Manitoba film industry heats up

Online fundraiser for ‘polite, modest farmer’ facing firearms charges sending message, neighbour says

Thousands of dollars have been raised to help cover the legal fees of a Manitoba man charged after he allegedly fired a gun at thieves during a theft on his farm in August.

CEO, philanthropist Doug Harvey has died

Doug Harvey, a Winnipeg business titan and philanthropist, has died after battling cancer for more than a decade.

Harvey gave millions of dollars to Winnipeg organizations while he was CEO of DLH Group, a nationwide network of businesses that support heavy duty truck and trailer users.

Loren Remillard, CEO and president of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, said the business community is mourning the loss of the influential businessman who helped shape Winnipeg.

“We are a transportation and logistics hub in Winnipeg and it was partly the result of geography, and a big part because of leaders and visionaries like Doug Harvey,” he said.

Powerful personal drama provides both bark and bite

Well before playwright Rafaella Marcus’ words have the chance to entangle us in the stickiness of Sap, the performance space initiates the task in director Elio Zarrillo’s staging of this discomfiting and affecting story of restraint and liberation.

Shortly after the audience takes its seats in four segments surrounding a central channel — a shimmering tunnel containing cellist Grace Morningstar — it becomes clear as actors Hera Nalam and Liz Whitbread make their way around the tight corners of David Oro and Hazel Venzon’s set that certain actions will go unseen unless viewers keeps their heads on a swivel: in a production meant to uproot understanding, a fixed perspective will never do.

In this vulnerable and powerful production from Theatre by the River (105 minutes) the actors meet the excellence of Marcus’s twisty script, which calls for emotionally draining and jolting depictions of a relationship headed down a rocky road.

Nalam plays a young communications pro for a women’s aid charity whose dating life is a work in progress. She’s bright and optimistic, taking notice of elements of nature that nobody else seems to recognize. On her daily commute, she looks out from the bus window in awe of a home overflowing with branches and leaves.

Dynacare must treat workers fairly: health minister

Manitoba’s health minister defended the government’s contract with Dynacare, saying the for-profit company is expected to treat its workers fairly — but wouldn’t say if that expectation was spelled out in the deal.

The 350 private lab workers, who are represented by the Manitoba Association of Health Care Professionals, have been without a contract since March 31 and went on strike on Sept. 8.

The Manitoba Labour Board ordered them back to work and they returned to the job one day later.

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara was asked Wednesday about the lack of an essential services agreement and why the government didn’t intervene in March, knowing that a labour dispute could interrupt community lab services.

MMF walks away from bid to buy Fort Garry Hotel

The Manitoba Métis Federation won’t buy the historic Fort Garry Hotel, President David Chartrand said Monday.

Manitoba film industry heats up

Trench 11's pitched battle between soldiers and bio-freaks is just the latest chapter in what is a horror-centric season for Manitoba's film industry. Coming off two back-to-back seasons of the grisly SyFy series Channel Zero, the horror hits just keep coming with other productions currently shooting or in prep, including:

— Incident in a Ghostland, a horror film starring French pop icon Mylène Farmer is currently being shot by French director Pascal Laugier, whose main claim to fame is the harrowing Quebec-lensed horror film Martyrs.

— New in town is the psychological thriller Behind the Glass, in which an 18-year-old outcast played by India Eisley (the daughter of one-time Canfilm scream queen Olivia Hussey of the landmark slasher Black Christmas) initiates a potentially deadly relationship with her own mirror image. The film is from Israeli writer-director Assaf Bernstein, best known for his 2007 thriller The Debt, which was remade in 2010 with Helen Mirren and Jessica Chastain. The film also stars Oscar-winner Mira Sorvino and Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy of the Harry Potter films) as Eisley's parents.

— Coming up: A living doll. Yes, Chucky 7 — presumably not the final title — the latest in the Child's Play franchise, is returning to Winnipeg after writer-director Don Mancini lensed the sixth instalment, The Curse of Chucky, here in the fall of 2012. In an interview with the Free Press after the film won the audience award at the Fantasia Film Festival in August 2013, Mancini indicated his experience was pleasurable enough to warrant a return.