Last month, Vancouver's Rio Theatre updated its marquee with a bold declaration: “Screw the Arts: We’re a sports bar now.” The Rio had been closed since November 2020, when the Provincial Health Officer banned all events (while still allowing bars, malls, and restaurants to operate) – but on January 23, 2021, the Rio opened its doors for sports fans to watch hockey and whatever qualifies as sports on its big screen: socially distanced, and not operating at full capacity, but open nonetheless. In...
Feb 11, 2021•40 min•Season 5Ep. 17
What impact is the pandemic having on Vancouver’s indie film scene, and specifically on the ability for our fearless filmmakers to share their stories? What have we lost, and what, if anything, have we gained? What does the future hold for the indie scene? In this special episode of the YVR Screen Scene Podcast, Sabrina brings these big questions to indie filmmaker Kashif Pasta. Kashif is an award-winning writer, director, and producer with a focus on empowering people of colour to tell stories ...
Feb 10, 2021•1 hr•Season 5Ep. 16
Why is Vancouver actor John Emmet Tracy regularly called upon to portray duplicitous, sinister, and evil characters? His lengthy filmography includes poisonous characters like August Cartwright on Batwoman and Enzo Lambert on iZombie , and cunning characters like lawyer Ellis Steele on Yellowstone and Pallas on Olympus . Perhaps he’s so often cast as the villain because he inevitably infuses these despicable characters with some measure of humanity, so that you as a viewer feel even more scared ...
Feb 05, 2021•1 hr 26 min•Season 5Ep. 15
Vancouver actress Teryl Rothery brings deep-seated humanity to every role she takes on, whether she’s playing a kind and capable military doctor ( Stargate SG-1 ) or the sexy actress in a Northern California town who sets her sights on the town doctor ( Virgin River ). Teryl’s lengthy filmography includes memorable roles in dramas (including Chesapeake Shores and The Good Doctor ), Christmas movies, cartoons, superhero shows (like Arrow ), and sci-fi and fantasy (including Travelers and The Haun...
Feb 03, 2021•1 hr 16 min•Season 5Ep. 14
Sarah Dugdale plays Lizzie on Virgin River , Netflix’s wildly popular dramatic serial based on the books by Robyn Carr. Virgin River follows Mel, a Los Angeles ER nurse who heads to the picturesque North California town of Virgin River after experiencing massive trauma in her life. There, almost despite her best efforts, she finds connection, comfort, and all manner of L-O-V-E with its residents. Season one of Virgin River hit Netflix in December 2019 – and when season two dropped in November 20...
Jan 29, 2021•51 min•Season 5Ep. 13
Rekha Sharma played Tory Foster on Battlestar Galactica and Commander Landry on Star Trek: Discovery – both phenomenal roles for a Fijian Indian Canadian woman who grew up watching Lieutenant Uhura on Star Trek and dreaming of a career in showbiz, despite the fact that there weren’t a lot of people who looked like her working in the film and television industry. But Rekha made it happen, and in this raw and revealing conversation with Sabrina Furminger, she reflects on her journey from little dr...
Jan 27, 2021•1 hr 22 min•Season 5Ep. 12
Millions of viewers around the world know Lorne Cardinal as Sergeant Davis Quinton on Corner Gas, the iconic television series turned record-breaking movie turned cartoon – and while Corner Gas is the stuff of legend and Davis is an essential part of it all, Davis doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface in revealing who Lorne is as an artist and human being. Lorne is an actor, a writer, a director, a producer, and a voice actor with more than 100 film, television, and stage credits to his name...
Jan 22, 2021•58 min•Season 5Ep. 11
Millions of viewers around the world know Lorne Cardinal as Sergeant Davis Quinton on Corner Gas, the iconic television series turned record-breaking movie turned cartoon – and while Corner Gas is the stuff of legend and Davis is an essential part of it all, Davis doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface in revealing who Lorne is as an artist and human being. Lorne is an actor, a writer, a director, a producer, and a voice actor with more than 100 film, television, and stage credits to his name...
Jan 22, 2021•54 min•Season 5Ep. 10
Andy Hodgson is a cinematographer-producer who made his directorial debut in 2020 with El Color Negro , a short film that explores the concept of the colour black. Is it a colour? An idea? What does Blackness mean in this historic moment? Andy drew inspiration for El Color Negro from his experiences as a Black man in a country that was built on a foundation of white supremacy, as well as the experiences of Black people through history. These were topics that Andy addressed in a June 2020 panel p...
Jan 21, 2021•52 min•Season 5Ep. 9
When Agam Darshi visited the YVR Screen Scene Podcast in 2019, she was preparing to embark on the adventure of a lifetime: to Sri Lanka, to film a pivotal role in famed director Deepa Mehta’s Funny Bo y. Funny Boy is an adaptation of Shyam Selvadurai’s 1994 novel about Arjun, a young Tamil boy from a wealthy family navigating hate against two key aspects of his identity: his sexuality and his ethnicity. Agam is Radha Auntie, the lone voice who encourages Arjun to be himself, to be precocious, to...
Jan 15, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Season 5Ep. 8
Award-winning actress and friend-of-the-podcast Camille Sullivan discusses her jaw-dropping performance in Shawn Linden’s chilling feature film, Hunter Hunter – including how a thriller about fear and predation speaks to this historic moment, acting opposite Devon Sawa, and her experience filming that much-talked-about ending. Also: navigating COVID-19; Gabrielle Rose; a revealing round of Favourite Things. Episode sponsor: Fish Flight Entertainment
Jan 12, 2021•47 min•Season 5Ep. 7
From July 21, 2020: “ Pop the champagne! The YVR Screen Scene Podcast is officially 100 episodes old – and for this epic podcasting milestone, we assembled an epic group of epic past guests for one epically epic episode (deserving of ALL of the “epics” in the preceding sentence): Amanda Tapping , Michael Eklund , Nicole Oliver , and Sharon Taylor . Over mid-morning, midweek mimosas, this remarkable quartet of #BCFilm icons (and YVR Screen Scene Podcast host Sabrina Furminger) discuss chasing mag...
Dec 30, 2020•1 hr•Season 5Ep. 6
Brendan Taylor is a lot of things: a busy actor whose filmography includes Fargo , Supernatural (Officer Doug Stover!), The Magicians , and Firefly Lane (AKA one of the most highly anticipated series of 2021), as well as more than 110 commercials; an art department veteran who dressed sets on Battlestar Galactica and served as production designer on the critically acclaimed independent feature, Daughter ; a theatre guy; an acting coach; a COVID-19 survivor. In this expansive and entertaining int...
Dec 23, 2020•1 hr 15 min•Season 5Ep. 5
The wait is over: NarcoLeap is finally back for season two. Here’s how Sabrina described NarcoLeap when it dropped its first season in 2018: “NarcoLeap is fun. It’s suspenseful. It’s action-packed. It’s female-driven. It’s empowering. In other words, it’s the kind of sci-fi journey that this topsy-turvy world needs right now: pure… escapism with a big, beating heart. Created by Kate Green, the highly anticipated web series – which hit YouTube… after months of development and hype – stars Chelsey...
Dec 20, 2020•48 min•Season 5Ep. 4
Laura Mennell is a mystery. Sure, the Vancouver actress shines bright in all manner of roles, but who is she, really? Is she more like Nina Theroux, the character she played on Alphas who could override willpower in others and push people into doing whatever she asked of them? Is she more like Thelma Harris in The Man in the High Castle , a Nazi American journalist who was arrested for her affair with Nicole Dormer? Is she more like Rebecca from Van Helsing , a high-ranking (and bloody terrifyin...
Dec 17, 2020•1 hr 15 min•Season 5Ep. 3
Veteran director Carl Bessai collaborated with 17 remarkable women in Los Angeles, New York, and Toronto to create In Her City . The feature film presents 17 vignettes that are drawn from the collaborators’ lives as 20-something urban-dwellers. Every person’s experience of their city is wholly unique, and how each story is told is different – and yet the fact that these women are all striving to live their truth is the thread that binds In Her City into one deeply moving, charming, and wildly en...
Dec 16, 2020•42 min•Season 5Ep. 2
An Introvert’s Guide to High School is a lot of things: a dark comedy; a study in teen culture and the pressures that parents and society place on teens as they near the end of high school; a manifesto for introverts; and a lot of fun. Woven into this feature film about a group of high school students in an SAT prep class and all of the internal and external pressures they face are puppets, street interviews, objectively bonkers short films, and a visual effect shot worthy of a big budget blockb...
Dec 10, 2020•40 min•Season 5Ep. 1
Ali Liebert won a Canadian Screen Award for her nuanced portrayal of queer icon Betty McRae on Bomb Girls – but Betty is only part of Ali’s story. As a teen, Ali pursued musical theatre dreams and sang “Papa, Can You Hear Me?” at the Pacific National Exhibition. In the years since Betty, Ali has appeared in all manner of indie, big budget, and network projects, from BH90210 to Mech X4 to Ten Days in the Valley to The Devout. She’s also expanded into producer and director territory, including Coo...
Nov 30, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Season 4Ep. 36
Women are vastly underrepresented in the visual effects part of the film and television industry, especially in key creative positions. In 2019, women only accounted for six per cent of visual effects supervisors – which is truly egregious when you consider that women make up nearly half of all film school graduates. The talent is there. Women just need the opportunity to get their foot in the studio door, and find an environment that is supportive and committed to getting them ahead. This is w...
Nov 18, 2020•40 min•Season 4Ep. 35
YVR Screen Scene presents the Screen Scene Society Podcast. Each episode, co-hosts Christian Sloan ( The Black Tapes , See ) and Sabrina Furminger ( The YVR Screen Scene Podcast ) watch a new-ish film or television project with special guests from the film industry, and then podcast all about it. In Episode Three, Christian and Sabrina invite actor Ben Cotton into their time-traveling phone booth to talk about Bill & Ted Face the Music . The trio delves deep into the draw of nostalgia, toxic...
Nov 11, 2020•1 hr 7 min
Jessie Anthony is the filmmaking force behind Brother, I Cry. The feature film follows Jon, a young First Nations man, as he struggles to overcome addiction and avoid the multiple warrants out on him. Brother, I Cry – which won the Audience Choice award at imagineNATIVE and earned Jessie the award for Best BC Emerging Filmmaker at the 2020 Vancouver International Film Festival – is a story about family, addiction, and the justice system, and the ways in which people can lose themselves in all th...
Nov 06, 2020•37 min•Season 4Ep. 34
This episode contains not one but two fascinating interviews with fearless multidisciplinary creators. In the first act, filmmaker Mayumi Yoshida and singer-songwriter Amanda Sum talk about their music video for GROUPTHINK . The video – which was directed by Mayumi and filmed in summer 2020 – is in actuality a thought-provoking, evocative, and fanciful short film that explores ideas around identity and Asian stereotypes. In the second act (beginning at 30:01), we hear from actor-producer Dino An...
Nov 06, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Season 4Ep. 33
Suanne Braun portrayed the goddess Hathor on Stargate SG-1 . Hathor was a Villain with a capital V who used everything at her disposal – including über-powerful pheromones – to get what she wanted, be it civilizations to fall at her feet or men as big-brained as Jack O’Neill to obey her every command. Hathor, according to character Dr. Daniel Jackson, was the Egyptian goddess of fertility, inebriety, and music – or, as O’Neill put it, “Sex, drugs, and rock and roll.” Part of what made this parti...
Oct 27, 2020•1 hr 16 min•Season 4Ep. 32
Pat Mastroianni played Joey Jeremiah on Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High (and, later, on Degrassi: The Next Generation ). The pre-Internet incarnations of Degrassi – all shot on location in Toronto-area schools – built a massive fanbase for tackling topics that weren’t being broached anywhere else on children’s television: interracial dating; sexual violence and child abuse; teen suicide; drunk driving; epilepsy; depression; grief; abortion; bullying; poverty; teen pregnancy; AIDS; burgeon...
Oct 23, 2020•31 sec•Season 4Ep. 31
You’d be forgiven for not associating Brent Butt with Vancouver, and instead picturing him behind the counter of a gas station in Dog River, Saskatchewan, AKA the setting for Corner Gas, the iconic comedy series turned movie turned animated series. But the road to Dog River includes some significant stops in Vancouver, and Brent remains a mainstay of the Vancouver film and television scene. In this special episode of the YVR Screen Scene Podcast, Brent reflects on lessons learned from stand-up a...
Oct 22, 2020•1 hr 9 min•Season 4Ep. 30
The inimitable Sachin Sahel (Eric Jackson on The 100 ) returns to the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to talk about Big COVID Feelings, saying goodbye to The 100 (and what it means to him to have had a character named “Sachin” in his honour), why Darkseid is the best/worst supervillain, and his strategies to be an effective ally in the ongoing social justice revolution. Episode sponsor: UBCP/ACTRA
Oct 14, 2020•1 hr 18 min•Season 4Ep. 29
Actress Lisa Durupt is a queen of Christmas movies, an empress of the quirky corner, and a venerated dramatic powerhouse. Since her breakout role as the villainous Shandra in Mark McKinney’s Less Than Kind – which earned her a Gemini nomination and multiple Leo noms – Lisa has thrived in network, studio, and indie projects like Preggoland , Sunnyhearts Community Centre , Murder, She Baked , Heartland , Benchwarmers 2 , The Chronicle Mysteries , and seemingly every other Christmas movie filmed in...
Oct 06, 2020•1 hr 20 min•Season 4Ep. 28
Much of the work in filmmaker Karen Lam’s filmography can be described as unsettling and weirdly empowering, and her latest film is all this and more. Karen’s newest feature film is The Curse of Willow Song , and it’s screening online and in-cinema this month as part of the 2020 Vancouver International Film Festival. The Curse of Willow Song tells the story of Willow (played by Valerie Tian), a young woman recently released from prison who must choose between her dangerous but honest new life on...
Oct 02, 2020•1 hr 10 min•Season 4Ep. 27
Director David Milchard and actors Christina Sicoli and Ben Cotton drop by the YVR Screen Scene Podcast studio to discuss their audacious new film, F*cking Idiots . The feature film – which also stars Stephen Lobo and Sara Canning and was written by Kris Elgstrand ( Songs She Wrote About People She Knows ) – tells the story of a broke married couple (Christina and Ben) who visit a rich friend (Stephen) for something akin to aversion therapy. F*cking Idiots screens as part of the 2020 Vancouver I...
Sep 29, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Season 4Ep. 26
Filmmaker Loretta Todd reflects on her long journey to bring the film adaptation of Eden Robinson’s cherished novel Monkey Beach to the big screen. The eagerly anticipated feature film – which opens the 2020 Vancouver International Film Festival, and then screens throughout – follows a young woman as she returns to her family in Kitimaat Village to save her brother from a tragic fate she’s foreseen since childhood and contend with the mystical creatures lurking in the nearby woods. The film feat...
Sep 24, 2020•47 min•Season 4Ep. 25
