Push In - The CineVic Podcast

What does it take to produce three feature documentaries, a feature comedy, and have two more in the works? Producer Leslie Bland shares the “special sauce” that’s made his production companies Orca Cove Media and Less Bland Productions so successful. There’s plenty to learn as he tells host Joyce Kline why filmmaking pulled him away from a successful career in live professional theatre, how he ma...

KATHLEEN GILBERT, long-time CineVic supporter and head of Vancouver Island South Film & Media Commission shares what the Film Commission actually does, how it's financed, what it can offer indie filmmakers, and how we can support their work to expand local film production. Learn what she considers the biggest accomplishment—and  biggest disappointment—of her tenure as Commissioner.  Kathl...

Did you know Victoria had one of the first film studios in Canada and the province’s first film commission? Here's your chance to learn the fascinating history of filmmaking in southern Vancouver Island from someone who knows the film scene inside and out - outgoing Head of the Vancouver Island South Film & Media Commission, Kathleen Gilbert. Kathleen took on the job of Commissioner in 20...

Who else but innovative City of Victoria Artist-In-Residence Kemi Craig would find links between Afrofuturism, west African free divers’ traditional spiritual practice of Orisha, and the spirits of captives drowned in the west African slave trade?  In work encompassing immersive, multi-sensory, site-specific installations and performances, this innovative dancer, filmmaker, multi-media creator and...

From how to apply for the position, to how much you’ll get paid, Victoria’s 2022-24 Artist-in-Residence Kemi Craig shares everything you ever wanted to know about her job but were afraid to ask! Kemi is a dancer, filmmaker, multi-media creator and performance artist whose work encompasses immersive, multi-sensory, site-specific installations and performances that encourage audience and community e...

You may say you’ll never do it but, if you’re an indie filmmaker, chances are at some point you’re probably going to wind up producing your own work. In this fun and frank episode, actor, writer, director, and producer Ana de Lara really tells it like it is: Why ultra low budget films are so tough to produce, how she ended up producing in the first place, and why producing  isn’t fun! An accomplis...

 With all the talk about toxic masculinity, it’s a real treat to watch a film that explores traditionally held “masculine” qualities like aggression, competitiveness — even homophobia — while also acknowledging masculinity’s potential for tenderness, nurturance, and protectiveness. Working with amateur actors from the Bogotá barrio, filmmaker Andrés Felipe Ángel manages to pull that off and more i...

When you’re on set and your film deals with the potentially triggering subject of suicide, how do you provide for the physical and emotional needs of a diverse cast and crew? This was the challenge that led filmmaker Ana de Lara to collaborate with Women In the Director’s Chair to develop a ground breaking new program called Safer Creative Spaces. In this episode, Ana shares how the program helped...

Is your concept brave enough to be “not safe, taboo," or “mean and awful”?  Filipina/Canadian filmmaker Ana de Lara thinks it just might make a great comedy! In Part I of our interview with this multiple award-winning Filipina/Canadian actor/writer/director/producer, Ana tells us about Best Friend Me —her six-episode comedy web series that involves the topic of...suicide?  Learn from this com...

The brutal “treatments” that the Canadian government and CIA jointly funded at the height of the Cold War era’s brainwashing paranoia are the stuff of nightmares. Patients with diagnoses as innocent as postpartum depression were rendered virtual zombies for life, creating a legacy of intergenerational trauma and perpetrator guilt that inspired filmmaker Emanuel Foucault’s riveting short film Washe...

If you’re interested in ways a filmmaker’s career can advance, this is an episode you won’t want to miss!  Listen up as multiple award-winning Vancouver writer/director Connor Gaston shares the roots of his fascination with reincarnation, the value of graduating from programs like the Canadian Film Centre and the TIFF Talent Lab, and what ultimately got him meetings in Hollywood that landed him an...

There’s certain to be lots that filmmakers and other creatives can relate to in part one of Joyce Kline’s two-part interview with Vancouver based, internationally award-winning, writer/director Connor Gaston. With humour and rare honesty, Connor shares the joys and challenges of growing up in a household of writers, adapting his own father’s novel, collaborating with his brother Vaughn, directing...

Last episode, we heard from one of the most requested camera operators in Canada, award-winning, daredevil cinematographer DAVID MALYSHEFF .  David is known for delivering the goods under extreme conditions - filming from horseback, helicopters, and even Zodiacs crashing their way through rapids. This episode, David fills us in on his quieter, but no less moving, personal passion project - creatin...

Not many cinematographers shoot on submarines or from horseback, helicopters and kayaks - but today’s guest filmmaker, award-winning industry veteran David Malysheff, has done exactly that.  With more than 25 years of television production experience in film and broadcast video, David Malysheff has been behind the camera on numerous Canadian TV shows including The Nature of Things , The Fifth Esta...

Film sets are high pressure environments with brutally long hours and the traditionally hierarchical structure of a military campaign. In this episode, filmmaker and much sought-after editor Lesley Marshall tells us how she balances the needs of her young daughter with her work in the film industry, why she thinks we should demand on set childcare, and what employing anti-oppression based filmmaki...

Unless you’re already a well-heeled nepo baby, this might be the one Push In episode you literally can’t afford to miss! Last episode, Push In interviewed filmmaker Denver Jackson, the brilliant creator and one-man animation team behind the web series Esluna: The Crown of Babylon , the feature Esluna: The First Monolith and the upcoming feature The Worlds Divide. This episode, Denver shares how he...

Pride yourself on being hard working and dedicated to your art? Well, this interview with award-winning Victoria animator Denver Jackson will make you feel like a total slacker! Buckle up as this one-man powerhouse shares how he got into animation, the brutal details of his typical work day, the importance of keeping focus to complete projects, and why he’ll never use generative AI. Denver Jackson...

This September, after over 40 years, Victoria’s iconic Pic A Flic Video will close, imperiling its unrivaled collection of 25,000 cult classics, musicals, foreign films, sci-fi, short films, silent movies, independent animations and rare documentaries you can’t find anywhere else.  Video stores may be an endangered species, but losing this treasure trove of film history would be an extinction even...

Host Joyce Kline reaches across the Pacific for a fun chat with Singapore based, BAFTA-nominated animator Calleen Koh.  Calleen’s short To Kill the Birds and the Bees —a real highlight of this year’s Short Circuit Pacific Rim Film Festival—will screen again in Ottawa June 21st as part of Short Circuit’s National Tour.  Hear how this talented young filmmaker stays gutsy with her daring and quirky m...

In this fun episode, Joyce meets up with writing/directing team Sonya Chwyl and Anik Desmarais-Spencer. Their latest short horror comedy Slip poses a sadly relatable question for these inflationary times: “How far will you go to keep your shitty rental?”  Slip just won Audience Choice at this year’s Short Circuit Pacific Film Festival and you can watch it on the big screen for free in Regina, Otta...

What’s it like to pitch to a panel of judges in front of a live theatre audience— when you think you’re awful at pitching? That was the challenge for multi-talented filmmaker Daniel Kwon, the writer, director, editor and co-producer of 2022’s Cinespark winning film The Girl in the Forest . Daniel is a true renaissance man: filmmaker, screenwriter, director, editor, colorist, set decorator, videogr...

Every screenplay has at least one element that a filmmaker knows is going to be tricky to carry off. But when the script demands you track down an elusive rare bird and find a location where an actor can safely fell a giant tree with a hand axe , you’re going to have to get extra creative. How director James Hunter, with the help of producer Faith Gouga, managed to pull all this off in their haunt...

Revealing what your family’s really like behind the scenes can be a giant leap of faith that few have the courage—and family support—to take. In her sensitive short The Mess We’re In, emerging Vancouver writer/director JAMIE LAM draws upon personal experience growing up in the loving home—of a hoarder! While the film never sugar coats the stress this caused Jamie growing up, it’s a triumph of love...

Is it possible to use surreal, magical realist narrative methods to engage audiences in an experience best described as visually immersive, especially when the protagonists are young black men and the antagonists are police officers? JOHNNY KIRK is a graduate of California State University in LA and is the Creative Director and Founder of the digital film production company DARK BLU PRODUCTIONS. A...

Wondering how much you should budget for insurance in your Telefilm Talent to Watch application, or what insurance you actually need for making a short film? This interview with Front Row Insurance Brokers VP Mike Groner covers everything you ever wanted to know about insurance but were afraid to ask! Pure information gold — and just in time to make that Telefilm deadline.  Since starting his insu...