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Awards, Diggstown, Pure

Screen Nova Scotia announces 2020 award winners

From a media release:

Screen Nova Scotia hosted its sixth annual awards gala on Friday, December 4th. Due to COVID-19, the event was held virtually with all video packages available for viewing on Screen Nova Scotia’s Vimeo page (HERE).

The awards gala celebrates the incredible talent, creativity, and passion that are the trademarks of Nova Scotia’s screen industry. Notable awards include the ACTRA Awards for Outstanding Performances, the Film Crew Excellence Award, the Industry Champion Award, the Women in Film & Television Atlantic Award, and the Community Recognition Award, along with the Screen Nova Scotia Awards for best television, film, and animation.

The night’s finale was the Screen Nova Scotia Award for Best Feature Film, which went to the critically-acclaimed indie drama Murmurfrom writer/director Heather Young and producer Martha Cooley. The micro-budget film — funded through the Telefilm Canada Talent to Watch Program — centres on Donna (Shan MacDonald), a lonely, alcoholic woman who is ordered to perform community service in an animal shelter after being arrested for drunk driving. When she rescues an elderly dog from being euthanized, she quickly becomes obsessed with saving animals to the detriment of her own well-being. Young also took home the Best Nova Scotia Director Award from Women in Film & Television – Atlantic.

The second season of Pure (WGN America) from showrunner Michael Amo and Two East Productions was crowned the winner of the Best Television Series Award, while Cory Bowles won the award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Male Role for his role in the series as Detective Jay Gates.

Rebel Road Films’ Wildfire (written/directed by Bretten Hannam) won the Best Short Film Award. The Indigenous Two-Spirit film was adapted into the feature film Wildhood, which recently wrapped filming in Nova Scotia (with a Spring 2021 release date).

Vinessa Antoine won the award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Lead or Featured Female Role for playing lawyer Marcie Diggs in the CBC series Diggstown. Antoine made history in 2019 as the first Black Canadian woman to helm a prime-time drama in Canada. Gay Hauser also won for her role on Diggstown, taking home the award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Female Role.

Allister MacDonald won Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Lead or Featured Male Role for his role as the drag queen Joan of Arkansas in Thom Fitzgerald’s feature Stage Mother. MacDonald starred alongside Jacki Weaver, Lucy Lui, and Adrian Grenier in the film.

The Best Documentary Award went to Conviction from Teresa MacInnes, Ariella Pahlke, and Nance Ackerman. The feature doc envisions alternatives to prison through the eyes of women behind bars and those fighting on the front lines of the decarceration movement. Digital animation was also spotlighted at the awards, with Boomerang’s Care Bears: Unlock the Magic winning Best Animated Series for the Halifax-based Copernicus Studios.

This year’s prestigious Industry Champion Award was awarded posthumously to locations manager Shaun Clarke, accompanied by a tribute video. Shaun worked as a locations manager, scout and actor for over 35 years and was a pillar in the screen industry and community. A snapshot of Shaun’s credits include The Lighthouse, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Black Cop, The Healer, Trailer Park Boys, Mr. D, and Call Me Fitz, along with countless commercials and short films.

Siblings Elizabeth, Joanne, and Robert Hagen won the 2020 Film Crew Excellence Award. Together they have more than six decades of experience working on film, television and commercial productions in Nova Scotia. Joanne works as a script supervisor (recent credits include Books of Blood, The Good House, The Lighthouse); Elizabeth as a production accountant (recent credits include Pure, Cavendish, and Let’s Get Physical); and Robert as an assistant accountant and payroll accountant (recent credits include Escaping NXIVM and Polaroid). The Hagens were nominated for their contribution to the industry and for their positive, kind, and professional demeanour, even when working long hours in high-stress situations. Currently, all three are working on the EPIX series Chapelwaite, filming in N.S.

The 2020 Community Recognition Award went to Brian Shaw, Production Security (Chester, Nova Scotia). For over 20 years, Brian and his team have kept film sets and communities safe, working for productions including  Haven, Cavendish, and Pure.

The Screen Nova Scotia Awards were made possible this year due to the generous support of our sponsors, including Support4Culture, a designated lottery program that supports arts, culture, and heritage in communities across Nova Scotia; and CBC. Special thanks to 902 Post and the Hideout Studios.

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Pure: Ryan Robbins previews Season 2 finale on Super Channel

Ryan Robbins has two words to describe Pure‘s Season 2 finale, broadcast this Tuesday night at 10 p.m. ET on Super Channel: “Holy shit.”

A pretty strong reaction from an actor who has seen his character, Noah Funk—not to mention Noah’s family—go through some major stuff over the last two seasons. In the first go-round, newly-elected Mennonite paster Noah, his wife Anna (Alex Paxton-Beesley), and his brother Abel (Gord Rand) are pulled into the world of shipping drugs between Mexico and the United States. After dispatching that season’s big bad, Eli Voss (Peter Outerbridge), Noah left his family behind.

Season 2 caught up with everyone a year later, with Noah avoiding his family, them dealing with the aftermath of his actions and Anna picking up the pieces to care for son Isaak (Dylan Everett) and Tina (Jessica Clement). Anna was quickly drawn into the drug trade again thanks to Hector Estrada (Victor Gomez) and when she’s not organizing that she’s been chased by Augustus Nickel (Christopher Heyerdahl), who wants to marry her. Last week, viewers witnessed Anna’s world coming apart as she was arrested, Auggie’s business was being searched and Isaak was fully under Hector’s power.

We spoke to Robbins ahead of Tuesday’s finale to get a taste of what’s to come.

A man and a woman sit next to each other on some stairs. They are sad.I was shocked when Michael Amo told me Noah and Anna wouldn’t reunite until Episode 3 of Season 2. Were you?
Ryan Robbins: I was and I wasn’t. We got the Breaking Bad comparison and joked that Anna was always more Heisenberg than Noah was. We always intended to pick up a year later and that just seemed the most logical scenario to kick off with Anna this time. It was very challenging and weird because during Season 1 we all spent so much time filming together and then in Season 2, having those duelling storylines was strange because we didn’t work together. We had alternate shooting schedules and barely saw each other in passing for the first half of the season.

In fact, I actually got there a week after they started filming, for a few reasons. One, I was finishing up my commitment on another show and two, when I talked to [executive producer] Ken Girotti and [creator] Michael Amo, we also agreed that it might be a good dynamic for me not to be there from the very beginning, the cast and crew dinner, and for me to come in after everyone had reconnected. To return as the outsider. It did make a lot of sense and it was difficult because I had to reintegrate myself with everyone one at a time. It was a totally different dynamic this time around.

I was thrilled that Gord Rand returned to the show as Abel.
RR: What I love about the way Michael wrote it is the subtle flip, even to the point of me fussing with that baseball cap the way I did. That was a very specific and intentional homage to Abel and his ball cap in Season 1. To show that Abel is kind of leading the way and Noah is the lost sheep in that dynamic. I enjoyed that very much and I think many writers might have steered clear of that, Michael went with it and I think it was wonderful. When I read the scene where Noah and Abel reunited, I cried. When we shot the scene, those were real tears and when I watched the scene I cried again. There is something about that guy, Gord Rand, he’s a special guy. Every time Noah reunited with a family member, those were tough scenes.

The scene between Auggie and Noah was a powerful one this past week. Noah wanted to punch Auggie but was disarmed with a hug. Abel asks who Noah was talking to and is told, ‘It was a salesman.’ I may be reading too much into it, but Noah is right: Auggie is selling something.
RR: I can’t speak for how it was written but I’m glad you said that. It’s absolutely what I was feeling when I was delivering that line. That way my intention and I assumed it was written that way. All of the writers are very clever that way in they say so much with so little. The writing becomes quite intelligent and quite clever. We’re a show that tries to avoid exposition with our dialogue. I always wonder if people pick up on that.

What can you say about the Season 2 finale? How will the fans react?
RR: Two words: Holy shit. Holyyy shit. I don’t know how the fans will react. If you thought that the end of Season 1 caused some controversy, the end of Season 2 … I know this is such a typical thing to say but I don’t think people have any idea what’s going to happen in the season finale. When we all got that script, we literally all WTFed all over the place. I called Michael Amo and said, ‘Is this for real?’ And he said, ‘Oh yeah, this is happening.’ It’s definitely something we couldn’t have done in Season 1.

Pure‘s second season finale airs Tuesday at 10 p.m. ET on Super Channel.

Images courtesy of Super Channel.

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Pure’s Alex Paxton-Beesley: “It feels so special”

You can hear the enthusiasm in Alex Paxton-Beesley’s voice when she talks about Pure. She was crushed when CBC pulled the plug on the show after one season and thrilled when it was resurrected on Super Channel Fuse. Paxton-Beesley uses one word to describe Michael Amo’s creation: special.

With Episode 3 headed our way on Tuesday night at 10 p.m. ET on Super Channel Fuse, we spoke to her about hers and Anna Funk’s journey.

What were your initial thoughts after Pure was cancelled after Season 1?
Alex Paxton-Beesley: I was devastated because I felt like it was such a great world. I knew from talking to Michael Amo about it that there was a ton of story left to tell. I was excited for the story arc that he had planned for Season 2. And then the rumours started. There was rumbling around in the fall a year later. ‘What do you mean, stand by? What does that mean?’ It felt really surreal, even into shooting Season 2. We would look around and say, ‘Are we actually here? The dream came true?’ It’s one of those projects that feels so special.

What did Michael Amo tell you about Season 2 that got you excited?
APB: How different life was going to be at the beginning of Season 2. The Funks have been cast out of everything that they were fighting for, really, the first time around. I thought that was a very interesting place to start from because they’re sort of in purgatory. Anna has one foot in the Auslander world and she doesn’t to be there. She’s desperately trying to keep a foot in the Mennonite world but they don’t want her there. And she’s also trying to protect her kids and give them some semblance of a life. Dylan Everett, Jessica Clement and I had some conversations about what we thought had happened in that year or so since the end of Season 1 because Noah walks away and all of a sudden it’s the three of us.

That was a very satisfying and fun conversation because we went all over the place with our imagining.

How has the tone changed for Season 2?
APB: I think it’s gotten much, much darker. Part of that is afforded by the plot. We’re not so much within the Mennonite colony. There is so much more going on in the outsider world. It’s been a very satisfying element, to push the envelope story-wise.

Christopher Heyerdahl is a new addition to the cast and plays Augustus Nickel. What can you say about Augustus?
APB: I think people are going to be pretty darn surprised at the kind of man Augustus Nickel is going to turn out to be. [Laughs.] He is the most incredible human being and actor and at times made my life very difficult because he is so delightful as Augustus and in character, Anna is not always delighted. He made it really, really hard to stay in character.

The shock for me was Gord Rand returning as the not-so-dead Abel.
APB: Gord Rand is one of the most amazing actors we have in Canada. He is the most inspirational person I’ve ever seen and I want to eat his brain and absorb his knowledge. When he was killed, we all knew he wasn’t really dead because he’s too good of a character and his journey is really rich, especially now. The conversation he has with Noah in the first episode about seeing God and maybe God just wants us to be happy. I think that’s going to be a very powerful perspective for Noah to have to contend with.

Alyson Hannigan was announced as a cast member but nothing else has been revealed. Can you say anything?
APB: I’m not allowed to say much. She is going to be appearing later on in the season. She’s playing a very fun character. The day I was on set watching her, I was just losing my mind laughing. She is so funny. The character she plays is super-feisty, mouthy and integral to the plot.

Pure airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on Super Channel Fuse.

Images courtesy of Super Channel.

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Pure: Creator Michael Amo on the return of Season 2 and a favourite character

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Spoiler alert: Do not continue reading unless you have watched the first episode of Pure, Season 2.

Pure‘s second season premiere was notable for a few reasons. It introduced Hector Estrada (Victor Gomez), the drug dealer who demanded Anna Funk re-start the Mennonite cocaine pipeline. And, just to give her the little push Anna needed to do that, took Isaak (Dylan Everett) as collateral. When we last saw Isaak, he was naked, caged and (rightfully) screaming for his mother. Last Tuesday’s return also brought a favourite character back from the grave. It turns out Noah’s (Ryan Robbins) brother, Abel (Gord Rand), suffered merely a flesh wound when Eli Voss shot him; the siblings shared an emotional reunion.

With so much going on not just with the characters but the show itself, we got Michael Amo on the phone to discuss it.

What were your thoughts when you were told by CBC that the second season of Pure wasn’t going to be happening with them?
Michael Amo: [Laughs.] I remember being surprised because I think we averaged over 700,000 viewers per episode which, for a freshman drama on CBC, is pretty good. But, I guess it wasn’t on brand for them. I did move on to other things and developed some other shows. It was really Cineflix. It was Brett Burlock and Peter Emerson, who are our Ontario production partners, were the ones who said, ‘You know what? It’s not going to die so easily.’ They’re the ones who engineered the deal between WGN America and Super Channel and put their own kind of equity into it as well.

Three people, dressed in black, stand next to each other.Was there a phone call to you to say it had been greenlit?
MA: For me, it was me talking to Brett about some things I was working on and him saying, ‘Not so fast, Pure isn’t dead yet.’ But I’ve got a family to feed and said, ‘I welcome the opportunity to do more of Pure.’ I hung up the phone and went about my business. Months went by and, behind the scenes, Brett and Peter were working feverishly to make it happen. So, when you get the call and are told your baby has been brought back to life, it’s a happy day indeed.

You’ve spent at least one full episode keeping Noah away from his family. What was the thinking behind that?
MA: Actually, we keep Noah away from Anna until Episode 3 because I don’t want to make it easy. [Laughs.] The audience should be rooting for this family to get back together and they can’t do that if they’re together from the get-go. It was challenging to keep them apart for so long, but I did put them on a collision course to tie in with the law enforcement angle of the show. It was a challenge to do that. Season 1 was all about their fall from grace and expulsion from paradise and Season 2 is about them, all in their own way, trying to get back to paradise and the innocence they lose along the way.

How has being on Super Channel Fuse changed the tone of the show? What have you been able to do that you couldn’t on CBC?
MA: There were fans of the show, to begin with, so when they took it on, they said, ‘We’re a premium cable network, so feel free to play in that space.’ I didn’t go too crazy because I, personally, am not a huge fan of vulgarity and the show really never had the creative bandwidth for sex. But we could push the elements that were already in the show a little harder.

Hector Estrada is, literally, taking no prisoners. What’s it been like to create this guy?
MA: In Season 1 we had Eli Voss, who had very specific spiritual views that were in opposition to Noah’s. In Season 2, I really wanted to do something different, from a character point of view for the villain, so Hector is all about the here and now. He does not believe in an afterlife, he does not believe there are any consequences for his actions in this world whatsoever. He is all about the material pleasures, but he’s sort of lonely too. So, he bonds with Isaak and that’s his Achilles heel in a way. [Actor] Victor Gomez is both extremely charming and when he wants to be, ice cold.

I was surprised to see Gord Rand returned to Pure. In Season 1, Abel was shot by Eli and left for dead. Were you always intending to bring the character of Abel back?
MA: [Laughs.] I’m going to be honest and say perhaps not. What happens is, you fall in love with these characters, and the actors who play them, and you say, ‘Oh my goodness, I have to find a way to keep Gord in the picture.’ I’m glad I did.

Pure airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET on Super Channel Fuse.

Images courtesy of Super Channel.

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