Film Festival Treats Students to Canadian Cinema
News
By LARA BRADLEY THE SUDBURY STAR
April 1 2010
With the credits of Meatballs rolling on the screen, Jack Blum, executive director
of the REEL Canada film festival, took the microphone and asked the high school
students if they knew what character he played in the 1979 classic.
"Spaz," they screamed and then laughed.
Another actor from the film, Norma Dell'Agnese, who played a nerdy red-haired
girl in the tennis scene, joined him on stage for the question-and-answer session.
It's the first time REEL Canada made its way to Sudbury. More than 700
secondary students from eight area schools attended the one day-festival,
presented in part by Cinefest Sudbury and held at Sudbury Secondary School on
Thursday.
Students voted ahead of time from a catalogue of Canadian film on which ones
would be presented in Sudbury -- six were screened altogether, with students
taking in two each.
There was no cost to attend. The $28,000 needed to put on the festival was
covered by a combination of private sponsors and Telefilm.
"I spend most of my time fundraising," said Blum. "We try to get it to plant a seed
in the culture of the school so teachers will use these films for years to come."
The point of the festival is to introduce Canadian cinema to students.
"What Canadian films are. What Canadian stories are. We'd like them to think
about Canadian literature. Canadian anything. They really don't get much of it,"
he said.
Part of the cost in putting on the festival involves bringing actors and filmmakers
to the students.
Actors Kevin Duhaney and Daniel Keith Morrison from the film, How She Move,
filmmaker Janelle Wookey (Mémère Metisse), as well as REEL CANADA
programmer and artistic director of the Whistler Film Festival Stacey Donen
fielded questions after their respective films were screened on Thursday. Also
appearing via web conference were award-winning actor Colm Feore and
director Andrew Currie, both of Bon Cop Bad Cop fame as well as, screenwriter
Dennis Heaton from Fido.
Originally, Blum hadn't meant to be in Meatballs; rather, he was working on
casting others for the film. Since the Canadian movie industry was still in its
infancy in 1979, they had to issue an open casting call to try to fill the roles. Out
of about 1,100 auditions, they cast about eight for the film.
Blum had found what he thought to be the perfect Spaz, but director Ivan
Reitman thought the actor was too good looking and suggested Blum try out for
the part. Blum adopted the other actor's interpretation and got the role.
"Bill (Murray) was very, very helpful working with us who were much younger,
giving us tips about how to make comedy physical and how to make it funny,"
Blum said. "We wrote a lot of the stuff that happened as we went."
Dell'Agnese talked about Murray showing up the first day on set with an alarm
clock taped to his wrist. For a joke one day, he pretended to seduce her
character "Brenda" delivering this long monologue while slowly unbuttoning her
blouse.
"He had everyone around us just screaming with laughter," she said. "He's a
very, very funny guy on set."
Dell'Agnese is still working in the industry and Blum, aside from his work as
executive director of the festival, has made inroads into television as the cocreator
-- along with Sharon Corder (REEL's artistic director) -- of the series
Traders and Power Play.
Currently, they're working on one called Crete on the Half Shell, which is a food
comedy set in both Montreal and Crete.
As for Meatballs, not only was it one of Canada's most successful commercial
films, but it also gave "people the idea that it was possible -- possible -- to make
a commercial hit here," he said.
"People continue to try and in some cases, have been successful," he said.
lbradley@thesudburystar.com