Sioux Lookout filmmaker earns award during film festival in New Brunswick

Jesse Bonello - Staff Writer

Sioux Lookout filmmaker Nadine Arpin was awarded with the Best Low Budget Documentary award during the Annual Silver Wave Film Festival, which took place from Nov. 7 to 10 in New Brunswick.
The Silver Wave Film Festival, according to their website, is described, “The Silver Wave Film Festival (SWFF) is a four-day celebration of film, media, and music from around the world. It’s a festival that turns Fredericton – a scenic and historic city – into a center for the arts, abuzz with filmmakers, industry types, and film lovers. This year’s event celebrated 19 years of the Festival.”
Arpin said the documentary, which was shot and edited in Thunder Bay and Sioux Lookout, marked the first time she submitted work to the east coast.
“The film was called Anna Lisa. It was a documentary that I was supported through the Ontario Arts Council’s Northern Arts Grant and through the Flash Frames Hatch Film Pitch competition, so they were two funding sources that I was awarded to produce this film. It was mostly shot in Thunder Bay and edited here in Sioux Lookout,” said Arpin.
“It was the very first time that I had submitted work to the east coast. This was kind of my Atlantic Canada premier. I was really surprised to get in to the festival because, this year, they were celebrating their 40th year of film production in the New Brunswick Film Co-op… There was a lot of work that was brought in mostly from the province, but there was a few of us that were from around the world as well as other Canadians. The festival itself, a lot of it is more major motion picture productions. They do still have categories for smaller, more independent, films.
“To be honest, I was completely surprised. The awards ceremony was held at The Fredericton Playhouse, which is a really grand and beautiful theatre right across from the Parliament buildings. It was a very grand affair, so I was quite taken back. I wasn’t expecting it,” she said.
A description of the documentary from the Silver Wave Film Festival reads, “Experimental, hybrid story with the narration built from childhood memories of a woman recounting summers spent with her Grandmother. An exploration of memory, family lore and the influence of circumstantial culture through a visceral landscape.”
Arpin said she’s been making her own productions for close to six years now.
“My education background is in the arts, so the Ontario College of Art and Design, in Toronto, was where I did my post-secondary arts education. I was making films in a corporate capacity when I first returned from school, and then I stopped making films all together. I’ve actually only been making art, my own personal productions, for approaching six years now,” she said.
Arpin shared that, through additional funding she’s received, she’s currently producing a new documentary.
“I applied for more funding through the Ontario Arts Council and I was awarded a media arts creation grant, so I’m currently in the process of working on a new documentary that is called Eve Zaremba’s Dyke Detective. I’m currently mid-production, and it’s another hybrid animation road trip,” she said.