Crocuses

Synopsis

A senior citizen falls into a reverie of love and regret on the final day of packing up her home.

Winner

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Latest Screenings

Director’s Statement

Crocuses is a modern day portrait of a woman in her seventies. It focuses on Rita Crawley, a widower whose husband, Bernard, died the year before. We meet her as she is about to move out of her family home into a condominium. When her daughter, Jackie, shows up to help, they argue over leaving Bernard’s chair behind. The argument provokes Rita to reflect back on her life. Through a dreamscape of memory and image, a portrait of Rita is revealed. It tells not only of Rita’s relationship with Bernard but also of her relationship with her current world. In a broader sense, it touches on: a lost way of life; the freedom and restrictions of our upbringing; the limitations and power of women; the profound beauty of love and loss.

With Crocuses, I wanted to create a portrait of woman through memory and image. I begin with a conventional setup and then move into Rita’s memories. By pushing into her internal landscape, I also push into form, mixing narrative and documentary elements. Although I purposely wanted to play with the medium, it was equally important for me to tell a story that is motivated by character. My hope is that audience’s leave the theatre with a sense of Rita and her complicated heart.

Wanda Nolan – Writer/Director

Wanda Nolan is a writer and filmmaker from Newfoundland, Canada. In 2014, she was named one of eleven writers to watch for by CBC Canada Writes. In the Fall of 2016, she made her directorial debut with two short films: an animation, Mystery of the Secret Room, produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). Mystery of the Secret Room was nominated for two Golden Sheaf Awards: Best Emerging Filmmaker and Best Animation. It was also nominated for a Golden Egg Award at the Reykjavik International Film Festival. The same year she released Crocuses, produced by LJH Films. Crocuses was the winner of Best Short at the Nickel Film Festival; and, winner of the RBC Michelle Jackson Emerging Artist Award – a financial and mentorship prize for emerging female filmmakers. . It was also chosen for the 2018 Women in Film and TV International (WIFTI) Short Film Showcase where it will be shown in over 40 countries this year. Her feature screenplay The Magic of Boxer Connors was the winner of the 2012 Inspired Script Harold Greenburg Award. It is currently in development with Pope Productions.

Wanda is also a story consultant, her credits include the feature documentaries DANNY (NFB) and Luben and Elena (NFB). She has a Masters of Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia.

Latonia Hartery – Producer
Latonia Hartery is a writer, director and producer based in St. John’s. She has production managed /line produced 6 episodes of CBC’s LAND AND SEA including ALGAE THE FUTURE OF FUEL, CONCORDIA TALL SHIP DOWN, PIRATES AND PRIVATEERS, THE LAST SARDINE OUTPOST AND RUM RUNNING. She wrote and directed two of those episodes – THE LAST SARDINE OUTPOST, and RUM RUNNING, which was one of the highest rated shows in the history of the series. She has production managed/line produced two CBC DocZones, shooting in locations from Hong Kong to London, Paris, Geneva, and New York. The first was FACEBOOK FOLLIES, and the second, COUNTERFEIT CULTURE, was the recipient of the international One World Award in 2013. Latonia has made several dramatic short films, such as ESCAPE ROUTES (2010) which was supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and played in festivals across Canada. She also directed SADIE (2014) which screened worldwide in 25 countries and was named Best NL short film by the Nickel Film Festival in 2015. She has won several recent awards such as Best NL Emerging Director from the Nickel Film Festival 2015, and NL Arts Council’s 2015 Emerging Artist of the Year. She is also an Arctic Archaeologist who engages in polar research. For her contributions to Canadian culture, she won Canada’s Outstanding Young Person Award in 2010.

Ian Vatcher – Director of Photography

Ian Vatcher is a much sought after DOP. His work includes the internationally acclaimed shorts Sadie and Infanticide. Infanticide was the winner of the Best Atlantic Short at the Atlantic Film Festival in 2013 and was featured in Cannes at Canada’s Not Short on Talent section in 2014. Ian was also a camera operator on the long running television series Republic of Doyle. He currently works on the television series Frontier (Netflix, Discovery Channel)

Duane Andrews – Composer

Established as an award winning composer for film and television, the music of Duane Andrews is the product of a great ear, an adventurous collaborative spirit, and a love of music that is beyond category. As a versatile composer he sharpened his skills at the Conservatoire International de Paris and the CNR in Marseilles, France and has scored a variety of projects which have screened at events such as the Cannes and Toronto Film Festivals and aired on channels such as CBC and Bravo. He has also won numerous awards for projects as a solo artist, or as a group or duo, including multiple ECMAs, a JUNO and a Canadian Folk Music Award.