FFWD Weekly
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| Film by FFWD Staff Fall From Grace Quincy’s on 7th, normally a bastion of fine jazz music, hosts a trio of zealously ambitious graduation films from SAIT’s CTSR program this Thursday. And if the lofty goals of Fall From Grace are even touched upon by the other two films, Rooftop and Sounds Good to Me, then it should make for an interesting evening. John Kerr, producer of Fall From Grace, admits that both he and director/writer Jon O’Brien were concerned about sending the wrong message when they began production on the 19-minute short this January. "What we hoped to say was that the true nature of love is forgiveness," stresses Kerr with ample humility, "and our film shows the most unforgivable act in the name of love. This message is something I hope our inexperience as filmmakers doesn’t stop us from achieving." Fall From Grace is essentially told through the perspective of a stalker, Nicholas (Greg D. Alvas), who inadvertently strangles the object of his desire, the beautiful writer Grace (Katia Millette). According to the producer, the film is a strange and unsettling story that examines the dark depths of love’s intimate connection with death, and the ability of love, as an event of the soul, to straddle the dimension of eternity and time. "Jon wanted to experiment," admits Kerr of his director’s intentions, "and learn from his mistakes. He was so passionate about this script, and the thing that hooked me in terms of what I wanted to achieve was the true nature of love – that it has to end for it to be real." The film indeed experiments with time and place, continually jumping between the past, the "real" present, the stalker’s fantasy vision of the present, and the afterlife. Alvas does a commendable job of maintaining visual continuity throughout and, despite some weaknesses, Fall From Grace is a good technical achievement for a student film. During production several industry professionals volunteered time to the mostly SAIT crew of 22, and William F. White, a local production equipment rental outfit, lent out a crane and rented the producers a light generator at a marginal cost. Casting took place over three days and included over 80 would-be actors. Though leading man Alvas has been seen in other local films and onstage with area theatre companies, his co-star, Katia Millette, is a newcomer. "She just blew our socks off in the callback," recalls Kerr. "She did a scene with Greg that was so honest and real emotionally." John Kerr also stresses the excellence of the other films playing at this Thursday’s event. Rooftop is a comedy about two hitmen on a rooftop who realize their target is actually too close for comfort. Sounds Good to Me is a mock-u-mentary in the style of Man Bites Dog, following an idealistic director as he documents the life of a homeless man. Kerr, himself a writer and director, didn’t mind wearing the producer’s hat this time around because he viewed the experience as a necessity for his future in the industry. He’s currently working on a short screenplay of his own called The Emperor, which is about bootlegging in the Crowsnest Pass in 1922. "It’s about a bootlegger (Emilio Piciarello) who was executed for the murder of an RCMP officer, and is told by the housekeeper. I really like the Sir Walter Scott method of historical writing, of telling the story through the eyes of a secondary character." Kerr’s family is from the Crowsnest and he admits that his great grandfather hid bottles in his own garden for the infamous Piciarello. |
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