Jerome Yoo (the filmmaker behind the critically acclaimed short films Gong Ju , Idols Never Die , and Recess: Third Street ) stops by the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to discuss Mongrels , his feature film directorial debut that has its world premiere at the 2024 Vancouver International Film Festival. Set in rural Canada in the 1990s, Mongrels follows a Korean family attempting to find footing in a new land while navigating the dark forests of grief. Dad Sonny has been hired to eradicate the feral c...
Sep 27, 2024•34 min•Season 12Ep. 2
Vancouver will finally get to watch its first-ever Black+Queer dramedy web series this week when five episodes of Novelette is Trying screen at the 2024 Vancouver Queer Film Festival. Novelette is Trying follows Novelette, a cynical, anti-social, bisexual woman who finds herself newly single at 30, and decides, rather reluctantly, to take on a roommate. At first, the extroverted, outspoken Audre seems like an odd choice for a roommate. But, although their personalities clash, Audre’s boldness an...
Sep 11, 2024•38 min•Season 12Ep. 1
300 episodes after her first appearance on the YVR Screen Scene Podcast, actress Veena Sood returns to talk about her three seasons (soon to be four!) playing cool mama Nisha on CTV’s Children Ruin Everything , and going back to her improv roots in Colin Mochrie’s Arts Club Reunion (which takes place July 19 and 20 at Vancouver’s historic Stanley Industrial Alliance Theatre). Also: What impact is “wokeness” having on the comedy scene? Is the film and television industry actually, truly, and *rea...
Jul 18, 2024•46 min•Season 11Ep. 22
Actress Camille Sullivan has acquired a boatload of awards and nominations over the course of her career for her work in an array of dramatic projects like Intelligence , Hunter Hunter , The Birdwatcher, and The Disappearance , but it’s her work in a top-rated comedy series that’s currently garnering her mad love from critics, fans, industry insiders, and the fine people of TikTok. The series in question is Shoresy , a spin-off of Jared Keeso and Jacob Tierney’s beloved comedy series, Letterkenn...
Jul 05, 2024•56 min•Season 11Ep. 21
Joel McCarthy is a filmmaker ( Taking My Parents to Burning Man , I Am Alfred Hitchcock ), an educator, a producer, an award winner, and a celebrated industry shit-disturber who eschews gatekeeping, speaks truth to power, and builds community through bonkers-popular filmmaking events like Shits N Giggles and Run N Gun. On June 29, the latter caps off its ninth edition (which had 2000 filmmakers creating 149 films in 48 hours) with two electrifying screenings at Vancouver’s iconic Orpheum Theatre...
Jun 28, 2024•55 min•Season 11Ep. 20
Bradley Stryker is an accomplished actor and filmmaker with an impressive, and growing, list of credits, including Devil in Ohio , Chesapeake Shores , and The O.C. . He wore both hats on Sheltering Season , his critically acclaimed alternate reality thriller that was not only inspired by the pandemic but was one of the first projects to go to camera after the industry re-opened in summer 2020. In the film, a woman (played with nuance and fire by Caitlyn Stryker) finds herself isolated in her rem...
Jun 14, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Season 11Ep. 19
Garfield Wilson’s filmography is packed with some of our local industry’s best-loved and most critically acclaimed productions, including Continuum , Schmigadoon , The Man in the High Castle , Virgin River , Ivy and Bean , and Snowpiercer . His roles are often ones that require power, presence, poise, and physical acumen, and he’s using all of those qualities (and more!) as Balestro on Reginald the Vampire , which kicked off its second season on May 8. SyFy’s cult favourite dark comedy follows t...
Jun 06, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 11Ep. 18
The murder of 14-year-old Reena Virk in 1997 sent shockwaves across Canada. Her murder thrust issues of bullying and teenage violence into the Canadian consciousness. 27 years later, Reena’s story is back in the public consciousness, on both sides of the border this time, thanks to Under the Bridge , a limited series produced by ABC Signature for Hulu and streaming on Disney Plus. Under the Bridge is based on acclaimed author Rebecca Godfrey’s book about Reena’s case. Told through the eyes of Go...
May 30, 2024•56 min•Season 11Ep. 17
Award-winning actress Sara Canning ( Remedy , The Vampire Diaries ) returns to the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to talk about Sweetland . Based on the book by Michael Crummey and adapted for the screen by Christian Sparkes, who also directed, Sweetland draws its inspiration from Newfoundland’s controversial resettlement program, which has removed hundreds of communities from the map. As the film opens, the government is ready to resettle the far-flung fishing community of Sweetland with a healthy pa...
May 17, 2024•39 min•Season 11Ep. 16
Actress Loretta Walsh ( When Calls The Heart ) returns to the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to discuss The Lifespan of a Fact , the based-on-real-life play that she’s producing and starring in this month at Studio 16 in Vancouver. The Lifespan of a Fact tells the story of a fresh-out-of-Harvard fact checker for a prominent but sinking New York magazine, a talented writer with a transcendent essay about a high stakes event concerning a teenage boy, and a magazine editor-in-chief who needs to balance t...
May 01, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Season 11Ep. 15
In this DOXA Documentary Film Festival double-header, Sabrina Rani Furminger speaks with two filmmakers whose films are featured in the 2024 edition of the popular fest. Up first is Rachel Epstein, the filmmaker behind The Anarchist Lunch . The film is the story of a lunch – or rather, 35 years of lunches enjoyed each week by a group of ardent leftists who congregated in a Vancouver Chinese restaurant to discuss the important topics of the moment. Among them is Rachel’s father, Norman. The Anarc...
Apr 30, 2024•55 min•Season 11Ep. 14
Jennifer Spence ( Travelers , Continuum ) returns to the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to talk about her leading role in The Trades , a new half-hour single-camera comedy series on Crave. Set in a blue-collar community where the high stress of working in a refinery are balanced by the comedic high-wire antics of its plant workers, The Trades centres around Todd (played by Robb Wells, AKA Ricky from The Trailer Park Boys) , a pipefitter, and his sister and roommate, Audrey ( Moonshine ), who follows i...
Apr 17, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Season 11Ep. 13
When Natasha Burnett and Viv Leacock work together, something special happens. Natasha and Viv play Minnie and Joseph Canfield on When Calls the Heart . The first Black family to feature prominently on When Calls the Heart , the Canfields arrived in Hope Valley a few seasons back and quickly became touchstones for many of the town’s residents. Natasha and Viv are fun to watch, and they look like they’re having fun working together. This fun can be seen in Legend of the Lost Locket , a film that ...
Apr 12, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Season 11Ep. 12
The award-winning documentary feature Union Street chronicles the ongoing effects of racism, displacement, and the cultural erasure of African-Canadians in Vancouver. Before systemic and political mechanisms destroyed Hogan’s Alley – the historic Black neighbourhood located on Union Street – in the 1970s, the area was the home of train porters, speakeasies, juke joints, and a thriving community, and a regular touring stop for iconic musicians like Jimi Hendrix, Louis Armstrong, and Ella Fitzgera...
Apr 10, 2024•49 min•Season 11Ep. 11
Meredith Hama-Brown is the force behind Seagrass, one of the most talked-about feature film directorial debuts to come out of Western Canada in recent memory. Seagrass is the story of a family falling apart. Ally Maki stars as Judith, a Japanese Canadian woman who brings her family to a self-development retreat after the recent death of her mother. When Judith and her husband befriend another interracial couple (one who seems to have the perfect marriage), Judith begins to recognize how irrepara...
Mar 28, 2024•25 min•Season 11Ep. 10
Re:Uniting is the story of a group of college friends who graduated from university together in the late 1990s and reunite for the first time in nearly a decade on Bowen Island. They arrive on the island bearing scars from the traumas of the intervening years, as well as many secrets. Re:Uniting is Drama with a capital D – but is also rich with moments of humour, catharsis, and so much love. Re:Uniting is the feature film directorial debut from actress-filmmaker Laura Adkin and is populated by a...
Mar 12, 2024•50 min•Season 11Ep. 9
Filmmaker Kevin Eastwood returns to the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to discuss his latest documentary. The Society Page – which premieres on Knowledge Network on March 17 – is an in-depth look at the life, craft, and impact of Malcolm Parry, Vancouver’s iconic society columnist. For 40 years, Malcolm was a stealthy presence at events, photographing arguably more Vancouverites and VIPs during that time period than anyone else for his influential society column in the Vancouver Sun. The Society Page ...
Mar 08, 2024•45 min•Season 11Ep. 8
Zarqa Nawaz is a writer, film and television producer, published author, public speaker, journalist, creator of Little Mosque on the Prairie , former broadcaster, and star of Zarqa , the CBC Gem comedy series in which she plays a woman named Zarqa, who sells gullible white people brown people things. In season one, a recently divorced Zarqa worked on her business while being pursued by a gaggle of men, ending in a fantastic brawl in the mosque between her ex, her imam, and her white brain surgeo...
Mar 04, 2024•53 min•Season 11Ep. 7
Canadian improv comedy icon Colin Mochrie has spent a heckuva lot of time in Vancouver, where he's a beloved alumnus of Vancouver TheatreSports and The Improv Centre. From March 6-8, Colin will return to The Improv Centre for five sold-out performances of An Evening with Colin Mochrie (which are evenings of improv comedy and not anything else; get your minds out of the gutter). Colin’s extensive career includes Whose Line is it Anyway? on both sides of the Atlantic, two years in This Hour Has 22...
Mar 01, 2024•43 min•Season 11Ep. 6
Andrea Menard is one of the stars of Sullivan’s Crossing , the hit CTV show based on the bestselling books by Robyn Carr. The dramatic series follows young neurosurgeon Maggie Sullivan as she flees the challenges of her life in the big city and returns to the idyllic Nova Scotia campground owned and operated by her estranged father Sully. In October 2023, when Sullivan’s Crossing was about to hit The CW after making waves north of the border, Cosmopolitan Magazine described Sullivan’s Crossing a...
Feb 21, 2024•1 hr•Season 11Ep. 5
Actress Crystal Balint ( Midnight Mass ) returns to the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to talk about her work in The Fall of the House of Usher , how the actors, crew, and TPTB dealt with the highly publicized cast upheaval, what it means to her to be part of Mike Flanagan’s “Flanaverse,” and her delicious role on CBC’s new crime procedural Allegiance . Episode sponsor: UBCP/ACTRA
Feb 16, 2024•59 min•Season 11Ep. 4
Earlier this month, four of the stars of Allegiance – Supinder Wraich, David Cubitt, Stephen Lobo, and Brian Markinson – joined Sabrina in the YVR Screen Scene studio to discuss the new character-driven crime procedural, which premiered on CBC and CBC Gem on February 7. Supinder stars as Sabrina Sohal ( Sort Of ), a star rookie police officer who must grapple with the limits of the justice system as she fights to exonerate her politician father Ajeet Sohal, played by Stephen. Sabrina serves her ...
Feb 12, 2024•49 min•Season 11Ep. 3
Ukrainian filmmaker Khrystyna Syvolap returns to the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to discuss her journey to find work in the Vancouver film and television industry after arriving in Canada with her young daughter in spring 2022, her February 10 screening of Viddana at North Vancouver’s Centennial Theatre (a fundraiser for the Adam Tactical Group), and why people outside of Ukraine should care about the war. Episode sponsor: Fish Flight Entertainment
Feb 08, 2024•54 min•Season 11Ep. 2
Actress Jennifer Robertson is beloved ’round the world for her astounding work as Jocelyn Schitt for all six seasons of CBC’s iconic comedy series Schitt’s Creek , and, more recently, for playing Ellen Baker, Georgia’s regularly frazzled neighbour, on Netflix’s Ginny and Georgia . Canadians will soon see the Vancouver actress in a new role: as host of The Great Canadian Pottery Throw Down . The eight-episode competition series – which premieres on CBC Television on February 8 – follows the trial...
Feb 06, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Season 11Ep. 1
Welcome to the first-ever #YVRScreenScenePodcast Christmas Special! Strap in as Sabrina and the star and voice director of Hope Street Pod’s A Classical Christmas Chord – Nhi “The Christmas Cracker” Do and Rhona “The Mistletoe” Rees – don their ugly Christmas sweaters, swig Baileys and bad eggnog, and talk Christmas rom-coms, traditions, tropes, Whamageddon, festive innuendo, and the best (and worst) Christmas gifts they've ever received. It’s riotous, it’s festive, it’s fun, it goes off the rai...
Dec 22, 2023•1 hr 27 min•Season 10Ep. 15
Kat Montagu has spent much of her career telling and shaping stories for screens large and small, and helping others do the same. A distinguished writer, producer, script analyst, story editor, and teacher, Kat’s impressive background includes writing for the television series Alienated and collaborating on a time travel novel-to-TV series adaptation with Sara B. Cooper. She holds a BFA and an MFA in Creative Writing as well as multiple awards and development funding grants. Currently serving as...
Dec 19, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 10Ep. 14
Filmmaker Dylan Maranda and actor Brendan Meyer swing by the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to discuss Master of the House , a fast-paced genre short that seeks its inspiration from the thrilling world of fine dining. Master of the House , which was shot at the Michelin Star restaurant Kissa Tanto in Vancouver, follows Vincent, a young sommelier, played by Brendan (who starred in all eighty episodes of the Vancouver-shot Mr. Young , and turned in a stellar performance in The OA ). Vincent struggles to...
Dec 13, 2023•51 min•Season 10Ep. 13
Even if you don’t recognize the Cowichan sweater by its name, you will absolutely recognize it on sight: the thick yarn; the distinctive patterns; the warmth of the raw sheep’s wool. But a Cowichan sweater is more than just a sweater, especially for the Coast Salish people from the Cowichan Tribes who make them. It’s a provider of life, literally, as a way to put food on the table; it’s a way to build community and share stories and connect to ancestors. To quote Ron Rice of the Victoria Native ...
Dec 13, 2023•35 min•Season 10Ep. 12
Filmmaker Bruce Sweeney and actors Gabrielle Rose, Camille Sullivan, and Jeff Gladstone swing by the YVR Screen Scene Podcast to talk about She Talks To Strangers , their smart and crowd-pleasing black comedy currently screening up at the 2023 Whistler Film Festival. Camille is Leslie, a single woman who happily shares her life with her favourite being on the planet, an Australian Shepherd named John. Leslie has a strained relationship with her mother, Staci (that’s Gabrielle, playing Camille’s ...
Dec 02, 2023•29 min•Season 10Ep. 11
Beatrice King is an experienced actress who has appeared in an array of critically acclaimed and fan favourite projects ( X-Men Origins: Wolverine , Mortal Kombat Legacy , The 100 , and Loudermilk ) and a well-respected acting coach, working primarily with young people on projects for Universal, Disney, and Netflix. Beatrice recently added a new title to her already impressive filmography: director. Beatrice makes her directorial debut with You Are The Blue , an atmospheric and beautifully compo...
Dec 01, 2023•41 min•Season 10Ep. 10
