The Valley Below is a multi-narrative drama that chronicles the life of a small town in the badlands of Alberta over the course of one year.
How do you get Canadian films to be seen by Canadians? The new Canadian Indie Film Series has a refreshingly realistic approach: Start small and emphasize quality.
On the first Wednesday of each month, audiences catch a sneak preview of one acclaimed Canadian independent film in theatres from British Columbia to Ontario. With the homegrown audience for Canadian English-language films hovering around 1 per cent of the total box office, any little effort helps. The series is the brainchild of A71 Entertainment, a two-year-old boutique Toronto-based production, marketing and distribution company behind such critical successes as Amal, Blackbird and two films currently in the theatres, In Her Place and Siddharth. When showing the company's films across the country last year, A71's David Miller says he and his partners noticed local audiences asking a familiar set of questions: "How can we see films like these? Why aren't they in theatres? How can we learn more about them?"
In December, A71 announced their new initiative at the Canadian-themed Whistler Film Festival. In partnership with Landmark Cinemas chain and event distributors MEI Group's network of theatres, they would offer a monthly sneak preview of a Canadian film. Eighteen cinemas were on board for this past Wednesday's debut, Kyle Thomas's festival favourite, the Drumheller, Alta.-set anthology film, The Valley Below. (It opens at the Carlton Cinema in Toronto today).
Films in the series, both from A71 and other Canadian indie distributors, must check certain quality boxes: festival acceptance, awards and acclaim, positive press response. Marketing is low-key – a website pointing to participating theatres and a lively rock 'n' roll trailer on YouTube promising "Canadian film like you've never seen it before." All that makes a youth-oriented audience-friendly package, Miller says, "that we can wrap the Canadian flag around."