Cinéfest Sudbury Dispatch #3: THE VOLUNTEER World Premiere!!

Finally!! The premiere of THE VOLUNTEER! It's hard to believe that two years after shooting and three years after writing the story, we finally unveiled it to our first public audience!

It was weird standing outside the theatre and hearing the ushers directing customers - "You're here for The Volunteer? Number Four to your right."

It was like, "Really? But... you don't even know us!"

The experience was nerve-wracking but rewarding and my mind went back to this horrific experience by now-revered director, Wes Anderson, on the first screening of his first movie, BOTTLE ROCKET (1996). Unlike poor Wes, most of our audience stuck around to the end and gave us a nice hand.

Managing Director Patrick O'Hearn was, once again, wonderful in facilitating a great Q&A where everybody got to get up in front and say some words about their role and experience rehearsing and shooting. Amazingly, nobody said the words, "It turned me off filmmaking forever." A few key cast members were missing - Theodore Bouloukos and Cheryl Lee - we missed you!

Finally, we leave you with the kind words of a woman who raised her hand during the Q&A:

"I don't really have a question; I just wanted to say you guys knocked it out of the park! It was beautiful and wonderful and I want to watch everything you make."

UPDATE:
Andrew Cherry, Dave Walpole, and I went to the gala that evening (there's a gala every evening, free booze and food! Live music! What's not to like?) and there we got the real heart of the Cinéfest experience. We were recognized and people were coming up to us, to take pictures with us, telling us they loved our movie! It was fantastic and weird!

The demographic at Cinéfest skews 60yrs+ and many of them had been dedicated Cinéfest-goers for 26 years, since the beginning. A number of people told us they watch easily 30 or more films over the nine-day festival. One woman told me, "We're a town of workers, and we really appreciate the work you guys do to make films." There's a reason why Cinéfest bills itself "the people's festival". The folks here are hard-core cinephiles who not only appreciate the art, but the enormous amount of WORK that goes into making that art.

THE VOLUNTEER Official Trailer!

As we were about to post this on our facebook page, we had a little moment:

"Holy crap. This is actually the very first time people are actually seeing what we've spent two years crafting. I am scared."

Not scared so much as suddenly nervous! It's all good to show beautiful screen caps and behind the scenes photos, but to show everything put together?? And this is just the trailer!

Anyway, we hope you enjoy this - so many people put so much work into this over the past two years that it's rewarding just to have finished it and to say "WE MADE A REAL MOVIE."

Meet the cast: Myra Segal

Myra from a previous role. "Hitchhiker" 

Coming all the way from Montreal, Myra is playing the role of Becky, Rick's girlfriend and Amy's wannabe step-mother. We recently had Myra come down to Kitchener for two days of rehearsals and she knocked it out of the park (as we knew she would)!

Stay tuned for more cast and crew introductions!