HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News Record, 2016-12-07, Page 88 News Record • Wednesday, December 7, 2016
Varna native produces movie with scenes in Clinton and Bayfield
Movie called "Drowning" features
scenes at C.H.S.S., the Clinton Family
Health Clinic, house on High St. in
Clinton and Ashwood Inn in Bayfield
Justine Alkema
Clinton News Record
Varna native Valerie Laurie,
who now resides in Toronto, is
fulfilling her dream to produce
an independent film. Since her
crew felt so supported by
Huron County during their
crowd funding campaign for
the movie, they are giving back
to the community by filming
four days in Huron County.
Previously, Laurie worked at
CBC for 10 years putting crews
together for Dragons' Den,
Hockey Night in Canada and
other major television shows.
However she recently left that
position to begin workingwith
Film Finances Canada which is
a completion guarantee com-
pany for feature films.
However Laurie had always
wanted to produce her own
work, and she felt the time was
finally right for her to take that
step and make that happen.
"You have to just decide
you're going to be creative and
go for it;" said Laurie.
The writer and director of the
play is award winning Marco
Veltri who is also producing
alongside Laurie; the two met
in college and reconnected a
few years ago. Their line pro-
ducer is Adam Gowland.
Before Veltri sat down to
write the script, the he and Lau-
rie discussed the story and
decided they both wanted the
Justine Alkema Clinton News Record
Writer and Director Marco Veltri talks with Tremblay while filming
at the Ashwood Inn in Bayfield.
film to come from a feminist
perspective featuring a strong
female protagonist.
On their Facebook page,
called "Drowning Pictures" the
plot synopsis from "Drowning"
is described as "Desperate to
escape a lifetime of sexual
abuse, a prostitute named Anna
sets out on a mission
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to reinvent herself. She returns
home to face off against her
family, her ex pimp, and her
own mental illness. The move
back into her childhood bed-
room proves challenging as
Anna struggles to acclimatize to
the normalcy of family life.
Anna needs to empower herself
to overcome her homicidal ten-
dencies, while navigating
between reality and her fanta-
sies of revenge:'
Much of the film has been
shot in different locations in
Ontario including Mississauga,
Oakville and Toronto.
However four days of the
filming are in Huron County at
C.H.S.S., the Clinton Family
Health Clinic, a house on High
St. in Clinton and the Ashwood
Inn in Bayfield.
To help fund the movie, the
producers ran a crowd -funding
campaign about a year and a
half ago, and Laurie said they
had "amazing support from
Huron County during that cam-
paign:' She said she was "really,
really touched" by the support
from the community which
wasn't limited to friends and
Another scene being filmed in the Ashwood Inn.
family but also friends of
friends.
"I wanted to make sure that
we came back here and spent
some of the money in the
community:'
The lead actress in the movie
is Laura Tremblay, who got
connected with the film
through her agent. After three
auditions, she landed the lead
role. Tremblay said it's a com-
pletely new role for her as in the
past she has acted in comedies
and "girl next door" type roles.
However she loves the change
and said she was "waiting for
something like this to come
along." She is also enjoying
doing a movie with more action
and stunts.
Tremblay is from Midland,
Ontario, but currently lives in
Toronto. She got her start acting
in theatre in Evil Dead the
musical that toured North
America in 2013. After that, she
set her sights on the film and
television world. She has acted
in indie features and short films
as well as some television
shows and afew commercial.
The News Record caught up
with the cast and crew at the
Ashwood Inn on day 15 out of
27 days of filming.
Contributed photo
At that point, Tremblay and
Laurie agreed that filming was
going great.
"It's been amazing," said
Tremblay. "It's a really great,
positive crew - very fun and
welcoming. I'd rather be doing
this than anything else.'
Laurie commented, "It's going
really well. We have a small,
committed crew of friends and
colleagues and people who are
helping us realize the dream of
making a feature film:'
As for when and exactly how
the movie will come out, that
depends on a few factors. The
movie will first make a film festi-
val circuit run, and that depends
on which film festivals they are
able to enter which depends on
when theywill actually finish the
movie; when they finish the
movie could vary according to
funding, etc. However they are
hoping to release in 2017.
As for the future, Laurie
hopes to continue to make
movies. However for now, she
said the dream is just to have
their fest feature out.
"Whether this is the one we
get to make or whether this pro-
pels our career forward, who
knows," she said.
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