How a teenager from Halifax ended up directing her first short film
CBC
It's not every day that a teenager gets to call the shots on set, but that's the position Vera Dunlop-Vaillancourt found herself in two years ago as she prepared to direct her first short film.
"It was a little bit of a different world for a 14-year-old because you're so used to being always told what to do," said Dunlop-Vaillancourt, now 16, on Saturday.
Produced with the help of her mentor Spencer MacKay, and support from the Atlantic Filmmakers Co-op, Dunlop-Vaillancourt's short Around Me has been admitted to film festivals around North America, including in Palm Beach, San Diego, Montreal, Toronto and Fredericton.
The film is now available to watch for free on Vimeo.
"It's about this teenage girl who's going through the change of becoming a young adult, and how she's expressing her feelings for the first time, and her mother's trying to understand it," she said.
Dunlop-Vaillancourt first met MacKay, a director himself, when she auditioned via Zoom for a role in one of his short films during the pandemic.
She was too old for the part and her younger sister ended up getting cast instead, but MacKay sensed a keen interest in filmmaking and invited her to come on set.
"He was like, why don't you come shadow for a day, and my mind was blown," said Dunlop-Vaillancourt.
On set, she recalled watching how MacKay directed his actors and crew, and communicated to make sure things were running smoothly. Afterwards, he told Dunlop-Vaillancourt that if she ever wrote a short film, he'd be happy to offer some feedback.
Still not even 13 at the time, she took him up on the offer. Soon after, they were meeting once a week to go over the script.
"I was very surprised by how good and how much of a story it was from someone her age," said MacKay.
Initially, working on a script was just an exercise and there was no expectation that it would ever be filmed.
But Dunlop-Vaillancourt said MacKay then encouraged her to apply for a grant and see if she could make a film a reality.
There was no age included in the application so the script could be judged on its own merits. She got the grant.
James Benesh was so interested in researching an online hockey draft, he ended up with one of the largest-known collections of hockey books and eventually being called a hockey historian.
A recent market and fundraiser showcasing Palestinian-owned businesses in Hamilton, including new start-ups by people from Gaza who now call the city home, was met with “incredible” support, organizers say.
This time next year, Joellah Fletcher plans to be prepping or taking her final exams to become a certified Red Seal carpenter.
East of the small village of Coutts, Alta., a stone’s throw from the border with the United States, Cindy Bosch’s day-to-day life looks much like it did a year ago.
For years, police have been on the front lines of mental health crisis calls in Toronto, but the city's police chief believes it's now time to rethink that approach.
One of Prince Edward Island’s last surviving Second World War veterans has died.
Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canada has too much regulation and not enough investments in clean energy and technology — and he's making his most direct repudiation yet of his predecessor's environmental policies.
WARNING: This story contains distressing content, including racist, violent and antisemitic language.
A national Jewish advocacy organization is taking legal action against Manitoba's medical regulator over a complaint it made last year alleging a prominent doctor made antisemitic comments on social media.
A cat that went missing in a remote area of northeastern B.C. is finally back home with its family in Oklahoma, five months later.
It wasn’t clear trolleys would be a hit in Medicine Hat, but the Sunshine Trolley has wound its way into Hatters’ hearts.
More than 200 volunteers and politicians gathered in Etobicoke Saturday for the Daily Bread Food Bank’s holiday sort.
The rising cost-of-living has already made supporting a family difficult this year. But, the holidays can make staying on budget that much harder.