(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