The Atlantic Film Festival Announces Performers for Scripts Out Loud

The 24th Atlantic Film Festival (September 17-25, 2004) is pleased announce that ACTRA Maritimes member actors Kristin Bell, Krista MacDonald, Dawn McKelvie Cyr, Tara Doyle, Brian Heighton, Njeri Watkins, Jeff Wright and Darrell Yates will perform, in front of a live audience, excerpts from four scripts that were developed through the Script Development Project at the annual Scripts Out Loud. Scripts Out Loud takes place on September 25 from 2:00-4:00 PM in the Admiral Room, Lord Nelson Hotel & Suites.

“This is a great way for the public to experience scripts in development,” said Lia Rinaldo, Festival Director. “Over half of the scripts that are developed through this process go on to be produced. This program has an extremely high success rate.”

About the 9th Annual Script Development Project:

Jay Dahl, Josh MacDonald, David Moses and Pamela Pinch were chosen from among 30 applicants to participate in the 9th Annual Script Development Project (SDP) for experienced screenwriters, which took place over two intensive weekend workshops this summer. The project will culminate at Scripts Out Loud and Astral Media The Harold Greenberg Fund Script Pitch during the 24th Atlantic Film Festival (AFF), September 17-25, 2004. The participants are as follows:

Jay Dahl is a Halifax writer, director and producer. His short and feature scripts have won him national acclaim: Bravo! FACT grants (Boyclops, Don’t. Don’t Break Up with Megan), National Screen Institute Drama Prize (The Wedding Video), Screenwriter’s Assistance Program (Fuel) and Canadian Feature Film Fund (Toronto Minutes). His SDP feature script, Toronto Minutes, is comprised of six intriguing vignettes that emulate the highlife, the lowlife and the sexual perversity of big city living.

Josh MacDonald is a writer and actor living Dartmouth, NS. His short films as a writer include: Ties That Bind, Dealer, Deadlines and the multiple award-winning Degrees. He has also written episodes of Collideascope’s Olliver’s Adventures. His feature-length SDP script, Over Under Through, is a quirky, comic adventure about a high-school boy, skilled in orienteering, who challenges his arch-nemesis to an outlandish duel of “urban beeline”. Racing across the city of Halifax, the boys can travel only in a straight line, no matter what obstacles lie ahead. To continue their race they must only move over, under or through!

David Moses is a playwright and screenwriter based on Prince Edward Island. Most recently, he wrote for the CTV series Robson Arms and for Altitude, currently in production in Alberta. His feature script, Darla’s Ghost, was workshopped at SDP in 2002 and is currently in development. His feature script for this year’s SDP, Make Up My Mind, is about life-long friends, Maggie and Sean, who seem to have run into a string of bad luck with dumb choices, failing relationships and dead ends. Then Sean gets a brilliant idea. He suggests they start making decisions for each other…

Pamela Pinch began working in film and television in 1998 at Salter Street Films in Halifax. She has written and directed two short films and was Story Department Coordinator, 3rd AD and Production Manager on various television projects. She is currently the Director of Development at Creative Atlantic Communications. Her half-hour SDP script, Harley Queen, is about a lesbian enclave, nestled quietly in the suburb of Harley, that is thrown into crisis when a couple of breeders, Chuck and Sally Robinson, move into their neighbourhood.

Workshops will be lead by Allan Magee, senior story editor-in-residence at the Canadian Film Centre. Local actors will present excerpts from final scripts in front of a live audience at Scripts Out Loud, a public event during the Atlantic Film Festival. The Festival will submit finished scripts, on the writers’ behalf, to CBC Television for production consideration and to Astral Media The Harold Greenberg Fund for funding consideration.

The 24th Atlantic Film Festival takes place September 17-25, 2004, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Tickets for screenings and events are available at the Aliant Film Festival Box Office, located at 1599 South Park Street, online at www.atlanticfilm.com or by calling the Aliant Ticket Hotline at (902) 422-6965.