The Leader-Post from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada • 34

Th Leader-Post Regina Monday, May 31, 1S93 C9 movies More winners Golden tears Film-maker wins Yorkton prize with Something To Cry About By BERNARD PILON L-P Entertainment Writer YORKTON It has been nine years since ex-Saskatoon resident Laurie Pearson gave her then-teenaged brother, Bret, an unusual 17th birthday present, a script On Saturday night, that same gift was making her fiance, Toronto filmmaker Terry Steyn, beam brighter than any cake topped with candles. Its heavy. This is really heavy, a gleeful Steyn said after his first professional film. Something To Cry About took the coveted Golden Sheaf Award of Excellence as the best production in the entry-bloated 29th Yorkton Short Film Video Festival. Not that the films 27-year-old producer and editor was about to let anyone else carry the 10-kilogram chunk of stylized wheat Steyns first professional movie a charming and witty show whose $7,500 cost was paid for by Visa and Mastercard, the financing of choice of the new producer had beaten out a record 449 other entries in 17 categories to win the most sought-after of the gala evenings 26 Golden Sheafs.

This is, he told reporters afterwards, one helluva night for me. It became clear as the lesser awards were handed out that Something To Cry About had no serious competition for the title of 1993's best Canadian film or video under 60 minutes. No other entry had won more than two Golden Sheafs by the time emcee Bruce Steele, host of CBC-TVs nationally broadcast morning show What on Earth, had led a string of industry personalities in handing out awards during the four-hour ceremony. Still, Steyn was pleasantly shocked when his 23-minute production won. Im waiting to wake up, he joked.

The story of a teenaged son, imprisoned in the basement of his fathers home after scratching the yuppie familys prized Jaguar and fed by hotdogs dumped down a laundry chute, became the family (to-be) affair at the podium that is had been in its creation. Actor Bret Pearson, 26, won a Golden Sheaf for Best Performance, while his sister, Laurie Pearson, 33, film. No one believed me. After a successful two-week run as a play in Toronto, however, shooting began in the basement of the editors house in February. The finished product that would charm Yorkton's jury has, ironically, met only a cool response to date in the marketplace.

Broadcasters want series and movies, Steyn said with a shrug. Looking over at the pile of Golden Sheafs Something To Cry About had just been awarded, he added: It might get on air, now. YORKTON Somethmp To Cry Allot if did leave some trophies behind Taking home the rest of the 26 Golden Sheaf Awards On 17 cati-gones and nine cralls) up for grabs at the 29th Yorkton Short Films and Video Festival, and four cash and three jury awards, were: Animation' Cruri Diner (Lynn Smith Production Co. Montreal), life in an all night restaurant. ArtsEntertainment Wheal field Soul (CBC Manitoba), documentary on Canadian rocker Burton Cummings.

Certificate of Merit Infertility To Have A Child (Patient Education Video) (Dreams and Realities, Toronto), and Klim's Story (Duncan Productions, Vancouver). CinematographyVidrography Steve Cosens for Kndianp (Emily Carr College of Art and Design, Vancouver), Comedy Stereotypes (GIA Klims Inc, Lnngueil. Que husband leaving wile laces birarre situations: Commerrial I Oder Two Minutes Sneering Bee (Los Productions Pascal Blais. Montreal), allergic bee uses Chlor tnpilon Documentary By A Broaricasterand Show Host In Yonr Face Violence In Music (City TV. Toronto).

MucliMusic'a Denise Donlon examines lynes, imagery in pop music. Documentary I'nder 30 Minutes. Locked In Out (Preece Productions, Toronto), woman taken to prison: Documentary Over 30 Minutes Those Who Walk Softly Die Without a Trace (ACPAV. Montreal), portrait of Montreal little guy" Henri Turcot to; Drama Over 30 Minutes' (Tie) Kid Kodak (Coop Video, Montreal) and Surmnora (Inner City Klims, Toronto), young man wins video camera, black family dealing with AIDS, Editing Richard Jutras and Colette IxHimede for Kid Kodak. Experimental La Debacle (BIAX Production Enr, Montreal), man has recurring dream about his death, IndustrialPromotional Defence 2000 (Planet Pictures, Ottawa).

Drill Sargcant-painted thumb tackles defence cuts; InstrurlionalKdurational Song of Superman (Associated Producers, Toronto); also wins accompanying SCN Elisabeth lowry Award of KSK), Music Videu Will You Remember Me (Red Motel Pirtures, Calgarv); National Film Board Kathleen Shannon Award Director Felix Zunta for Winds of Memory (Alter Cine 000 award for independent film maker letting those outside dominant culture speak for themselves, NSI oral Heroes Award Hanlon House (Red Ochre Productions, St John s), wins for best low budget drama. Original Music Score Roger Fex for Snnwors (Inner City Films. Toronto); Production For hildrenand Art Direction The Odyssey A Place Called Nowhere" (Water Street Pictures Ltd Vancouver), subconscious adventures of 11 year-old coma victim, art direction by Graeme Murray; Public AfTairxnvextlgative Programming The Sth Estate Crimes Against Humanity (CBC Toronto), Canada now a haven for Somali war SciencefNalure' The Last Survimrs (CBC Toronto), wild bison herd tn Wood Buffalo National Park has dubious future. Sound Gael MacLcan and Michael McGee for The Last Harvest (Harvest Productions, Vancouver); also wins accompanying Antoinette (Nettiei Kryski Canadian Heritage Award of SSIK) Special Jury Award A Brief Ufe (Hand in Hand Films. Toronto), life cycle of cow from birth to sale for meat.

Television DramaDramatir Series Fpisode Dark Knight Part II (Paragon Entertainment Corp Toronto), deadly clash between cop and vampire PILON Movie shoot-out guns down apathy won Best Script and its accompanying Superchannel Award of $1,000. Steyn (who hasnt yet set a wedding date with Pearson) won for Best Direction. Something To Cry About was also picked as the Best Drama Under 30 minutes. The 1988 graduate of the Ryerson Polytechnical Institutes film program hadnt read the script until 2 12 years ago, about seven years after the Saskatoon-raised siblings had both been living in Toronto. I said I wanted to make it into a A mock shoot coupled with a Cinerama that was drawing hundreds of residents to a fair-like blend of ethnic food booths and craft sales on the other end of town is meant to halt that trend.

This is one tangible way to involve the citizens of Yorkton, make them feel its their festival, Davidson says as crew members put away their expensive toys at the end of the two-hour shoot Getting Yorkton to feel enfranchised in their film festival, he says, is the obvious motive. Feeling particularly smitten with movies is Ituna farmhand Mark Metrunec. The 22-year-old studenL on a summer ofT from education and drama classes in Lloydminster, won the right to be a bank robber by film shoot By BERNARD PILON L-P Entertainment Writer YORKTON The camera was empty and the bank robbers bullets fake. Still, dentist Steve Yaholnitsky is confident the elaborate bit of Hollywood is a good first stab at drilling away the apathy that had been eating away at the townspeoples interest in North Americas oldest continuous film festival. It creates excitement for the people, Yaholnitsky says as director Tom Davidson leads a cast and crew of 35 in a mock shoot that converted Yorktons stately City Hall to the site of a realistic cops-and-robbers shoot-em-up before 100-plus appreciative bystanders on Saturday.

They have to do a little more events like this. They have to do it before the festival, promote iL The dentist-cum-movie-extra is referring to the volunteers behind the Yorkton Short Film Video calling in to a local radio station. Still sporting makeup that gave him a bashed nose, a scar and a black eye, Metrunec says the shoot helps demystify the industry festival-goers celebrate every spring. It's not, Well do one shooL and go for beers with a pocket full of money. Among those getting an education in movie-making and an explanation of what all those odd jobs like key grip and continuity mean are Karen and Darrell Landels.

Theyre sitting on the curb with their daughter, Shannon, 6, to show her that TV is really an adult version of make-belief, that people shot in movies dont really die. You can explain it all you want to the kids, but when they see (action on TV), its real to them, Darreel says. As for the mock shoot making them feci more a part of the film festival, he adds: There are people in Yorkton who dont feel a part of it. This helps." Yorkton got to see a mock Festival, a tradition in this agriculture-based city since 1947. In the early years, townfolks used to flock to theatres showing documentaries and travelogues brought in from around the world.

Recent festivals, however, had become almost exclusively a gathering for film-makers so much so that free public screenings drew only sparse crowds, a sure sign the host city was feeling disenfranchised with its own festival..