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Sunflower Hour

Patrick Gilmore’s Getting-Ready Tweets for the LEO AWARDS Gala

When I caught up with nominee Patrick Gilmore’s tweets on Saturday ahead of the Leo Awards gala , I knew I wanted to do a short post about him primping and prepping for his big night. Like his wickedly-funny lead role in puppets and porn mockumentary Sunflower Hour, this read like a debauched twist on the traditional celeb diary:

9:46am – First task today is to lay out my lucky underwear. Granted I get more lucky when I don’t wear underwear, I’m hedging my bets. #Leos [He attached a photo of rows of swim wear/briefs? hanging on racks]

10:12am – Why screw with fate? It’s more likely I’ll lose my pants tonight. #Leos

11:34am – 1 hour of studying, I now have Stallone’s reaction to Peter Finch winning down pat. I’m gonna nail it. #Leos [He attached a link to a youtube video]

3:19pm – My attempt to get an authentic JBF Hair look has only led to Pillow Crease Face & an entire day spent sleeping. #Leos

4:49pm – 11mins from Red Carpet. Practicing my taking points, “P-a-t-r-i-c-k, Gilmore…that’s G-i-l…nevermind.” #Leos

5:42pm- Free champagne & autographs. [This tweet attached a photo taken by Sunflower Hour buddy Ben Cotton of Gilmore drinking champagne and signing grapher Justin’s chest at the top of the stairs to the convention floor of the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver.]

That’s the photo I wish I’d taken. The combination of a dimly-lit Media Wall and a non-professional camera defeated me. I did learn to adjust and got lucky once or twice but not in time for the Sunflower Hour boys — Ben Cotton, Patrick Gilmore and Peter New.

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LEO AWARDS Nominations 2012 – Film Edition

For the first time in a long time, I have seen four of the feature films nominated for Leo Awards on the big screen, thanks to a Vancouver International Film Festival pass from Vancouver is Awesome dot com.

As expected, Carl Bessai’s Sisters & Brothers, the third in his trilogy about dysfunctional Vancouver families, leads the feature film nominations with twelve in total. How could it not with local talent like Corner Gas’s Gabrielle Miller and Benjaman Ratner as sister and brother; Intelligence’s Camille Sullivan and Amanda Crew as half-sisters on a road trip to L.A. with a sleezy hustler played by Tom Scholte; and The Killing’s Kacey Rohl and Leena Manro as another pair of half-sisters, whose mother is none other than local acting legend Gabrielle Rose? All eight of these B.C. actors are nominated either for lead or supporting performances in the film.

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BIG READ – Vancouver as Vancouver at Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF)

Published September 29, 2011 on Vancouver is Awesome

It’s not often in this series that I get an opportunity to talk about movies where Vancouver plays itself but the Vancouver International Film Festival is showcasing 17 locally-filmed features in theatres over the next two weeks.

Four of the most-buzzed-about are Sisters & Brothers, the third in Carl Bessai’s trilogy about dysfunctional Vancouver families with real-life friends Cory Monteith and Dustin Milligan as brothers ; mockumentary Sunflower Hour about maladjusted puppeteers vying for a spot on a hit children’s show featuring real-life pals Patrick Gilmore and Ben Cotton; dramedy Everything & Everyone about a group of family and friends with Ryan Robbins’s naked torso in the teaser; and Donovan’s Echo with Danny Glover as a man who returns to his family home 30 years after a tragic accident in a movie produced by veteran Canadian actor Bruce Greenwood.

I met and chatted with some of the filmmakers and cast earlier this month at a VIFF media conference but didn’t get to see any of the filming here, mostly because the low budgets meant shooting is done mainly on weekends with a limited crew. The Sunflower Hour writer/producer/director Aaron Houston told me it took eight weekends, sixteen days of filming, seventeen locations and thirty-four actors to make his caustic and reportedly very funny mockumentary. Eveything & Everyone took only 12 days in Maple Ridge and Alouette Lake; and Donovan’s Echo filmed last November in Fort Langley. So I’ve made an exception in this series and used the VIFF handouts below to illustrate the films not my own photographs. From top to bottom: bearded Dustin Milligan and Cory Monteith as brothers in Sisters & Brothers; bad-ass Irish puppeteer Ben Cotton and his smoking puppet in Sunflower Hour; Gabrielle Rose and her newly-discovered grandson in Everything & Everyone; and Danny Glover in spooky blue on a bridge in Donovan’s Echo.

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Low budgets don’t have to limit these films when it comes to promotion though. Vancouver filmmakers are as savvy about social media as anyone in this city. The Sunflower Hour and Donovan’s Echo boast websites, YouTube trailers, facebook pages and Twitter accounts. Everything & Everyone has a teaser on You Tube and a facebook page. Sisters & Brothers has a facebook page and currently rules Twitter thanks to Glee star Cory Monteith’s 800,000+ Gleek followers. Almost everyone involved in that film has a Twitter account including @SisBroFilm and director @CarlBessai.

Sisters & Brothers, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 11th, Read More »BIG READ – Vancouver as Vancouver at Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF)