All posts by Greg David

Prior to becoming a television critic and owner of TV, Eh?, Greg David was a critic for TV Guide Canada, the country's most trusted source for TV news. He has interviewed television actors, actresses and behind-the-scenes folks from hundreds of television series from Canada, the U.S. and internationally. He is a podcaster, public speaker, weekly radio guest and educator, and past member of the Television Critics Association.

BravoFACT and Women in Film & Television Announce New Partnership

From a media release:

– WIFT-T partners with BravoFACT to award a total of $70,000 for the first and second place winners of female-led short film pitch contest –
–Year of the Female Filmmaker initiative sees 50% of allocated BravoFACT funds awarded to female-led projects, more than 1.2 million rewarded to date –

  • A pitch coaching session led by an industry professional to help fine tune pitches
  • Four tickets to the 2016 WIFT-T Showcase
  • An opportunity to showcase their project in front of a high-profile jury comprised of BravoFACT professionals and industry experts

The six teams selected will present to an audience comprised of WIFT-T members, industry professionals, and content creators, affording all presenters excellent exposure for their projects, regardless of the outcome. Aside from the cash awards, the first place team receives two, $500 WIFT-T programming passes that can be put toward the fee of any one of WIFT-T’s paid programs. The second placed team receives onstage recognition at the 2016 WIFT-T Showcase in March. Deadline to submit is Friday, Jan. 8, 2016. Interested teams can download a BravoFACT application form at www.bravofact.com.

Since its launch in January 2015, BravoFACT’s Year of the Female Filmmaker initiative has been providing support to up-and-coming female filmmakers across the country by committing a guaranteed minimum of 50% of its funds, in perpetuity, to female-led projects. To date, BravoFACT has awarded a total of $1,255,044 million to female-led projects, and Women in Film & Television-ATLANTIC (WIFT-ATLANTIC), Documentary Organization of Canada (DOC), HOT DOCS and Victoria Film Festival, to continue to offer young filmmakers support and funding for their projects. BravoFACT has also welcomed high-profile female guest jurors to its quarterly juries including actor and filmmaker Amy Jo Johnson, actor Natalie Brown, and Hot Docs programmer Angie Driscoll.

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Interview: Continuum’s Rachel Nichols says goodbye to Kiera

Rachel Nichols is grateful to the city of Vancouver. Not only was the west coast locale her transplanted home for four seasons of Continuum, but she met her husband there. With just four more weeks until the series finale, we sat down with Nichols to chat about this sci-fi roller coaster ride.

I’m sad to see Continuum end.
Rachel Nichols: I am too, but we’ve been given six episodes to bring it all to an end and I’ve never had that opportunity before. It is bittersweet because you do those final six episodes and you know it’s the end and that end comes so quickly. But, at the same time, we get to tie up some of the loose ends—it wouldn’t be Continuum if tied them all up—and we have this family between he cast and the crew. We’ve all been here together for the last four years.

I lived in L.A. before and came up here for the first season. And I came up here for Season 2 and met the man who is now my husband. I have so many things to be grateful for. The fans were so incredibly supportive and demanding of answers and wanting another season and wanting an end to the show. I wholeheartedly believe we wouldn’t have gotten a fourth season without them, so this season if for the fans.

It would have been awful if our final vision had been the Season 3 finale.
It would have been horrible!

What was it like to read through that final episode script?
I usually go on a script by script basis so I don’t read a lot in advance, primarily because I think it would scramble my brain and I need to focus on one block of episodes at a time. I had been hearing rumblings about the last episode and I thought at one point, ‘What if they kill Kiera? What if Kiera goes back to the future and dies?’ So, when I got the first draft of Episode 6, I went right to the end to see if Kiera was still alive. There are a lot of twists and turns this season.

Continuum2

It’s been hard to see the relationship between Carlos and Kiera, and Kiera and Alec erode somewhat over the last season.
It’s hard for Carlos because he’s taken over Dillon’s position. He’s an Inspector now. I’m happy to say that Kiera and Alec are back on track. Kiera was very much a lone wolf last season and trying to figure out how to manipulate the situation as best she could. Carlos is that loving, Type-A, football-watching, beer-drinking high moral standard type of guy. He’s never going to change. She doesn’t like lying to him, but sometimes leaving him out of the truth is the most helpful thing for him.

Things have also gotten complicated with Brad.
Oh yeah. We’ve quickly found out that the soldiers are Brad’s people. He’s come from a time where Kellog is a warlord, so the relationship becomes much more complicated. Plus, this season has become more about getting home and I always joke, ‘What am I going to do, show up back home with my new boyfriend and tell my husband to go and kick rocks?’ Brad and I were people who had lost so much and found this bond because of everything they’ve been through … that takes a back seat to Kiera not wanting to stay anymore. She’s done. Liber8 has been disbanded.

You’re a producer on Continuum. Does this set up groundwork for you moving forward on your own projects?
I don’t know at this point. I want to learn as much as I can and be involved in the day-to-day things as much as I can. I want to direct and add another piece to that IMDB page that says you’ve done this before. I’m very protective of the crew and making sure they’re being treated fairly. Simon has been very gracious about the words and letting me make the words more natural. I’m the lead and I want everybody to want to come to work every day and be sad that it’s going to end. My dad woke up every day happy to go to work and I want that for everybody who works on the show.

I’ll probably direct a short film first and call on a lot a favours and ask a lot of questions. [Laughs.]

Continuum airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Showcase.


Look for more interviews with Continuum stars Victor Webster, Erik Knudsen, Stephen Lobo and Roger Cross, and creator Simon Barry, in the coming weeks.

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Comments and queries for the week of September 11

Which returning fall Canadian TV show are you most excited about?

I voted for The Next Step as a proxy for my daughter, who will probably have a viewing party for the season premiere :). —Suzanne

Murdoch Mysteries of course!!!!!! —Vivian

Murdoch Mysteries, Heartland and I wish Jonny Harris’ Still Standing was in the running. It is a great look at the light side of Canada and Canadians. Murdoch Mysteries is my No. 1 though!!! —Jeanette

Murdoch Mysteries, The Nature of Things and Marketplace. —Helene

 

Got a comment or question about Canadian TV? greg@tv-eh.com or @tv_eh on Twitter.

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