On the very same week Jenina MacGillivray’s short film, Boarding, screens at the Atlantic Film Festival in Halifax, news has broke that she’s also this year’s winner of the prestigious Michelle Jackson award, a big-purse prize worth $10,000.
Previous winners of the award include notable local names like Ruth Lawrence & Allison White.
Winning the RBC Michelle Jackson Emerging Filmmaker Award will allow MacGillivray to get cracking on her new idea for a short film (currently untitled), whose script won her the award.
“The film is a short,” Jenina says, “about a tour bus guide with a very recently broken heart, as she gives a tour of the city to a set of sort of world weary travelers.”
She calls is “a little moment in time” kind of story. “I really like stories that are set in public/private places, where strangers are sort of just thrown together, but can come to connect and affect each other’s lives in surprising and hopeful ways. ”
The St. John’s International Women’s Film Festivals says the script “underscores Newfoundland’s reputation for great storytelling, cleverly incorporating elements of romance, drama and dark humour.”
MacGillivray will receive over $10,000 in cash and services to complete this short film, which will premiere at the Closing Night Gala of the 26th annual St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival. (i.e, in the fall of 2015.)
In the meantime, you can catch her short film, Boarding, at this year’s Women’s Film Festival here in St. John’s, mid-October.
Jenina says that making films in Newfoundland is particularly exciting because “people really get behind your project,” a sentiment many of local filmmakers have echoed in the pages of The Overcast.
Of the award’s namesake, Jenina adds, “Michelle continues to be an inspiration to me, and many of us, on how be a good filmmaker, friend, human being. I couldn’t be more honored to be part of the RBC MJ Award, and to be joining so many other talented filmmakers in honoring Michelle Jackson.”
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