Allen invited to world-renowned film fest
Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Nov 17/00) - Reaching for the moon will be taking filmmaker Dennis Allen to the Sundance Film Festival early next year.
Allen's film, Someplace Better -- first screened in Yellowknife last spring -- was five years in the making.
"I didn't want to think about it, it was so all-consuming," Allen told Yellowknifer in March, upon completion of the film and prior to the screening.
"It totally drained me," he added.
These days, Allen isn't looking so drained, and that might have something to do with the invite to Sundance that he received last week.
The Sundance Film Festival, for those who don't know, was started by Robert Redford in 1981. The famous actor gathered a group of colleagues together to discuss enhancing the artistic vitality of film.
The Sundance Institute was formed to support and help develop emerging screenwriters and directors of vision. The institute has been responsible for the blossoming of independent filmmaking.
"I was so excited," exclaims Allen when asked how it felt to receive the invitation.
"I don't know what will come of it, but it's the premiere film festival in North America."
Allen's invitation came when he met as a Sundance representative in Toronto earlier this fall. The filmmaker was attending imagiNative, Canada's first aboriginal media arts festival, held in Toronto.
"I'd missed the deadline (to officially participate)," says Allen, adding that he nonetheless managed to screen his film.
Several prominent industry people viewed Someplace Better and "They all really liked it."
"They had lots to say about it."
The Sundance rep subsequently took the film back with her to be juried as an entry into the January festival in Sundance, Utah.
Allen will be wintering in Toronto, working on a new script that he'll submit to the Sundance Institute. The filmmaker wants to be admitted into a scriptwriting workshop. Yellowknife writer/director Ben Nind, currently in Toronto, will help Allen polish the script.
Seems like Allen is now reaching for the stars.
