With a warm welcome from Executive Director and Festival Founder Leslie Ann Coles and a brief speech from director Kari Skogland, the sixth annual Female Eye Film Festival opened with the latter’s latest feature, The Stone Angel, last Thursday afternoon at the Cumberland Cinemas. The film, based on the best selling novel by Margaret Laurence, adapted and directed by Skogland, is about a cranky old lady, Hagar Shipley (Ellen Burstyn) who in the last days of her life, takes a trip down memory lane to reencounter and unveil the secrets of her past. Bobby Bukowski’s remarkable cinematography sets the perfect landscape for Hagar’s inner journey.
Through exceptional sound and image, the dramatic film is narrated in a series of flashbacks and flash forwards. Her memory reel triggers after her son Marvin Shipley (Dylan Baker) and daughter-in-law Doris Shipley (Sheila McCarthy) attempt to enroll her in a nursing home, which she relentlessly resists. The cast includes Christine Horne, Cole Hauser, Wings Hauser, Kevin Zegers, and Ellen Page. The feature film will be released on May 9, Mother’s Day weekend in Canada, and is scheduled for release in the U.S. July 2008.
“Margaret was with us,” said Skogland during the panel discussion Book to film: the art of adaptation Friday afternoon. Moderated by Christopher Heard, the attending guests were filmmaker and producer Gail Harvey, executive producer Jon Slan, novelist and screenplay writer Brad Smith, and of course, screenplay writer and director Kari Skogland. A few topics covered by the filmmakers were related to their own experiences with the translation of a literary work into motion pictures. Slan added, “Screenplays are not written to be read, but to be seen.” In addition, the panel focused on the difficulties of translating a non-fiction book into a screenplay, “when truth and legend collide, print the legend,” suggested Slan.
Concerning Skogland’s experience adapting The Stone Angel, she mentions the three screenplays developed from Laurence’s novel, yet none that fit with what the author had in mind. After being asked by an audience member whether she had a special actor in mind when pouring her ideas onto her first drafts, Skogland claimed that doing so limits a story’s potential. Furthermore, her suggestion for writers was to avoid editing while writing first drafts, “Don’t edit while you’re writing, don’t let that be your barrier.” Even though the audience was intimate, the panel had a fruitful exchange of ideas, offering great tips for screenwriters-to-be.
Following the panel discussion came the Toronto Filmmaker Series, which according to Leslie Ann Coles has become a staple in each year’s FEFF. Short film My Name is Pochsy is a black comedy written, directed and performed by Karen Hines that presents a mercury factory worker’s reflection on life and taxes. Tell Us the Truth Josephine, an experimental drama, presents the story of an immigrant woman in Canada and her turbulent past. Northland: The Long Journey, a film by Edie Steiner, unveils a family’s truth in a small mining community in Northwestern Ontario. In the Stars, written and produced by Michelle Daides and directed by Darrin Brown, is the story of a young woman who has based her life according to her horoscope until she realizes that “new beginnings, rebirth and happiness” is just a deception. Succubus, directed by Alison Reid, presents a lesbian couple trying to conceive. Finally, Rock garden: A Love Story, directed by Gloria U. Y. Kim, tells the story of two neighbours finding beauty and a connection in the most innocuous of objects.
