Posts Tagged ‘Jeffrey St. Jules’

Metro: Bang Bang Baby takes Jane Levy back to her singing, dancing roots

Screen Shot 2015-08-19 at 1.27.41 PMBy Richard Crouse – Metro Canada

Jane Levy has a diverse resume that includes the cable hit Shameless (where she dies in a most fiery way), the sitcom Suburgatory and the 2013 remake of Evil Dead. But her new film, Bang Bang Baby takes her back to where she began: singing and dancing.

“I did musical theatre, mostly because it was the only theatre available, not to say anything negative about that, but I wanted to be an actor. I loved drama and that was the way to do it so I was in all the plays. I was in Annie. I was in Oklahoma. I was in Annie Get Your Gun and The Wizard of Oz,” When she was seven years old the California native recalls about her seven -year-old self.

She warbled her way through Broadway-style shows until she was about thirteen when she traded the stage for the soccer field. It took a few years but eventually she felt a familiar draw.

“I was eighteen and I just finished my first year of college and I hated school,” she says. “I was miserable the whole year and I couldn’t quite figure out why.

“I was in Europe with my friend and I said, ‘You know what? I’m not going to do it anymore. I’m not going to school. Why not pursue the thing that I know has always been, deep down, my dream?’”

She’s back to basics in Bang Bang Baby, a strange new big screen sci-fi musical that gives her the chance to strut her stuff. In it, she plays Stepphy, a 1960s teenager whose dreams of rock ’n’ roll stardom are dashed when a chemical leak in her town causes mass mutations and “threatens to turn her dream into a nightmare.”

When she first saw the script she says, “I thought, how cool and how strange. I thought it would be a challenge to explore singing and dancing which is something I had done as a kid but not since. And I also thought how unusual, how peculiar, how fun.”

Levy has a whole slate of films on the way, including the much-anticipated animated movie Monster Trucks, but the best part of it all, she says, is that she is able to act in a variety of projects.

“For me, I feel like this is the thing I have to do. This is the thing I enjoy the most and this is the thing I’m best at.”

TIFF 2014: TELEFILM CANADA’S TALENT TO WATCH: NEW DIRECTIONS FOR DIRECTORS

Telefilm Canada’s Talent to Watch series of panel sessions is designed to spotlight the creative talents of our country’s emerging and established filmmakers. Whether it’s making the transition from shorts to features, the creative possibilities afforded by new technologies, or the cultural, artistic, and linguistic diversities of our landscape, a panel of young Canadian directors at various stages in their careers reflect on the art of storytelling and engaging audiences. Richard hosted this panel with Jacob Tierney, director Preggoland, Jeffrey St. Jules director Bang Bang Baby, Andrea Dorfman director Heartbeat and Mathieu Denis, director Corbo.

Telefilm Canada’s Talent to Watch: Maps to the Talent – New Directions for Directors

7237ba994d7defb2080fd13cf0e46529Richard will host a panel session with Jacob Tierney, Jeffrey St. Jules, Mathieu Denis and Andrea Dorfman on Friday September 5, 2014.

Here is some info from the tiff.net website:

Telefilm Canada’s Talent to Watch series of panel sessions is designed to spotlight the creative talents of our country’s emerging and established filmmakers. Whether it’s making the transition from shorts to features, the creative possibilities afforded by new technologies, or the cultural, artistic, and linguistic diversities of our landscape, a panel of young Canadian directors at various stages in their careers reflect on the art of storytelling and engaging audiences.

Date: Friday, September 5
Time: 11:45am-12:30pm
Venue: Glenn Gould Studio

Jacob Tierney

Jacob Tierney was born in Montreal. He has been a professional actor since age six and appeared in numerous films and television shows before making his directorial debut with the short film Dad (02). His features include Twist (03), The Trotsky (09), and Good Neighbours (10), all of which premiered at the Festival. Preggoland (14) is his latest film.

Richard Crouse

(MODERATOR)

Richard Crouse is the film critic for CTV’s Canada AM, the 24 hour news source CTV’s News Channel and CP24. In 2011 he hosted In Short, a series of hour long shows showcasing BravoFact’s best short films. He was the host of Reel to Real, Canada’s longest running television show about movies, from 1998 to 2008 and is a frequent guest on many national Canadian radio and television shows. His syndicated Saturday afternoon radio show, Entertainment Extra, originates on News Talk 1010 in Toronto. He is the author of six books on pop culture history including Who Wrote the Book of Love, the best-selling The 100 Best Movies You’ve Never Seen, its sequel The Son of the 100 Best Movies You’ve Never Seen, the bestselling Raising Hell: Ken Russell and the Unmaking of The Devils and the upcoming Elvis is King: Costello’s My Aim is True. He also writes two weekly columns for Metro newspaper.

Jeffrey St. Jules

Jeffrey St. Jules was born in Montreal and grew up in Nova Scotia. Three of his short films, The Sadness of Johnson Joe Jangles (04), The Tragic Story of Nling (06), and Let the Daylight into the Swamp (12) premiered at the Festival. His other shorts include The Long Autumn (10), and The Rarebit Fiend (14). Bang Bang Baby (14) is his debut feature.

Mathieu Denis

Mathieu Denis studied cinema at l’Université du Québec à Montréal. He directed the short films Silent Remains (06) and Code 13 (07), the latter of which premiered at the Festival, and wrote and co-directed the feature film Laurentie (11). Corbo (14) is his solo feature debut.

Andrea Dorfman

Andrea Dorfman was born in Toronto and is currently based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Her short films include Nine (98), There’s a Flower in My Pedal (05), and Lost and Found (08). Her features are Parsley Days (00), which premiered at the Festival, Love That Boy (03) and Heartbeat (14).
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