Vancouver International Film Festival

TAKE ONE, Dec, 2003 by Dale Drewery

Perhaps I'm suffering from Attention Deficit Disorder, but my favourite film at this year's festival was just six minutes long. It's called The Big Charade, and the film's creator, Jesse McKeown, won the Keystone Award for Best Young Western Canadian Director of a Short Film. It's a tongue-in-cheek trailer for a phantom film about a young man, played by Brendan Fletcher, who journeys into the ruthless underworld of charades in order to revenge the murder of his father, played by Ian Tracey. The short comes out of a program called Kick Start, sponsored by the Directors Guild of Canada and British Columbia Film. It teams up promising young directors with film mentors, in this case director/producer Lynne Stopkewich. The Big Charade is a beautifully shot, finely edited little gem that will eventually be shown on television. But be sure not to blink, or you're liable to miss it.

Dale Drewery is a Vancouver-based journalist and television producer.