darklingpictures.com

Photos: Shelagh Carter, production stills

Passionflower

Writer / Director 2011
Passionflower Films
Feature Film / Drama / Colour / Red Camera

On the brink of puberty in 1962 suburban Winnipeg, Sarah Matthews is increasingly challenged and confused by her mother's instability and sexual power. While her father refuses to acknowledge that the family is fracturing under the stress of his wife's mental illness, Sarah uses her creativity, inner strength, and a new friend to discover her own identity. With courage, Sarah bears witness and demands truth from the adults around her, demonstrating love's capacity to endure.

Screening in Competition:

Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF), Vancouver, Canada, October 2011

Awards:

Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF), Vancouver ,Canada, October 2011 - Recognition of an Outstanding Performance in a Drama, Kristen Harris, Passionflower

Website: http://www.passionflowerfilm.com/

Photos: Shelagh Carter,
Ricardo Alms

Canoe

Director / Producer 2010
Collaborator/ Deborah Schnitzer
Experimental Narrative / Colour / HD / 6m 13s

The film traces the anguish a middle-aged woman endures as she contemplates a decision on a summer day that might end her own life and that of her husband who suffers a long term and incurable illness.

Screenings:

2nd Canada Film Week at the Goethe Institute, Ghana, Africa, March 2011

Awards:

WorldFest International Film Festival, Houston, USA. April 2011 - Grand Remi Award Best Experimental Film

Photos: Ricardo Alms,
Shelagh Carter

Resolve

Director / Producer 2009
Collaborator/ Deborah Schnitzer
Dance / Colour / HD / 7 min 30 s

In its exploration of the capacity of the body to reproduce and the mind to conceive, 'Resolve' expresses the weight and dynamism of the creative process, as well as its uncertainty, poignancy and challenge.

Screening in Competition:

NapoliDanza, Il Coreografo Elettronico, Naples, Italy, May 2010

Photos: Alyssa Faoro

One Night

Director 2009
Canadian Film Centre / Short Dramatic Film Award
Drama / Colour / 35 mm / 15 min

Painful truths emerge when a woman, Evelyn, is attacked in her home and her husband, Jack, fails to intervene. After shooting the intruder, Evelyn forces Jack to answer for his cowardice and in so doing, realizes exactly what has robbed her life of meaning and love.

Screenings:

Festival Mas Sorrer, Spain, July/August 2010
14th Annual LA Shorts Fest, Los Angeles, July 2010
Montreal World Film Festival, August 2009
Yellowknife Film Festival, February 2010
Astral Media acquired ONE NIGHT to screen on The Movie Network, April 2010 - 2012
Corto Helvetico al Femminile, Switzerland, March 2010
WorldFest, Houston, U.S.A., April 2010 (Awarded the Silver Remi)
Newport Beach Film Festival, U.S.A. April 2010
WIFTV Women in Film Festival, Canada April 2010
International Premiere, Lanzarote Short Film Festival, Spain, May 2010
Worldwide Short Film Festival, Toronto, June 1-6, 2010
14th Annual LA Shorts Fest, Los Angeles, July 2010
Festival Mas Sorrer, Spain, July 2010
Gimli Film Festival, July 2011

Awards:

Best Manitoba Short Film, Gimli Film Festival, Gimli, July 2011
WorldFest International Film Festival, Houston, April 2010 - Awarded the Silver Remi
Best Director at Soul 4 Reel Film Festival, USA, March 2011

Screening in Competition:

16th International Short Film Festival in Drama, Greece, September 2010

Photos: Ricardo Alms

Night Travellers

National Screen Institute Drama Prize 2007
Writer / Director 2008
Dramatic short film / Colour / HD / 13 min

Night Travellers is the story of Mika LaFreniere, a wife and mother who falls into a passionate affair with a migrant worker in the 1960s. Against the backdrop of the strict religious community where she lives, and her father’s disparaging behaviour, Mika struggles to make the right choices.

Screenings:

NSI Film Festival, Winnipeg, Canada, February 2008
Worldwide Short Film Festival, Toronto, June 2008
Newport Beach Film Festival, April 2008
CBC Reflections - Broadcast, June 2009

Awards:

WorldFest International Film Festival, Houston, April 2009 - Awarded the Platinum Remi.

Photos: John Barnard

rifting/blue

Director / Co-Producer 2005
Experimental short film / Colour / B&W /
HD & 16 mm / 7 min 26 s

Watch an excerpt (requires Quicktime).

An experimental short film, exploring women and madness, devoted to breakages and particularly focused on the appetites revealed as the subject is extinguished.

Nominations / Screenings:

Golden Sheaf Awards, Yorkton, Canada - Best Experimental Short Film May 2005
Montecatini Film Video, Italy- Best Experimental Short Film July 2005
The Cinematheque, Winnipeg, Canada, November 2005
Blizzard Awards, Canada: Best Experimental Short; Non-Commercial/Artist February 2006

Screening in Competition: