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)

NSTT Artist Spotlight Repeats Interview With Violinist Marc Djokic In Light Of His Concert With Symphony NS January 16, 2020

On January 2, at 1 p.m. tune in to a repeat of the Talent Trust Artist Spotlight from July 4, 2019 with virtuosic internationally renowned violinist Marc Djokic, winner of the 2017-2018 Prix Goyer as well as actor/producer, and film producer and actor Gharrett Paon.

97.5 CIOE Community Radio

Marc Djokic will perform with Symphony Nova Scotia on 
Thursday, January 16 at 7:30 p.m.

Marc Djokic (photo Symphony NS)

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

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 

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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 Artist Spotlight Radio with Guests Marc Djokic and Gharret Paon July 4, 2019.

Tune in for the 3rd edition of the Talent Trust Artist Spotlight.

Every first Thursday of the month with your host, past scholarship recipient and current board member Breagh MacKinnon.

July 4, 1 p.m. 

97.5 CIOE Community Radio

Hear from TT alumni; the virtuosic internationally renowned violinist Marc Djokic, winner of the 2017-2018 Prix Goyer as well as actor/producer, Gharret Paon, recently accepted into both the National Screen Institute and Telefilm programs.

Previous Episodes:

2: Charley Young, and Shandi Mitchell (recording coming soon)

1: Jane Archibald and Charlotte Wilson-Hammond

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

Gharrett Patrick Paon Gets Chosen for the 2019 NSI Features First Training Course.

Beginning next month, Gharrett Patrick Paon, along with his teammate Andrew Dryden Mortimer, will develop their film projects with the best industry experts in Canada as part of the competitive 2019 National Screen Institute's NSI Features First training course. 

In Gharrett’s application he wrote:

"Emerging east coast writers desperately require outside investment to help them and the Maritime film community at large grow and become internationally recognized. Andrew is exactly the kind of writer brimming with talent that our entire community will benefit from in the future."

The Talent Trust couldn’t agree more.

Gharrett Patrick Paon is an actor/producer with Acadian and Mi’kmaq ancestry from Halifax, Nova Scotia. He is a recent alumnus of the Canadian Film Centre Producer’s Lab and holds a bachelor of commerce degree from Dalhousie University.

In 2018, he won Telefilm Canada’s Pitch This! competition with writer/director Bretten Hannam at Toronto International Film Festival for Wildhood, a two-spirit, coming-of-age road film currently in development with CBC Films.

Gharrett is the president of Rebel Road Films Inc. The company is in production on season one of Spirit Talker, a 13 x 30 minute documentary series for APTN. Gharrett recently produced Wildfire, a short film version of Wildhood, which had its world premiere at BFI Flare, the largest LGBTQ+ film festival in Europe, and was one of 10 Canadian shorts selected for Telefilm Canada’s Not Short on Talent showcase at Clermont-Ferrand.

In 2017 Gharrett was the recipient of the prestigious Nova Scotia Talent Trust Young Artist of Excellence Award and The Shelagh Mackenzie Award for filmmaking.

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.