The North Country Cinema Company is a young organization of film artists from across Canada who banded together upon graduating from the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema at Concordia University in Montreal. Since 2005, they have produced several short and medium length films with the assistance of the CFTPA, Corus Entertainment, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and the National Film Board of Canada. TELEGRAMS will be showcasing the works produced by North Country Cinema, as well as the best work by their esteemed peers.
The crew |
| ALEXANDER CARSON is a narrative artist from Ottawa, Ontario. His short films have played at film festivals across Canada, and Built Like Light (2004) won some awards at the Canadian National Youth Film Festival, including the Audience Award, Best Screenplay (Carson), Best Actor (Eugene Brotto) and Actress (Sarah Allen). Carson also writes fiction and poetry to keep winter warm while living in Toronto. He gets excited about film screenings and the prospect of returning some joy to the cinema, and he gets excited about playing New York City. His most recent film, Lucy James part 1 (2007), a wedding night drama, will have its world premiere as a completed work as part of the TELEGRAMS program at FRIGID NY. |
NICHOLAS MARTI was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario, in the Queen West neighbourhood. He now resides in the plateau district of Montreal, where he studied film at Concordia University and his student thesis film The Standup (2005) received the Global Vision Award for Excellence in Comedic Filmmaking. While there, he made the acquaintance of his partners in North Country Cinema, and they founded their company on the same principles that made American filmmaking exciting in the 1970’s. Then they headed west to shoot Martin’s film Searching For Heartbreak (2007) in Calgary, Alberta. The film stars Simon Gadke as Fred Cleef, a struggling country singer, and features original music by Patrick Gregoire of the Montreal indie-rock darlings: Islands. Nick is thrilled to be presenting Searching For Heartbreak at FRIGID NY for the film’s American premiere. |
| KYLE THOMAS is a filmmaker, musician, and wine importer from Calgary, Alberta. He studied cinema at Concordia University and made several short films that have played at festivals across Canada, including The Nurse (2003) that won awards at the Montreal Student Film Festival and the National Student Film and Video Festival in Regina—including Best Sound, which is good, because Kyle’s work focuses heavily on the elemental power of sound and its impact on the image. As a founding member of the North Country Cinema Company, Kyle crafted his most recent work, Last Chance Saloon (2007), a gothic western filmed in the captivating badlands of Drumheller, Alberta. He is excited to be showing it at FRIGID NY for the film’s American premiere. |
| ZACHARY COX before moving from Ottawa to attend Ryerson University’s School of Radio and Television Arts in Toronto, Ontario, Zachary produced several videos for the Ottawa area school boards to draw awareness to violent relationships. Since moving to Toronto, he has lensed or edited a wide range of productions ranging from independent film to commercials, television, and documentary production. He has been associated with the North Country Cinema filmmakers for many years, and has been behind numerous award winning short films, as well as several productions that have been optioned by the Comedy Network, Corus Entertainment, and the Documentary Channel, as well as being screened at a variety of international film festivals. Zachary also works at Ryerson running workshops in production and post-production. He is excited to be co-producing TELEGRAMS as part of FRIGID NY. |
| BENJAMIN CARSON is co-president of Lesser Men Productions, a guerrilla theatre company based in Ottawa, Ontario, where he produced and directed Neil LaBute’s The Distance From Here at the Ottawa Fringe Festival last June. Lesser Men Productions also produced Will Inrig’s independent film gala at the National Archives in Ottawa last July, and they are currently in preproduction with Will Inrig Pictures for a documentary humanizing the trials of autism. Benjamin and Cody Campanale are presently developing an original theatre project for the Ontario Fringe circuit this summer. He is glad to be co-producing TELEGRAMS with his brother Alexander Carson and the North Country Cinema Company at FRIGID NY. |
