Apocablyss Studio, a new endeavor from Paloma Dawkins (Museum of Symmetry, Songs of the Lost, Gardenium), officially launched last September 23rd at Montreal’s Anteism Books venue (Solange Knowles’ In Past Pupils and Smiles) in what was a perfect night of poetry from Ashley Opheim and Erin Songbird and of course technology from Paloma Dawkins.
Apocablyss is devoted to using new media to explore new forms of storytelling, creating animated programmed and speculative fictions that help us reconnect and reimagine ourselves. This is why the studio has a strong technological penchant for everything XR which it combines with poetry and an incredibly whimsical animation style.
We leave you with the mantra of the studio: Love is the Technology of Survival. Indeed.
Writer-Director Carolyn Saunders is the 2022 winner of the Writers Guild of Canada’s Sondra Kelly Award, and an Academy Nicholl Fellowship quarterfinalist in 2021.
She was also selected for the prestigious Meryl Streep/Nicole Kidman Writer’s Lab and her sci-fi feature script Island West is on Coverfly’s Red List, in the Top 1% of nearly 80,000 screenplays.
Carolyn was just shortlisted for the Sundance Features Lab with the same feature script proposal that won her the Sondra Kelly Award, a biographical tale about a Starfighter pilot’s wife who fights for her identity on a patriarchal Canadian airbase in 1960’s Germany.
The above Ted Bundy piece, broadcast on Amazon, is part of her body of work as a documentarian.
Tourné en 2020, Crépuscule pour un tueur prendra l’affiche au début 2023.
Coécrit par Raymond St-Jean et Martin Girard, les scénaristes se sont basés sur les nombreux articles de journaux qui ont été écrits à l’époque sur Donald Lavoie qui a admis en 1981 avoir participé à 27 meurtres pour le compte de la famille Dubois, une des plus importantes organisations criminelles de Montréal à l’époque.
Sur son site, Raymond St-Jean, qui a aussi réalisé le film, écrit que le film est librement inspiré de fait vécus. Le drame criminel raconte comment, à la fin des années 1970, Donald Lavoie, un tueur à gages redoutable, travaille sous les ordres du boss de la pègre du Sud-Ouest de Montréal, Claude Dubois qui prend sous son aile une jeune recrue qui ne tarde pas à le compromettre dans un double meurtre salopé.
Lavoie échappe à la justice, mais ce n’est que partie remise pour le sergent-détective Patrick Burns qui cherche à le convaincre de témoigner pour faire tomber le clan Dubois.
“Los Angeles, 2064. In a world where humans have to live along the living dead, a new job opportunity arises: zombie catcher. Karl Neard, his sister Maggie, and his Belgian friend Freddy Merckx, all embrace this “career” in the hope of making easy money. Unfortunately, the job is not that simple: not only are the “dead” still walking, but they also have a terrible stench and an awful sense of humor. As a matter of fact, zombies just don’t care about anything, as their lives are behind them and they now have an eternity to enjoy what is left of the world. Karl and his team will quickly find this fact out as they end up surrounded by all sorts of ghoulish freaks.
We Are Zombies is a collaboration between Christal Film Productions, Full House, a label of Borsalino Productions and Maneki Films, and Humanoids’ European sister company Sparkling, in association with Kinology. Spengler is producing the film for Sparkling. The project is backed by SODEC, Telefilm Canada, Sofitvcine, La Banque Postale Image, Cofimage, refundable tax credit for Québec film and television production, Eurimages, Cofinova, and the Canadian Film and Video Production Tax Credit.
“The Zombies That Ate the World has been compared to Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland, and the works of Judd Apatow. The comic was also praised by the likes of George A. Romero, Joe Dante, and Tobe Hooper.
Shot in Canada back in the spring, We Are Zombies is now in post-production and is toplined by Québécois actors Alexandre Nachi (nominated for the 2019 Best Supporting Role Iris via 1991) and Derek Johns (The Wolf and the Lion [+]), alongside Australian actress Megan Peta Hill. Written by RKSS based on Jerry Frissen and Guy Davis’ comic book series, the film was developed and produced by Gaël Nouaille, Laurent Baudens and Didar Domehri on behalf of Full House (the joint label of Borsalino Productions and Maneki Films), We Are Zombies is executively co-produced by Canada’s Christal Films. Also co-produced by Sparkling (Humanoïdes Associés’ production arm), We Are Zombies enjoys support from Eurimages, SODEC, Téléfilm Canada and the SOFICA companies Sofitvcine, Cofimage, La Banque Postale Image and Cofinova. International sales are steered by Kinology.”
RKSS previously directed the films Turbo Kid and Summer of 84.
It was reported that UK LGBTQ+-focused distributor Peccadillo Pictures claimed that Amazon Prime Video UK is refusing to make Canadian artist and filmmaker Bruce LaBruce’s provocative dark comedy Saint-Narcisse, written by Martin Girard, available on its online store.
“After 6 months streaming on Amazon in the US and France, my movie, Saint-Narcisse, has been removed for offensive content with no other explanation!,” Bruce Labruce writes on his IG.
Saint-Narcisse was produced by Montreal’s Nicolas Comeau’s 1976 Productions.
