden Era” Mexican classic, Pueblerina is a 1949 Mexican drama film directed by Emilio Fernández . It was entered into the 1949 Cannes Film Festival. Aurelio comes home after serving time for revenge for the rape of his beloved Paloma at the hands of Julio Gonzalez. Upon arrival he learns that his mother has died and the people Paloma lives in exile with her son, the result of rape. Aurelio marry for Paloma and forget the past, but the evil brother Julio and Ramiro are not willing to leave them alone.

Both films have been provided by the Mexican Embassy in Ottawa to help further our goals of building a film exchange between Canada and Mexico. If you are interested in learning about Mexican Film, hearing about how you could attend the 2010 MIFF in August, then please attend. Dr. Batia Stolar, English Professor at Lakehead University will introduce the films.

For further information please email pmorralee@morvision.on.ca.

Paul Morralee, Bay Street Film Festival

(thanks to Nick for the wonderful poster!)

Charlie on the Rower

"Life is but a dream"

Flash Frame Team Enters Doc Challenge
by Richard Hiner

In mid February, Kelly and Ron suggested Flash Frame field a team and take the challenge. (One 4-7 min. doc made in 5 days with genre and theme assigned at the start). Our goal was to be one of the twelve winners shown at “Hot Docs” at the end of April.

We realized not all volunteers would be able to be present for every minute of shooting or preparation. We felt we could work around this.

The volunteers discussed approaches, locations and possible genres. There were 10 possible genres that would be assigned to all teams: 1st Person, Historical, Music, Social issue/political, Experimental, Sports, Nature/environmental, Biography/character study or Art. In addition, a theme would be assigned. Past themes included: Hope and/or Fear, Change, Faith, Freedom, etc.

Charlie Wilkins and his impending attempt to row across the Atlantic seemed a ‘frame’ we could hang almost any genre on except music. Charlie was willing and available. We also investigated some “back-up” plans.

Ron started the “publicity” and “promotion” part of our efforts by arranging radio interviews.

The day before the challenge began, we met at Kelly and Ron’s to pack gear, sign releases, and review the shoot locations and our rolls as crew.

On Thursday, March the 4th, we met at Kelly and Ron’s to be assigned our genre and theme. At 8 AM we were assigned “Sports” as a genre and “dreams and/or nightmares” as a theme. We felt extremely grateful for our very good luck. Members of the team not able to be present were notified by phone and email and we were off!

The first stop was the studio at Cinevate and we spent a productive morning with the loan of one of their camera's and other gear. After a great interview with Charlie and some rowing sequences, we shot the contest mandatory shot with Charlie holding today’s newspaper with the date predominate. After lunch, we continued the shoot at the Finlandia Hall.

March 5th, a beautiful moon and a sunrise were captured for use on green screen.

After breakfast, we did “pickup” shots of Charlie walking on the waterfront, near a lake freighter, on the “fish” bridge near the East end, and on the highway in front of the Terry Fox monument.

We set up on the ice on Lake Superior at Silver Bay Conservation Area. Few on the crew were experienced on the ice and the crack! boom! and echoing grumblings seemed disconcerting. I did my best to reassure everyone and felt I was making some headway until there was a very loud crack and the ice shifted like a small earthquake and water shot out and made a small flood.

After lunch, a few pickup shots of Charlie sitting at a laptop and we felt we had enough to start editing.

Kelly had a good deal of editing done by Saturday evening. Sunday, Gab and Kelly polished the editing while Danny composed and performed the music.

The first screening was late Sunday afternoon and everyone was pleased with their work. We discussed how well a rotating crew worked when they pitched in when they were available. We even thought it would be possible to enter two teams from Flash Frame next year.

On Monday, the last day before having to have our documentary postmarked, all the nerve wracking last minute gremlins, glitches and doubts reared their heads. These were slain and laid to rest in a timely fashion with only middling amounts of panic.

The first screening of our final entry was an uproarious success. We are proud of our finished work and eager to participate in more films.

Following are the people who made entering this contest possible:


Charlie Wilkins -featuring
Kelly Saxberg -Director/Editor
Ron Harpelle - Sound
Danny Johnson - original Music
Damien Gilbert -Camera/Lighting
Julie Ktytor -Production Assistant/Photos
Richard Hiner- Production Assistant/Photos

Gabriel Harpelle - Sound Editor
Ryan La Via - grip
Michel Beaulieu - assistant editor
Jacomyn Gerbrandy - Production assistant

Dennis Wood
Hubert Den Draak
David Frost (Sailor)
Aarno Peuras

Production support from Cinevate, Shebandowan Films, Danalog Studios, Finlandia Club

Mexican Film Night

Bay Street Film Festival will be holding a film appreciation night for Mexico at the Paramount Theatre on Thursday April 8^th for two showings one at 7 the other at 9. The reason for the film night is to raise money and funds so that interested film students can travel to this years Monterrey International Film Festival (MIFF). As you might be aware we had the Director of the MIFF here in Thunder Bay during the Bay Street Festival and we wish to continue to build our exchange of people, culture and talents.

The first film that will show at 7pm is Al Ortro Lado (In the Other Side)

Al otro lado is a 2004 Mexican film directed byGustavo Loza. The film follows the story of three children, one from Mexico, Cuba, and Morroco, as they attempt to deal with realities of immigration in their societies. The film won three awards at the Lleida Latin-America Film Festival in 2006, including Best Film and the Audience Award;Vanessa Bauche won best actress at the festival for her performance. Al otro lado was also the Mexcian Canidate for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the78th Academy Awards, but was not selected as one of the final five nominees.

Our second feature (9pm same night) is considered to be a “Golden Era” Mexican classic. Pueblerina is a 1949 Mexican drama film directed by Emilio Fernandez. It was entered into the 1949 Cannes Film Festival. The synopsis of the film is 
Aurelio comes home after serving time for revenge for the rape of his beloved Paloma at the hands of Julio Gonzalez. Upon arrival he learns that his mother has died and the people Paloma lives in exile with her son, the result of rape. Aurelio marry for Paloma and forget the past, but the evil brother Julio and Ramiro are not willing to leave them alone.

Both films have been generously provided by the Mexican Embassy in Ottawa to help further our goals of building a film exchange between Canada and Mexico. If you are interested in learning about Mexican Film, hearing about how you could attend the 2010 MIFF in August, then please attend. Dr. Batia Stolar, English Professor at Lakehead University will introduce the films. For further information please email; pmorralee@morvision.on.ca.

Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com
Aspiring filmmaker Matt Popowich.


Here is a bit of a dated article about home town rapper and young filmmaker. The music video is reaching 300,000 hits now! Please add your comments to update this piece!
Thanks
Kelly

T.Bay tribute goes viral
By Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com

From Current River to Westfort, Jordan Burnell’s hip-hop tribute to his hometown has gone viral.



My Home Town, posted to YouTube Thursday morning by aspiring filmmaker Matt Popowich, takes the 22-year old rapper throughout the city, exposing Thunder Bay landmarks while he sings the praises of the place he grew up in.

"Standing atop Mount McKay, feeling proud to say I’m from Thunder Bay," he sings in the video, which by 11 a.m. on Friday had been viewed more than 24,700 times, equivalent to about one-in-four city residents.

That also makes it the most viewed YouTube music video in Canada for Feb.5.



"I want to hear my whole city sing with me," he raps a few verses later.

Burnell, who ironically moved to Toronto for school two weeks ago, said the attention the song and video have received has caught him by surprise.

Within hours he had 36 friend requests on Facebook, where the video is being posted and reposted by anyone and everyone who ever had a connection to Thunder Bay.

"I was like, what’s going on? It’s nuts," he said, reached by phone on Friday morning at his Toronto apartment. "Last night when I went to bed it was at 6,000 (views), and then my dad just called me from T.Bay and said it’s at 20,000 or something like that."

The song, set to the sampled beat of Adele’s Home Town, references anything and everything Thunder Bay, from Terry Fox and Finnish pancakes to Crystal beer, mill closures, our love of hockey and even Uncle Neil himself.

"The same place Steve Stills met Neil Young, you can still hear him in your ear drums, Superior by nature, you may think it sounds cliché, but me, I just think it sounds T. Bay."

Burnell, who is studying audio engineering at Recording Art Canada, said his imminent departure is the main reason he decided to write the track.

"I was just driving through Thunder Bay one day, just out to get coffee, and I went to Hillcrest Park. I just looked out over the city and said, ‘I’m not going to see this for awhile,’" he said, noting the idea had been in the back of his mind for awhile, but it had never manifested itself beyond a few scattered thoughts.

Even though Burnell is a seasoned musician, a member of the local group Burnz N Hell that opened for the Swollen Members in November, he said it wasn’t easy putting those thoughts to paper and then sharing them with the world on the Internet.

"I’m not going to lie. I was nervous. You’re talking about your hometown and people have mixed views on where they’re from. It seems like people think I hit the nail on the head with that one," he said.

Of course Popowich, who did the video for free, hoping for a little publicity for his fledgling company, Westfort Films – for which he serves as the self-titled "dude who created it," had a hand in the success.

Filmed over the course of 13 hours, a timeframe that included a clandestine visit to AbitiBowater’s paper mill before security marshaled them off the property, Popowich said the ideas just started flowing as soon as he heard the songs and its Thunder Bay references.
"It comes to you naturally, you know. Let’s get a shot of Terry Fox, Mount McKay.

Then, for a couple of hours me and my buddies just drove around and we just looked around town and whatever screamed Thunder Bay out to us, we just made sure we got a nice shot out of it."

And what does scream Thunder Bay to Popowich, 21, a Westgate grad who hopes to enter film school within the next couple of years?

"Pretty much everything you see in the video. We just drove around and looked at stuff that struck a chord with us. I tried to shoot as many locations that I knew people would recognize, especially people from out of town, like university students, who would see the Hoito and say, ‘I’ve been there, that’s deadly."