Ashley McKenzie and Nelson MacDonald need help finishing their latest movie about New Waterford. Their first two shorts, "Rhonda's Party" (2010) and "When You Sleep" (2012), achieved exceptional success, screening to widespread praise at the Toronto International Film Festival and Cannes, as well as at festivals in Montreal, Stockholm, Whistler, and St. John's. Along the way, they picked up half a dozen industry awards, including the top prize in CBC's Short Film Faceoff. Despite these early triumphs, the pair have had to turn to crowdsourcing to raise the last few dollars needed to finish post-production on their latest film, "Stray," the...

05 June, 2013

(l to r) Producer Nelson MacDonald, Director Ashley McKenzie, and screenwriter Christine Comeau celebrate the underdog victory of their short film RHONDA'S PARTY in CBC'-TV's Short Film Faceoff at a gathering of friends, crew, and admirers in Darrel's Sport Bar, Halifax, Saturday night, as the TV monitor shows McKenzie being interviewed on the program. The room exploded in cheers and whoops when CBC host Steve Patterson announced that McKenzie and MacDonald, both of New Waterford, had beaten out films from Vancouver and Montreal in viewer voting. The victory brings the young filmmakers $40,000 cash and $10,000 in equipment and supplies toward...

09 July, 2011

[caption id="attachment_8330" align="alignright" width="301" caption="Director Ashey McKenzie confers with cast member"][/caption] A few years ago, two Dal SMU students from New Waterford showed up at one of my movies and offered to help. Within a few weeks, they were organizing film selections for the following season, and doing a better job of it than I ever had. In their spare time, Ashley McKenzie and Nelson MacDonald organized the Coastal Arts Initiative which borrowed a basement room in former convent, transformed it into a cool exhibition space, and put on a series of innovative shows by a bunch of young New Waterford...

02 July, 2011

New Waterford filmmaker Ashley McKenzie (erroneously identified by the CBC as a Halifax filmmaker) looking pensive Wednesday night at a taping of CBC-TV's Short Film Faceoff with host Steve Patterson (center). The show's semi-final episode pitted McKenzie's award-winning Rhonda's Party against two other good shorts, Down to the Wood by Newfoundlander Kelly Davis, and In Between by Montrealer-turned-Torontonian Nadine Valcin. The episode taped last night will air June 25, after which Internet voting will determine an over-all winner of $50,000 in cash and equipment rentals toward their next production....

19 May, 2011

Contrarian friend and New Waterford video artist Ashley McKenzie, now serving temporary exile in Halifax, has put some of her wonderful still photos on line. McKenzie previously recorded the demolition of Sydney's Vogue Theatre in this clever video....

27 June, 2010

Thursday night, the Cape Breton Island Film Series screened its 200th film, a milestone we had no thought of reaching when we began the series in January, 2003, with Bowling for Columbine. You can download a pdf list of all the films we've shown here, and you won't find many turkeys. The list makes a great aide-mémoire at the video store. Ten films I particularly liked were: 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days City of God House of Sand Kiss Kiss Bang Bang Lost in Translation Man on Wire Rabbit Proof Fence Shut Up and Sing Thank You for Smoking The Lives of Others Hardly anyone liked: Russian Arc The...

19 March, 2010