Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto (LIFT)

Summer 2014 Panel Discussion

THE PRACTICE OF SCREENWRITING TODAY

1137 Dupont Street (just East of Dufferin Street)

FREE

Limited seating

Join us for our summer panel discussion, the Practice of Screenwriting Today. Screenwriters, story-editors, and funders will discuss their work and invite conversation with audience members about what it means to write fiction films in the current moment.

MODERATOR:

Maureen Dorey is a freelance story editor and script analyst whose produced credits include: "Siddarth," written and directed by Richie Mehta (TIFF 2013), "Blackbird," written and directed Jason Buxton (TIFF 2012, Genie-nominated, winner of the Youth Jury Prize at Cannes), "In Darkness," written by David Shamoon, directed by Agnieska Holland, (TIFF 2011, nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay Genie), "NURSE.FIGHTER.BOY." (2008, Genie Nomination) and "Amal" (2007, Genie Nomination). Her television work includes "Moccasin Flats," "Random Passage," an eight-hour mini-series directed by John N. Smith, produced by Passage Films and Cité-Amérique for broadcast on CBC and RTE (Eire). Other produced credits include "The War Between Us," "Lyddie," "Violet" and "On My Mind." She has worked with writers across Canada. For the past 10 years, she has been the Story Editor in Residence at the Canadian Film Centre (CFC), engaged in developing feature film scripts with residents of its Writers’ Lab, and consulting with residents in the Directors’, Producers’ and Editors’ Labs, as well as providing mentorship to the new Actors Conservatory progamme. She has acted as story editor on several CFC Features projects. She now teaches Feature Screenwriting at York University. She has also acted as consultant and instructor to Women in Film and Television, the National Screen Institute, Praxis Film Works, NIFCO and B.C. Film.

SCHEDULED PANELISTS:

ALAN BACCHUS, a graduate of Queen’s University and the Vancouver Film School, is a Toronto-based film industry professional. As Programs Manager at the Harold Greenberg Fund, Alan is responsible for managing the Script Development Program, Shorts-to-Features Program and other initiatives. Previously, Alan worked at the Canadian Film Centre (CFC), Capri Films and Norflicks Productions. Alan has produced and directed a number of short films. He also writes film reviews for Exclaim! magazine and operates his own personal blog DailyFilmDose.com.

PAT MILLS got his start in the industry as an actor on the series "You Can't Do That on Television" (Nickelodeon). He received his training at Ryerson University where he was the recipient of the Norman Jewison Filmmaker Award and City TV Best Film Award. His short films have played at festivals all around the world, including TIFF. Recently, Pat participated in the inaugural NSI/Movie Central "Script to Screen" with his time travel comedy "Here I Go Again." The project will spend a year going from treatment to a fully formed script ready for packaging. Pat was named winner of TIFF's Pitch This! for "Don't Talk to Irene," which has received development support from Telefilm, Corus and the Harold Greenberg Fund. The project took part in the 2013 CFC Telefilm Canada Feature Comedy Exchange, where the script was mentored by Kirsten Smith (Legally Blonde). The screenplay just won best comedy screenplay at the 2013 Austin Screenplay Competition. This past November, Pat completed principal photography of his first feature, the dark comedy, "Guidance," produced by Edyson Entertainment and funded by Telefilm Canada. He is represented by the Jennifer Hollyer Agency in Toronto and Oasis Media Group in Los Angeles. http://www.pat-mills.com

After many years working in film and TV production, PATRICK TARR attended the Canadian Film Centre Writers' Lab in 2005. Since then he's had several feature screenplays in development and co-wrote 2013's "The Colony," a sci-fi thriller starring Lawrence Fishburne and Bill Paxton. Starting out in television, Patrick was a story consultant on the fourth season of Murdoch Mysteries in addition to writing the WGC Award-winning web series "Curse of the Lost Pharaohs." He has since worked as a writer and story editor on the Showcase series, "King," a writer and consulting producer on season 1 and 2 of the CBC drama "Cracked," and is currently on the writing staff of CTV's "Saving Hope." He was selected as one of Playback Magazine's 10 to Watch for 2012. http://twitter.com/patrick_tarr