Women In the Director’s Chair (WIDC) organizers are pleased to announce the eight Canadian directors who will attend the highly acclaimed script development and director mentoring program. WIDC: Story & Leadership begins an extended online edition on November 9 and includes an intensive Industry Immersion at the upcoming 20th anniversary of the Whistler Film Festival. Each director is developing either a debut feature film or an original series.
The director participants include BC-based multi-disciplinary multi-award-winning artist, Lindsay McIntyre who is developing the feature drama, The Words We Can’t Speak, inspired by her Inuk grandmother; CFC alumna, Liz Cairns who is working on the thriller, Inedia, slated to go to camera in fall 2021, supported by Telefilm Canada, with producer Tyler Hagan (The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open); and UBCP / ACTRA member, Hayley Gray who is developing her feature-length environmental drama Dry Year which received earlier development through the WIDC Short Works Award: Kamloops edition, sponsored by TELUS STORYHIVE.
Logging in to the program from Ontario, ACTRA member, Rachel Cairns is developing her debut feature, Glo, In the Dark, which received Harold Greenberg Fund support earlier this year; ZhiMin Hu is working on her genre-blending feature, Under the Red Umbrella; and executive producer/director of the Streamy award-winning digital series, COLD developed through Ron Howard and Brian Grazer’s company, New Form, Emily Diana Ruth is developing the feature-length, I Can’t Even, based on her recent short of the same name.
Developing series projects are UBCP/ACTRA member, Michelle Muldoon (BC) whose new western drama Last Stand to Nowhere is based on her award-winning short of the same name, and Rachel Beaulieu from the Sandy Bay First Nation in Manitoba, who is developing her debut web series, Coupon Kids.
This year’s WIDC program opens with filmmakers Dr. Dorothy Christian Cucw-la7 and Dr. Rita Shelton Deverell C.M. who will lead a module on equity, diversity and inclusion work. Mentor directors include multi-award-winning WIDC Feature Film Award recipients, Siobhan Devine (The Birdwatcher), Gloria Ui Young Kim (Queen of the Morning Calm) whose debut feature films each bowed at Whistler Film Festival, and Sonia Bonspille Boileau (Rustic Oracle) who is in pre-production on a new series with Radio-Canada.
Story & Leadership is also led by a team of experienced instructors and mentors including multiple industry award-winner and WIDC co-creator, Dr. Carol Whiteman who produces and facilitates the program. Returning instructors include, writer and Jungian expert, Dr. Carolyn Mamchur, screenwriter/story consultant Linda Coffey (Never Steady, Never Still, Rustic Oracle), actor and filmmaker, Lori Triolo (Blackstone, Lost Solace), Veena Sood (A Million Little Things, Welcome to Marwen) and Digital Media & Marketing Mentor, Annelise Larson, who will lead respective sessions on leadership, story development, marketing and working with actors. An ensemble of ACTRA actors from across Canada and ICG cinematographers will also join the program to workshop excerpts from the directors’ original scripts.
During the WFF Industry Immersion part of the program, the eight director participants partake in a first-class industry environment during the fest’s twenty-day run that includes an array of master-classes, artist talks, one to ones, and notably, WFF’s Women In Focus series. WIDC-hosted sessions with industry guests include Mehernaz Lentin (CBC Films), Lauren Davis (Telefilm Canada), independent producer Trish Dolman (Screen Siren), Alan Bacchus (Bell Media’s Harold Greenberg Fund), as well as representatives from the Independent Production Fund, TELUS STORYHIVE, Creative BC, among others who will participate in roundtables and individual meetings with participants.
Also featured at this year’s festival, WIDC alumnae feature films are screening, including Lori Lozinski and Lauren Grant (producers of opening night film Sugar Daddy); Ana de Lara (producer, All-In-Madonna); Ruth Lawrence (director, Little Orphans), Emily Bridger (writer, lead, Little Orphans); and Virginia Abramovich (director, Between Waves), as well as shorts by Anaïsa Visser (The Walking Man) and Jordan Canning (4 Canada A).
Story & Leadership culminates with intensive follow up development on story and marketing materials, and career coaching modules that run through to spring 2021. WIDC receives major financial support from Telefilm Canada. Story & Leadership has also been supported by CBC Films, ACTRA National, UBCP/ACTRA, AFBS, Independent Production Fund and Creative BC.
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