Chelah Horsdal has been busy since her first appearance on the YVR Screen Scene Podcast some 193 episodes ago. That episode dropped shortly after she’d wrapped up her critically acclaimed role as Helen Smith on Amazon Prime’s The Man in the High Castle. Since then, she’s been seen in Ash , the astonishing second feature from acclaimed filmmaker Andrew Huculiak, as a woman who learns that her husband has been accused of unspeakable crimes while a massive forest fire threatens her community – and ...
Dec 06, 2021•1 hr 21 min•Season 6Ep. 35
There’s been a lot of buzz about Portraits From A Fire, and it’s all well deserved. The feature film – which won filmmaker Trevor Mack the award for Best BC Emerging Filmmaker at the 2021 Vancouver International Film Festival – is a gutting, poignant, and funny masterwork, and it is finally available for all to see on VOD. Portraits from a Fire centres on Tyler (William Lulua), a 16-year-old member of the Tsilhqot'in First Nation who has the dreams of any kid with a camera: a career launch at th...
Dec 02, 2021•32 min•Season 6Ep. 34
If there’s one thing we know how to do in Vancouver, it’s make TV movies. Whether we’re talking festive rom-coms, thrillers, or pulled-from-the-headlines dramas, Vancouver’s film and television industry makes dozens of these films each year for companies like Hallmark, Lifetime, and Netflix. This holiday seasons, tens of millions of viewers all over the world will carve out time in their hectic lives for these TV movies. Maybe you’re one of them. Maybe you’ve watched so many of these TV movies t...
Nov 29, 2021•39 min•Season 6Ep. 33
This is the first time the YVR Screen Scene Podcast has dedicated an entire episode to a Christmas movie. But this isn’t your typical Christmas movie. This is a Christmas movie about an Indian-American family, and it stars a bevy of beloved South Asian Canadian stars, wearing Christmas sweaters and decking the halls like many South Asians do IRL all over the world. Baking Spirits Bright airs November 21 on Lifetime. It’s about a character named Mira Varma who (according to Lifetime) “takes pride...
Nov 17, 2021•33 min•Season 6Ep. 32
Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe is beloved around the world for her portrayal of Rita Haywith-Dorman in the Signed, Sealed, Delivered series and films, about the eclectic and dedicated staff of an “undeliverable letters” office. Yan-Kay was only 15 when she booked her first acting gig, and since then she's appeared in an array of roles in films like Snakes on a Plane and Insomnia , and television shows like Smallville, Supernatural , and Republic of Doyle . Along the way, she’s been a scream queen, battled...
Nov 12, 2021•59 min•Season 6Ep. 31
Kamala Todd is a Métis-Cree community planner, educator, curator, and filmmaker. Her film credits include Indigenous Plant Diva , Cedar and Bamboo , RELAW: Living Indigenous Laws , and Sharing our Stories: the Vancouver Dialogues Project . She writes and directs for children’s television, including the Indigenous science series Coyote's Crazy Smart Science Show and the Cree-language series Tansi! Nehiyawetan , both on APTN. She created a video series about Indigenous law for UVic’s Indigenous La...
Nov 09, 2021•44 min•Season 6Ep. 30
Nhi Do is the definition of a versatile actress. In recent years, Nhi has kicked ass as a straight-talking, gun-toting spy in the award-winning web series NarcoLeap , sparked heartache and confusion for Mary Galloway’s Abe in APTN Lumi’s beloved IndigiQueer series Querencia , stirred hearts as a recently arrived refugee from Vietnam who bonds with an Indigenous family in Louisa Phung’s Hope and Grace , and sparkled as the lead in Upstairs Amy, a phenomenally funny web comedy from the team at Sha...
Nov 04, 2021•1 hr 14 min•Season 6Ep. 29
Brian Markinson’s filmography is populated by meanies, baddies, ne’er-do-wells, and other assorted characters who live in morally ambiguous zones in shows like The Romeo Section , Mad Men , Continuum , Arctic Air , and The Killing , and films like Shooter , The Curse of the Jade Scorpion , and Charlie Wilson’s War . He can currently be seen starring opposite Jessica Matten in Tribal, the second season of which began airing on APTN and APTN Lumi in October. Tribal stars Jessica as Sam Woodburn, a...
Nov 02, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Season 6Ep. 28
Simone Bailly is a screen actress, stage actress, painter, singer, deejay, talk show host, producer, model, sci-fi fan, and fan favourite. Simone’s lengthy filmography includes Battlestar Galactica , NCIS: Los Angeles , The L Word , a series regular role on Da Vinci’s City Hall , Smallville , a popular appearance in the Need for Speed: Most Wanted video game, and the fan favourite role of Ka’lel, a Jaffa warrior who joins the Hak’tyl Resistance, on Stargate SG-1 . Recently, Simone entered the ta...
Oct 12, 2021•59 min•Season 6Ep. 27
The documentary Emergence: Out of the Shadows confronts the alienation and discrimination faced by queer people dealing with sexuality, gender, and coming-out issues in traditional South Asian communities. The film follows Kayden, Jag, and Alex as they awaken to and express their sexuality within conservative South Asian families in Canada and in India. Heart-wrenching and healing, their individual coming-out paths offer comfort, compassion, and inspiration to queer people and communities strugg...
Oct 08, 2021•29 min•Season 6Ep. 26
Over the last several years, Steven Roberts has delivered three fearless performances in a trio of searing feature films: in 2019’s In God I Trust , 2020’s Beyond The Woods , and 2021’s River Road. In the first, he’s Tyler, a white supremacist with a hair-trigger temper and major issues with his law enforcement officer dad; in the second, he’s Andrew Bennett, a suspect in the murder of his wife and the disappearance of her brother; in the last, he’s Fresno, a take-no-prisoners drug dealer who la...
Oct 06, 2021•1 hr 12 min•Season 6Ep. 25
Carmen Pollard is a documentary filmmaker, editor, producer, and story consultant whose filmography includes For Dear Life , a feature-length documentary in which she sensitively followed her cousin, Vancouver theatre producer James Pollard, in the three and a half years after his terminal cancer diagnosis, and Dancehalls, Deejays & Distortion , an upbeat 10-part series that amplifies little-known stories from B.C.'s eclectic music scene. Carmen’s latest is Militant Mother , a short film abo...
Oct 01, 2021•37 min•Season 6Ep. 24
In recent years, actress Rukiya Bernard has spoken publicly and frequently about the blatant racism and racist micro-aggressions she’s experienced as a Black woman in the film and television industry. She’s sat on numerous diversity and inclusion panels. She’s written about it, including in a creative essay titled Dear Becky that we published on the YVR Screen Scene site. She’s spoken about it in multiple media interviews. In short, Rukiya has done a lot of work for a lot of years to make her po...
Sep 28, 2021•37 min•Season 6Ep. 24
Content warning : This episode contains frank and graphic talk about mental health, mental illness, and suicide. If you’re thinking about suicide or are worried about a friend or a loved one, the Canada Suicide Prevention Service is available 24/7/365 at 1.833.456.4566. You can also find links to international suicide prevention and mental health support services in the footnotes for this episode. You matter. You’re not alone. In the first episode of our series about the relationship between men...
Sep 24, 2021•34 min•Season 6Ep. 22
Untold history is still history, and it deserves to be heard – and the new Knowledge Network documentary series British Columbia: An Untold History aims to tell largely untold stories from and about the land that is known today as British Columbia. Over the course of four riveting episodes, we see that the region’s history is a confluence of cultures, races, genders, conflicts, and narratives. Through interviews, archival photography, and dramatic re-creations, we learn about the bravery, ignora...
Sep 22, 2021•41 min•Season 6Ep. 21
Crystal Balint has taken us to some fascinating places, eras, and moments in time and space on both screen and stage. On screen, she took us to 1950s San Francisco as the lead in BritBox’s The Bletchley Circle: San Francisco , and into the heart and life of Iris Bearden, a former cryptographer turned brilliant sleuth. As Grace on Disney XD’s Mech X4 , she made us laugh and feel big feelings as she struggled to accept the fact that her sons were the pilots of a giant monster-fighting robot. Cryst...
Sep 20, 2021•1 hr 28 min•Season 6Ep. 20
Today’s episode is all about Family Law , the highly anticipated Global Original series in which one dysfunctional family helps other dysfunctional families in crisis. With its all-star, all-Canadian cast including Jewel Staite, Victor Garber, Zach Smadu, and Genelle Williams, the 10-episode, one-hour legal drama premieres Friday, September 17 on Global. We enter Family Law by way of Abigail “Abby” Bianchi, played by Jewel. Abby is a whip-smart lawyer, mother, wife, and recovering alcoholic. She...
Sep 16, 2021•54 min•Season 6Ep. 19
Ellie Harvie is a veteran actress and stand-up comedian with a filmography a mile long and dozens of award nominations to her name, including two Gemini nominations, a Canadian Comedy Award nomination, and eight Leo nominations. In 2000, she won a Leo Award for Best Performance or Host in a Music, Comedy or Variety Program or Series for her delicious work portraying Morticia Addams on The New Addams Family . But Ellie is more than her credits, nominations, and awards. She’s her sense of humour, ...
Sep 13, 2021•48 min•Season 6Ep. 18
It’s only been a few years since Thomas Nicholson arrived in Canada (from Denmark, by way of England) in search of a new career and purpose, and it’s clear he found both in acting. From Project Blue Book to Supernatural , from Luvia Petersen’s Dog Bite to Netflix mega-hits Virgin River and The Haunting of Bly Manor , Thomas is stealing scenes and making himself known in our Vancouver screen scene – and in recent months, Thomas has made a massive impact in two beloved genre series: as Camarilla o...
Sep 10, 2021•1 hr 18 min•Season 6Ep. 17
Sex/Life has basically lived in the Netflix Top 10 since it first hit the streaming service in June 2021. The eight-part dramatic series tells the story of Billie (Sarah Shahi), a married mom living a sweet life in Connecticut who begins to fantasize about her hot ex-boyfriend after the birth of her second child. She writes all of her sexy memories down in a journal, and one day, the line between her sexy past and stable-but-boring present blur when she comes face to face with her ex and he’s, 1...
Sep 03, 2021•59 min•Season 6Ep. 16
Grace Dove is a change-maker, and this abiding passion for change is evident in everything she’s done so far in the film and television industry: as an actor, a filmmaker, and an advocate for Indigenous representation and reclamation. Grace is a member of the Shuswap First Nation who divides her time between Vancouver and LA. Her acting filmography includes The Revenant , How It Ends , and Monkey Beach , Loretta Todd’s stunning adaptation of Eden Robinson’s beloved supernatural novel about Lisa,...
Sep 01, 2021•39 min•Season 6Ep. 15
Actress Fiona Vroom’s eclectic filmography includes Hell on Wheels , Tim Burton’s Big Eyes , a 1950s housewife with superpowers on the way-ahead-of-its-time web series The True Heroines (which she also produced), Kindergarten Cop 2 , Bates Motel , the eternally youthful sitcom star Barbara Beaumont in a cult favourite episode of The X-Files , and schoolteacher Miss Gillies on TNT’s post-apocalyptic series Snowpiercer . She also has two green-skinned Orions in her filmography – in the “Lolani” ep...
Aug 26, 2021•59 min•Season 6Ep. 14
Alfred Hitchcock was a game-changer. Heck, he made his own game: one through which the goal was to unsettle, to stir, to haunt, to move, and to horrify his audience while remaining wholly committed to pure cinema. But who was Alfred Hitchcock, really? What did he want from his art? What did the industry think of him? What did he really think of his actors (many of whom allege he was a bully)? And should the answers to any of these questions change how we experience his work today? I Am Alfred Hi...
Aug 24, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Season 6Ep. 13
Today’s bonus episode features audio from YVR Screen Scene For India, a star-studded fundraiser for Indian COVID relief that was broadcast live on May 8, 2021. The event – which was akin to Inside the Actors Studio but with a South Asian Canadian twist – featured Sabrina Rani Furminger in conversation with some of Vancouver’s finest South Asian Canadian actors, including Agam Darshi, Dhirendra, Praneet Akilla, Rekha Sharma, Sachin Sahel, and Sandy Sidhu. YVR Screen Scene For India raised more th...
Aug 13, 2021•2 hr 6 min•Season 6Ep. 12
Actress Sharon Taylor (JANN ) returns to the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to turn the tables on our host Sabrina Rani Furminger. This funny and at times emotional conversation between good friends covers geekdom, the B.C. star system, long-term relationships, living with mental illness, and that time Sharon got Sabrina to go on a hike. Programming note: The YVR Screen Scene Podcast is currently on summer vacation! We'll return with new, regular episodes on August 24, 2021. You can stream our previou...
Aug 05, 2021•1 hr 16 min•Season 6Ep. 11
Levi: Becoming Himself explores the journey of Vancouver’s Levi Nahirney as he navigates his gender identity and transition with the support of his family. The CBC Original Documentary launches on CBC Gem on July 16 and premieres on CBC Television in B.C. & Alberta on July 17. Levi is an identical twin from a small fishing village in Vietnam who was adopted by a white family and grew up in North Vancouver. Throughout their childhoods, Levi and his twin sister Kailyn often felt like they didn...
Jul 14, 2021•25 min•Season 6Ep. 10
Seventeen years ago, Brent Butt was a 30-something stand-up comedian with an idea for a TV show about the zany residents of a prairie town named Dog River located 40 km from nowhere. Brent was admittedly surprised when his show idea – ultimately titled Corner Gas – was picked up by CTV, and downright shocked when it became a hit. Corner Gas is one of Canada’s highest-rated comedy brands of all-time, spawning a live action series, a movie, an animated series, two chart-topping books, sold-out com...
Jul 09, 2021•44 min•Season 6Ep. 9
Aliza Vellani portrays Rani in Sweet Tooth , the critically acclaimed eight-part post-apocalyptic fantasy series that hit Netflix in early June. Sweet Tooth draws its inspiration from Jeff Lemire’s comic book series about a boy who’s half-human and half deer navigating a world that has been devastated by a virus that has killed a lot of people and led to the mysterious emergence of human-animal hybrid babies. The Vancouver actress plays Rani Singh. Rani has the virus, but is a rare long-term sur...
Jul 06, 2021•1 hr 14 min•Season 6Ep. 8
Joella Cabalu is a documentary filmmaker and producer based in Vancouver. Since making her directorial debut in 2016 with It Runs In The Family (a deeply personal documentary feature film that highlighted queer stories from the Philippines and the diaspora, including that of her own brother), Joella has helped bring the stories of a staggering array of remarkable people to the screen, including that of an eccentric biker from Vancouver Island ( Biker Bob’s Posthumous Adventure ), a trans activis...
Jun 30, 2021•57 min•Season 6Ep. 7
In the realm of fictional true crime podcasts – that delicious genre where the worlds of true crime and narrative fiction collide – Ghost Town Killer is a top-tier specimen. The six-part series follows supernatural podcaster Lilith Black as she investigates the murder of her sister in their isolated hometown where she wrestles with family secrets, millionaires and lowlifes, the ghost of a serial killer, and an intuitive detective from Japan. Ghost Town Killer features the voice talents of some o...
Jun 28, 2021•35 min•Season 6Ep. 6
