Eleven Films to Watch Out For At TIFF

The director of Amazon Falls talks about Incendies, one of several promising French Canadian films at this year's festival.

The Mark: What Canadian film(s), besides your own, are you excited to see at The Toronto International Film Festival?

Katrina Bowen: I'm excited to see Incendies (Denis Villeneuve) because I love his style and Les amours imaginaires (Heartbeats) (Xavier Dolan). Trigger (Bruce McDonald) also sounds great, especially because it stars Tracy Wright, who I have a lot of respect for. Daydream Nation (Mike Goldbach) sounds really cool, as does High Cost of Living (Deborah Chow). All these films are the result of excellent or promising directors.

TM: What advice would you give to aspiring Canadian filmmakers?

KB:Be ready physically and emotionally to make a film. Don't believe in the word "No" and surround yourself with people as passionate about what they do as you are.

TM: What is the premise for Amazon Falls?

KB: An aging B-movie actress struggles against the burden of the Hollywood dream machine to try to make it in a merciless and unforgiving movie industry.

The Mark: Where did you get the inspiration for the film?

KB: The film is inspired by my own experiences as an 18-year-old B-movie actress and the women (B-movie stars) who protected me. Some of the women I knew are still pursuing this dream. The film considers when it's time to let the dream go?

The story of how Amazon Falls came to fruition was quite incredible. I was on track to shoot a low budget comedy feature only to find out at the last moment that the film was pushed. I was hugely disappointed as everything was prepared, cast and crew were ready to go.

Since I had everything in place to produce a feature, I just had to rethink a $1-million production budget and replace it with a $50,000 budget.

Next up was to keep the existing key crew on board. I asked if they could hold tight for a few weeks while I got another project going. I told them this wouldn't be a paid gig but I'd give them shares in the film.

Convincing the crew to work for deferrals was a challenge. The economic crunch of 2009 was hard on the film industry leaving many crew financially strapped. I knew it was not an easy decision to come on board, based on faith alone. Nonetheless, I had a clear vision for the film which, thankfully, they believed in.

I then contacted writer Curry Hitchborn and asked him if he could write a feature in two weeks about my experiences as a B- Movie actress in Hollywood.

At night, Curry and I banged out the script in the allotted. Daylight hours were focused on casting the two lead roles and rehearsing the script with the actors as it was delivered.

Three weeks later, we started shooting. From concept to the first day of production was three weeks. Shooting occurred over 12 days. As an added bonus, shooting wrapped on my birthday!