Stories in Development

Seeking co-producers and partners for the following films:

Wild Horses / Cavalos Selvagens (2016)

WILD HORSES follows the adventures of a cross-cultural family as world-renowned natural horsewoman Ingela Larsson Smith and her Canadian husband, Richard, seek transform a wild group of orphan Brazilians into horsemanship leaders and sons.

Genre & Length: Documentary, 60 mins
Languages: English, Portuguese, Spanish
Audience: Latin America and North American "heartland" TV/web viewers, age 18-54
Est. Release: June 2016

In 2009, Swiss natural horsewoman Ingela Larsson Smith left her professional career to teach the secrets of the horse to a group of underprivileged children in a remote orphanage in Brazil.

Filmed over 6 years, WILD HORSES follows the boys as they become incredible horsemen who could ask nearly anything of their horses. But thrilling victory is turned into crushing defeat as the orphanage that once sheltered them sends them back to the streets. Ingela and Richard don’t give up on their boys, and begin a new life at Wild Horse Farm, in Anapolis, GO.

But the difficulties only intensify when each of their horseboys pursue other goals or are waylaid by life circumstances: Fabricio struggles with drugs and is banned from the farm; Valdemir’s half-sister prevents Ingela & Richard from adopting him, and then he is abandoned; Rogerio, one of their only trustworthy boys, leaves for the army and a bodybuilding career, and their oldest boy Regynaldo, in whom they’ve invested the most time and energy, leaves his salaried position at Horses4Orphans for a low-paying job.

Finally, Douglas, the youngest and most brilliant of the horseboys, comes to live full-time on the farm to train, but is drawn by his brother’s gangster lifestyle when his sister is killed because of it, and he must choose between revenge or the love of his horse, Yankee.

The whole project teeters on disaster if they can’t find anyone to run their farm and care for the horses and Douglas. Will any of the "horseboys" be able to rise into their destiny as Ingela and Richard hope?

WILD HORSES Promo

Between Wood and Water: The Dorothy Story (2018)

BETWEEN WOOD AND WATER takes an intimate look at Dorothy, the oldest still-sailing vessel in Canada, who has fired the hearts and imaginations of British Columbians for over a century. The film follows her restoration by shipwright Tony Grove as he prepares her for re-launch in the waters of her birth on her 120th anniversary.

Genre & Length: Documentary, 60 mins
Language: English
Audience: North American TV/web viewers, age 35-64
Est. Release: September 2017

Built in 1897, at a time when most boats were practical in nature – coastal workboats or dugout canoes – Dorothy was a uniquely designed luxury yacht. When she was launched from Victoria’s inner harbour, she struck the crowd with her European lines: a fast little 30 ft Gaff cutter (sloop) designed by England’s Linton Hope, with a distinct 6 ft overhanging fantail.

“Not only is she beautiful as boats go with her fine lines, but she is also a fine sailing boat, fast for her size, gentle to handle, and extremely seaworthy. And she is a lucky boat, too, in that her owners have always, somehow, managed to maintain her, repair her, and restore her in such a way that she is now fully restored, still sailing, and still looking beautiful.”
- H.C. Charlesworth, Dorothy I, A Sailor’s Legacy.

This one-hour doc hinges on Dorothy’s restoration by Tony Grove, a local boatbuilder and artist. Tony’s experience and intimate knowledge of wooden boats led the Maritime Museum to commission him to restore Dorothy. As he opened up her planks to uncover her secrets this winter, Tony also created a new painting of Dorothy, and the dual processes of painting her on canvas and her physical deconstruction and reconstruction will serve as visual devices on which to hang the historical accounts and personal narratives evoked by Dorothy.

BETWEEN WOOD & WATER TRAILER

The Trapper of Peace River (2018)

THE TRAPPER OF PEACE RIVER is about life and death from the perspective of a trapper and wildlife advocate, Carl Gitscheff, who is stuck with a trapline featuring the largest coal mining development in British Columbia. The mines bring prosperity to Tumbler Ridge but cause unintended consequences when industry, animal habitat and humans collide, forcing Carl to confront the loss of his only refuge and his hoped-for inheritance to leave his young daughter: the wild.

Genre & Length: POV Documentary, 44 mins
Language: English
Audience: North American TV/web viewers, age 35-64
Est. Release: January 2018

Carl accepts that Tumbler Ridge is a lost paradise. He practices his ancient trade in a territory no longer defined by natural boundaries or wildlife corridors, but by surveys and access roads. Hemmed in by massive machinery and sophisticated technology, the trapper and his animals are literally trapped.

The landscape Carl used to understand through the movements and habits of the animals who inhabited it becomes a theatre in which the actors – industry, animals and society – must negotiate their space. Alliances and compromises are made daily, and contradictions live side by side. But Carl Gitscheff is a man of peace attempting to understand the forces hemming him and the animals he has spent a lifetime stewarding.

The film proposes to explore the grey areas that accompany resource extraction, in which there are no clear heroes or villains, or black and white solutions. Carl is both a killer and a saviour. Coalmines bring prosperity and undeniable loss. The wild and the animals are both in imminent danger and are amazingly adaptable. All potential realities exist at once.

THE TRAPPER OF PEACE RIVER explores not only themes of life and death, but heritage, entitlement, stewardship and honour. Through Carl’s story, the viewer is forced to imagine what they would do when faced with the threatened loss of all that holds meaning for us. And we are thrust into the uncomfortable position of

After accumulating a lifetime of learning from nature, will Carl become bitter about the inexorable changes wrecked on the trapline he has looked after for 30 years? Will he continue stewarding the line, knowing that his efforts are largely futile? Will he try to squeeze the mining companies for a share of the profits? Will he be able to find that radical middle ground, where nature, man and industry can somehow co-exist?

In Development