Wildhood: Canadian Screen Award Nominations

Congratulations to former Talent Trust scholarship recipients Bretten Hannam (writer and director) and Gharrett Paon (producer) whose film Wildhood was nominated for Best Motion Picture at the 2022 Canadian Screen Awards.

 

Gharrett was the winner of both the Shelagh MacKenzie Award and the 2011 Canada Game Young Artist of Excellent Award in 2017.

 

Other nominations Wildhood received are:

• Best Achievement in Casting
• Best Original Screenplay
• Best Direction
• Best Leading Performance
• Best Supporting Performance  

 

Wildhood will be in theaters March 11, 2022. 

 

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FIN Opening Night for Bretten Hannam and Gharrett Paon!

Congratulations to former Talent Trust scholarship recipients Bretten Hannam (writer and director) and Gharrett Paon (producer) for having their film WILDHOOD selected as the Opening Night Gala Film for FIN 2021!

Gharrett was the winner of both the Shelagh MacKenzie Award and the 2011 Canada Game Young Artist of Excellent Award in 2017.

From the FIN Press Release: 

We have selected WILDHOOD - written and directed by Two-Spirit L’nu filmmaker raised in Kespukwitk, Mi’kma’ki (Halifax, NS) Bretten Hannam - as our 2021 Opening Night Gala Film on September 16! 

When Link discovers his Mi'kmaw mother is still alive, he runs away from home with his younger brother Travis in a desperate gamble to start a new life. They're soon joined by Pasmay, a pow wow dancer drawn to Link’s story. Together they embark on a Two-Spirit odyssey, reconnecting with culture and the territory of Mi'kma'ki / Nova Scotia, while trying to find Link’s mother, Sarah. 

OPENING NIGHT GALA: 

WILDHOOD, Bretten Hannam, Canada, NS (100:00)*** Thursday, September 16, 7:00PM – Cineplex Park Lane Theatre 8 Thursday, September 16, 7:30PM – Cineplex Park Lane Theatre 4

FIN STREAM: Access Dates: September 16, 7:00PM – September 17, 6:59PM

On-Demand Duration: 24 hours (viewer must start streaming during Access Dates) 

WILDHOOD (MI’KMAQ LANGUAGE VERSION), Bretten Hannam, Canada, NS (100:00)*** Saturday, September 18, 2:00PM – Cineplex Park Lane Theatre 1

FIN STREAM: Access Dates: September 16, 1:00AM – September 23, 11:59PM

On-Demand Duration: 24 hours (viewer must start streaming during Access Dates

FIN Atlantic International Film Festival and FIN Stream - taking place September 16-23, 2021. Featuring 158 films, 87 in-cinema screenings and 28 online screenings, the festival will be presented in Halifax, Nova Scotia at Cineplex Cinemas Park Lane and it will be accessible virtually online throughout Atlantic Canada.

View the FIN 2021 Film Listing here. 

More about Bretten Hannam (they/them) can be found on their website: http://www.bretthannam.com/about 

 

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Want to support the next generation of Nova Scotian artists? Donate today! (smile)

 

(Bretten Hannam photo credit: Jack Leahy)

FIN Atlantic Int'l Film Fest Filled with Talent Trust Alumni.

In addition to our special partnership program: Then, Now, Change: Visions of Nova Scotia featuring a retrospective with works by Gwyneth Christoffel, Chris Spencer-Lowe, Bretten Hannam, Ann Verrall, and Becka Barker, which include music scores by Lukas Pearce (Deep End and Transfer) and performance by Gharrett Paon (Deep End) screening on September 19 at 9:10 p.m., FIN showcases several other NSTT alumni. 

Reeny Smith bringing her musical and song-writing prowess to FIN’s Festival Music House Atlantic:

Saturday, September 14 at 9 p.m.
The Marquee Ballroom 

2037 Gottingen Street

Katerina Bakolias, one of the four selected writers participating in the FIN Makers Script Lab competes with her screenplay for Junkyard Girls for a cash prize at the Script Pitch:

Sunday, September 15 at 2 p.m.
Admiral Room Nelson Hotel and Suites
1515 South Park Street 

Co-writer/director Ariella Pahlke, along with collaborators Nance Akerman and Teresa Macinnes bring their Hot Docs premiered feature length documentary Conviction in FIN’s Gala Presentation:

September 16 at 6:30 pm
Cineplex Cinemas Park Lane,
5657 Spring Garden Rd, Halifax

Reception to follow
Dalhousie School of Architecture
5410 Spring Garden Road

Regular working duo writer/director Bretten Hannam and producer Gharrett Paon screen Wildfire in the Reel East Coast Shorts Gala:

September 18 at 6:30 p.m. 

Cineplex Cinemas Park Lane,
5657 Spring Garden Rd, Halifax

Then, Now, Change: Visions of Nova Scotia, in partnership with FIN, closing the festival with a short program curated by Shannon Brownlee. Short films included are:

Transfer by Chris Spencer-Lowe
Assembled & BUOY & And When Alone, Repeat by Becka Barker
E’sekati & Deep End by Bretten Hannam
Torture by Sound by Gwyneth Christoffel
Rain by Ann Verrall


September 19 at 9:10 p.m.
Cineplex Cinemas Park Lane,
5657 Spring Garden Rd, Halifax 

Want to hear more? Please sign up for our newsletter

Want to support the next generation of Nova Scotia artists? Donate today!

In 2019, the Talent Trust is celebrating its 75th  anniversary featuring former scholarship recipients with a travelling art exhibition, pop-up events in theatre, music, and dance, film screenings and more.


The 75th anniversary activities are supported by the province of Nova Scotia, Halifax Regional Municipality, The Craig Foundation, Canadian Federation of Musicians, and Margaret and David Fountain. 

Talent Trust Partners with FIN Atlantic International Film Festival for a Special Program

In celebration of our 75th anniversary, FIN Atlantic International Film Festival has partnered with us to showcase Talent Trust almuni, Gwyneth Christoffel, Chris Spencer-Lowe, Bretten Hannam, Ann Verrall, and Becka Barker as they bring you drama, documentary, animation, experimentation, poetry, music, and drawings, that expand the borders of cinematic story-telling with a special short film program curated by Dr. Shannon Brownlee.

Then, Now, Change: 
Visions of Nova Scotia

Thursday, September 19
at 9:10 p.m.

Cineplex Cinemas Park Lane, 
Theatre 1
5657 Spring Garden Rd, Halifax


Curator Shannon Brownlee writes:
This is a land of many traditions. The first are those of the Mi’kmaq, whose ancestral and unceded land we all occupy. More recently, Scots, African Nova Scotians, Irish, French, and many other people have brought their traditions to these shores.

This is also a land of vibrant youth, of exploration and inventiveness, of openness to change. These talented filmmakers remind us that the past is knitted into our bones but that tradition and innovation are not mutually exclusive.

Through the visions of children, collaborative filmmaking, and the re-envisioning of personal and public histories, these films expand our understanding of ourselves and each other, and where we may go from here.

Join us for the screening of the following short film program:

Transfer (Chris Spencer-Lowe, 2014) 17 mins
BUOY (Becka Barker, 2017) 7 mins
E’sekati (Bretten Hannam, 2017) 4:30
Deep End (Bretten Hannam, 2011) 6:30
Assembled (Becka Barker, 2006) 5:30
Torture by Sound (Gwyneth Christoffel, 2016) 4:30
Rain (Ann Verrall, 2000) 19 mins
And When Alone, Repeat (Becka Barker, 2017) 5:30


Filmmaker Bios

Becka Barker won NS Talent Trust scholarships in 1999 and 2000 for Super8 and 16mm film. Her work has screened across North America and throughout several countries across East Asia. She focuses on hand processes and collaboration.

The animated work of Gwyneth Christoffel has been screened in Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America. She held a film and video NS Talent Trust scholarship from 2013 to 2015.

Bretten Hannam is the writer, director, and producer of the feature film North Mountain (2015) and several shorts, which have been screened throughout North America and in Australia. He won a 2006 NS Talent Trust Scholarship in screenwriting.

Filmmaker and media artist Chris Spencer-Lowe’s films have been screened throughout Europe and North America. He is the winner of a 1996 NS Talent Trust directing scholarship.

Ann Verrall earned a NS Talent Trust directing scholarship in 1996. Her work has been screened in festivals in North America, the UK, and Australia has been broadcast on several television channels.

Curator Bio
Shannon Brownlee teaches in the Cinema and Media Studies and Gender and Women’s Studies programs at Dalhousie University. She researches animated film and film adaptation.



Want to hear more? Please sign up for our newsletter

Want to support the next generation of Nova Scotia artists? Donate today!

In 2019, the Talent Trust is celebrating its 75th  anniversary featuring former scholarship recipients with a travelling art exhibition, pop-up events in theatre, music, and dance, film screenings and more.


The 75th anniversary activities are supported by the province of Nova Scotia, Halifax Regional Municipality, The Craig Foundation, Canadian Federation of Musicians, and Margaret and David Fountain. 

Writer/director Bretten Hannam & producer Gharrett Patrick Paon screen WILDFIRE at the BFI Flare LGBTQ+ Film Festival on March 22 & 23 2019.

WILDFIRE is a short film about a rebellious Mi'kmaw runaway, stalked by his abusive white father, who meets a two-spirit teenager drawn to his journey. As he learns Mi'kmaw language and culture from his new companion a deeper bond begins to grow between them. 

As Bretten Hannam reveals in his director’s notes, WILDFIRE is a story drawn from personal experience, re-imagined and turned on its head. On the surface the story is very much an adventure—three boys travelling the back roads on a quest. In reality, it’s a very personal story of reconnecting to heritage and coming to terms with two-spirit identity. 

Since Nova Scotia doesn’t have any Indigenous teenage actors in ACTRA (the professional actors union). Bretten and Gharrett set out on a grassroots journey to find their two leads. Over 2 weeks they traveled to various reserves and communities in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and auditioned over 50 Mi’kmaq teenagers, become the largest casting search ever, for Indigenous talent on the east coast on Canada.

The BFI Flare LGBTQ+ Film Festival is the biggest LGBTQ+ film festival in Europe and running for over 30 years. Wildfire is programmed in CHALLENGE ACCEPTED, a selection of ‘bold shorts showing the courage, intelligence and heart of those who have found a way to rise above their circumstances’.

Wildfire is a part of Telefilm’s Not Short on Talent program, and was one of ten short films in Canada selected for Telefilm’s Not Short on Talent showcase at the 2019 Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. Not Short on Talent is a Telefilm Canada initiative that presents a selection of new Canadian short films at international markets.