Netflix and roll

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This article was published 11/04/2023 (879 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For most of us, Netflix is an evening escape without leaving the comfort of the couch.

But for Winnipeg’s Darcy Waite, the streaming giant has been a motivator, offering skills and opportunity along with its roster of hit movies and television series.

The skills come in the form of a year-long screenwriting program offered by Netflix and the imagineNative Institute to Indigenous filmmakers in Canada.

The opportunity is Lucky Strike, a feature-film directorial debut based on the screenplay he wrote, rewrote and rewrote again in the intensive sessions, which will begin filming this fall in Winnipeg.

The script has also made Waite one of 16 filmmakers in Telefilm’s Talent to Watch program.

“I knew that imagineNative had this program and they ran it twice before I applied for it,” Waite says. “The first time, I was just getting started as a writer, so it was like, ‘I’m not really quite there,’ and the second time I chickened out.

“The third time came and I thought this was the ‘maybe next time’ year, so I might as well apply for it. We have the idea and we have the opportunity.”

Lucky Strikes is a comedy about two Indigenous bowlers who aim to raise money to save their local lanes from the wrecking ball.

Waite had never bowled except for school field trips, but when he joined a friend’s team in 2021 he found a setting for his slapstick comedy ideas.

“It was so fun. I remember the third or fourth game and I thought, ‘There’s a story here.’ So I sat down and came up with this story, a skeleton,” he says.

He wrote a scene for the film in his application to imagineNative, but he forgot about it when he became busy with other film and TV projects.

“ImagineNative gave me an email, ‘Congratulations, you got into the program.’ OK sweet, I guess I have to write a feature now,” he says with a chuckle.

“It went from an outline of an idea, to an outline, to a first draft in about four months, which is a lot.”

Mentors gave him advice on punching up the script — not necessarily the jokes, but what the characters do between the punchlines.

“I kind of figured it out. The characters weren’t active enough,” he says. “They didn’t want (to save the bowling alley) enough, they didn’t care enough. I really needed to change it to bring the characters alive a little bit more.

“You have to figure out your voice and your footing. Who are you? What do you want to say? That takes the longest to figure out.”

While it will be Waite’s debut in film, the 29-year-old, who grew up in Alberta, is no newbie to the entertainment industry.

His most recent project has him serving as creator, producer and actor on the APTN lumi show DJ Burnt Bannock, which debuted April 2022 and includes Manitoba’s Paul Rabliauskas (Acting Good), a rising star in Canadian comedy, in the cast.

Also in 2022, he directed and helped write the non-fiction series 7th Gen, another APTN series, which celebrates young Indigenous leaders from across Canada.

He produced two films by Ojibwe/Saulteaux/settler director Madison Thomas, the 2019 drama Ruthless Souls and Finality of Dusk, a post-apocalyptic drama from Eagle Vision that is expected to come out later in 2023.

Waite caught the acting bug when he hosted APTN’s That’s AWSM in 2019 and 2020, which followed Indigenous teens’ experiences while hanging out with celebrities for a day.

“I grew up like a lot of kids, (thinking you’re) not going to do very well in life, not very smart. It took me a while to find my footing,” he says. “I had a really good director who pushed me: “You’re better, you’re funnier. Break out of your shell a little bit.’”

Alan.Small@winnipegfreepress.com

Twitter: @AlanDSmall