By: Mike Cohen
Source: http://www.jewishtribune.ca
Category: Film School Online
MONTREAL – When Avi Federgreen was nine he vividly recalls going to say goodnight to his dad one evening and being captivated by the movie on the TV screen, House of Wax with Vincent Price.
“I told my father that this is what I want to do one day,” he shared with the Jewish Tribune. “I wanted to make movies.”
Growing up in Edmonton, where he attended the local Talmud Torah School in his primary years and Camp B’nai Brith in Pine Lake, Alberta, during the summers, his path to the film industry actually began as a doorman and then an assistant manager at what was then the first movie theatre to open in the West Edmonton Mall. While the urge to find a career in film still remained strong, his hopes were dashed when he was not accepted into a film school. Instead he used his talents with computers to find a well paying job in Toronto.
Federgreen had a friend in the film business in Toronto and he asked whether he could help.
“I was 31 and I really wanted to make a go of it,” he said. “My friend warned me that the pay was no good. I was making $70,000 a year. He told me I’d be lucky to crack $20,000. I did not care. I started at the bottom and moved my way up to the top.”
These days, as the founder of Toronto-based Federgreen Entertainment Inc./Avi Ronn Productions Inc., Federgreen maintains he has one mission: to make films that affect people.
From music videos to feature films such as Score: A Hockey Musical, George Ryga’s Hungry Hills and Moon Point, his pride and joy these days is the creation of Indiecan Entertainment. This new Canadian distribution company aims to bring the best of Canadian independent filmmaking to market. His target is not only up-and-coming Canadian filmmakers, but also those indies making films in a lower budget bracket who have otherwise virtually no chance to shine in a market of big studios, distributors and exhibitors.
“We make many independent films in Canada every year and not even 10 per cent of these films get distribution,” said Federgreen. “Whether they are made by first-time filmmakers or those with low budgets that never see the light of day, this is the situation I would like to change.”
With Indiecan Entertainment, Federgreen is targeting films made with imagination and vision for under $1.25 million.
“I want to create a home and a life for these films,” he said. “They are the key to filmmakers realizing their second films, third films, and so on. Seeing Canadian films should become a regular occurrence and not a one-time event. We need to not only support Canadian production, but also encourage the viewing of Canadian films by Canadian audiences. We owe it to our industry, our culture and our country.”
Federgreen has a most interesting project with a Jewish twist set to begin filming in Montreal next spring. The film, Bridging, directed by Sara Goodman, tells the story of a 12-year-old Chassidic boy walking with his family across the Jacques Cartier Bridge. When he sees a 17-year-old girl standing on the bridge ready to throw herself over, he stops in his tracks and eventually becomes separated from his parents. The two spend the next 24 hours bonding and trying to get him back home, with the boy claiming he is lost.
In development is another film he hopes to shoot in Montreal called the Mac and Watson Spring Referendum Show, an offbeat look at the 1980 Quebec referendum on sovereignty.
As for long-term goals, Federgreen confesses: “Before I die I want to make a movie in Israel.”
Source: http://www.jewishtribune.ca/TribuneV2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5212&Itemid=53
Source: http://www.jewishtribune.ca
Category: Film School Online
MONTREAL – When Avi Federgreen was nine he vividly recalls going to say goodnight to his dad one evening and being captivated by the movie on the TV screen, House of Wax with Vincent Price.
“I told my father that this is what I want to do one day,” he shared with the Jewish Tribune. “I wanted to make movies.”
Growing up in Edmonton, where he attended the local Talmud Torah School in his primary years and Camp B’nai Brith in Pine Lake, Alberta, during the summers, his path to the film industry actually began as a doorman and then an assistant manager at what was then the first movie theatre to open in the West Edmonton Mall. While the urge to find a career in film still remained strong, his hopes were dashed when he was not accepted into a film school. Instead he used his talents with computers to find a well paying job in Toronto.
Federgreen had a friend in the film business in Toronto and he asked whether he could help.
“I was 31 and I really wanted to make a go of it,” he said. “My friend warned me that the pay was no good. I was making $70,000 a year. He told me I’d be lucky to crack $20,000. I did not care. I started at the bottom and moved my way up to the top.”
These days, as the founder of Toronto-based Federgreen Entertainment Inc./Avi Ronn Productions Inc., Federgreen maintains he has one mission: to make films that affect people.
From music videos to feature films such as Score: A Hockey Musical, George Ryga’s Hungry Hills and Moon Point, his pride and joy these days is the creation of Indiecan Entertainment. This new Canadian distribution company aims to bring the best of Canadian independent filmmaking to market. His target is not only up-and-coming Canadian filmmakers, but also those indies making films in a lower budget bracket who have otherwise virtually no chance to shine in a market of big studios, distributors and exhibitors.
“We make many independent films in Canada every year and not even 10 per cent of these films get distribution,” said Federgreen. “Whether they are made by first-time filmmakers or those with low budgets that never see the light of day, this is the situation I would like to change.”
With Indiecan Entertainment, Federgreen is targeting films made with imagination and vision for under $1.25 million.
“I want to create a home and a life for these films,” he said. “They are the key to filmmakers realizing their second films, third films, and so on. Seeing Canadian films should become a regular occurrence and not a one-time event. We need to not only support Canadian production, but also encourage the viewing of Canadian films by Canadian audiences. We owe it to our industry, our culture and our country.”
Federgreen has a most interesting project with a Jewish twist set to begin filming in Montreal next spring. The film, Bridging, directed by Sara Goodman, tells the story of a 12-year-old Chassidic boy walking with his family across the Jacques Cartier Bridge. When he sees a 17-year-old girl standing on the bridge ready to throw herself over, he stops in his tracks and eventually becomes separated from his parents. The two spend the next 24 hours bonding and trying to get him back home, with the boy claiming he is lost.
In development is another film he hopes to shoot in Montreal called the Mac and Watson Spring Referendum Show, an offbeat look at the 1980 Quebec referendum on sovereignty.
As for long-term goals, Federgreen confesses: “Before I die I want to make a movie in Israel.”
Source: http://www.jewishtribune.ca/TribuneV2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5212&Itemid=53
