WEEK: May 19-25, 2014
Sunday, May 25th – Continuum 3×09 Minute of Silence airs on Showcase. Kiera (Rachel Nichols), without much help from Carlos (Victor Webster), pursues a group of… Read More »WEEK: May 19-25, 2014
Zak Santiago
VIFF: Director Bruce Sweeney’s THE DICK KNOST SHOW With Tom Scholte
“Broadcasting is a Contact Sport.” Vancouver filmmaker Bruce Sweeney’s latest film The Dick Knost Show is about a shock jock talk radio host (Tom Scholte)… Read More »VIFF: Director Bruce Sweeney’s THE DICK KNOST SHOW With Tom Scholte
WEEK: September 9-15, 2013
Sunday, September 15th – Cedar Cove 1×10 Old Flames, New Sparks airs on the W network. Jack (Dylan Neal) realizes the depth of his feelings for… Read More »WEEK: September 9-15, 2013
VIFF: Vancouver as Vancouver in RANDOM ACTS OF ROMANCE
Published October 19, 2012 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 once a year several locally-filmed features are screened at the Vancouver International Film Festival. This year I got to see director Katrin Bowen’s sold-out Vancouver film Random Acts of Romance on my third try last Friday night.
“Sex, Abduction, Stalking and You Thought Romance Was Dead” is the tagline. The film opens in east Vancouver’s Waldorf Hotel with our two married couples out for the evening: Amanda Tapping’s Dianne married to Zak Santiago’s younger man Matt and Laura Bertram’s young wife Holly married to Robert Moloney’s David. Elsewhere in the restaurant is Ted Whittall’s single sleezeball Richard, breaking up with his latest conquest. Add Sonja Bennett’s single, completely wacko stalker Lynne and Katharine Isabelle’s lesbian Bud to this mix of interconnected Vancouverites and you get random acts of violent romance.
At last Friday’s screening, the very tall Katrin Bowen (below) spoke about the importance of setting her movie in Vancouver in all its “rain, sex and awkwardness.” She wanted the city to “take on a personna”. It helps that 95% of the movie soundtrack is music from Vancouver indie bands, many discovered at the Biltmore and Cobalt Hotels. And that there are so many scenes set in recognizable locations like the denouement of an abduction under the south end of the Burrard Bridge.
But the big question for the director last Friday was: how did you get Vancouver’s Sci-fii Queen Amanda Tapping to star in your movie? It turns out Katrin Bowen and Tapping became fast-friends years ago when Bowen worked as Tapping’s photo double/standin on the first Stargate TV series, Stargate SG-1. Read More »VIFF: Vancouver as Vancouver in RANDOM ACTS OF ROMANCE