What does it take to produce three feature documentaries, a feature comedy, and have two more in the works? Producer Leslie Bland shares the “special sauce” that’s made his production companies Orca Cove Media and Less Bland Productions so successful. There’s plenty to learn as he tells host Joyce Kline why filmmaking pulled him away from a successful career in live professional theatre, how he made cross-cultural connections through his collaboration with Cowichan filmmaker Harold Joe, and how, in a competitive world, sticking with original IP can lead to success.

LESLIE BLAND’s film and TV work has been featured on Bell Media, Discovery Networks, Amazon, Super Channel, Knowledge Network, FNX, Télé Quebec, Hollywood Suite, APTN, and streamers and broadcasters in New Zealand, France, China, Australia and around the world. His award-winning, feature length documentary Gone South: How Canada Invented Hollywood featured interviews with celebrities Howie Mandel, Neve Campbell, David Foster, David Shore, Shannon Tweed and the late Alex Trebek.

About Leslie:
https://lessblandproductions.co,
https://orcacovemedia.com

Linked in: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-bland-b401b941/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leslie.bland.96/
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3736322/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/orcacovemedia/?hl=en

Subscribe to catch the latest episodes of Push In on Apple Podcasts:
https://apple.co/2S5WB7q

Podcast Production Team:

· Technical Director: Paul Ruta

· Sound Editor: Michael Korican

· Host, Researcher & copywriter: Joyce Kline

· Co-Producers: Joyce Kline, Michael Korican, Paul Ruta

KATHLEEN GILBERT, long-time CineVic supporter and head of Vancouver Island South Film & Media Commission shares what the Film Commission actually does, how it's financed, what it can offer indie filmmakers, and how we can support their work to expand local film production. Learn what she considers the biggest accomplishment—and biggest disappointment—of her tenure as Commissioner.

Kathleen Gilbert took on the job of Film Commissioner in 2010 after a lengthy career as a location manager for film and TV. Under her dedicated leadership, by 2022 alone, the Capitol Regional District’s burgeoning film industry had grown from bringing $6 to $60 million dollars a year to the Capitol Regional District’s economy.

About Kathleen:

Linked in: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathleen-gilbert-831b931a/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathleen.d.gilbert
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0318126/

Vancouver Island South Film & Media Commission:
https://www.filmvictoria.com/

Subscribe to catch the latest episodes of Push In on Apple Podcasts:
https://apple.co/2S5WB7q

Podcast Production Team:

· Technical Director: Paul Ruta

· Sound Editor: Michael Korican

· Host, Researcher & copywriter: Joyce Kline

· Co-Producers: Joyce Kline, Michael Korican, Paul Ruta

Did you know Victoria had one of the first film studios in Canada and the province’s first film commission? Here's your chance to learn the fascinating history of filmmaking in southern Vancouver Island from someone who knows the film scene inside and out - outgoing Head of the Vancouver Island South Film & Media Commission, Kathleen Gilbert.

Kathleen took on the job of Commissioner in 2010 after a lengthy career as a location manager for film and TV. Under her dedicated leadership by 2022 alone, the Capitol Regional District’s film industry had grown from contributing $6 million to $60 million a year in direct spending. Listen up as she shares her start as a founder member of Cinevic, her weirdest encounter as a location manager and what she’ll miss most when she moves on from Commissioner to civilian.

Mentioned in this episode: https://www.filmvictoria.com/

About Kathleen:

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathleen-gilbert-831b931a/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathleen.d.gilbert
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0318126/

Subscribe to catch the latest episodes of Push In on Apple Podcasts:
https://apple.co/2S5WB7q

Podcast Production Team:

· Technical Director: Paul Ruta

· Sound Editor: Michael Korican

· Host, Researcher & copywriter: Joyce Kline

· Co-Producers: Joyce Kline, Michael Korican, Paul Ruta

Who else but innovative City of Victoria Artist-In-Residence Kemi Craig would find links between Afrofuturism, west African free divers’ traditional spiritual practice of Orisha, and the spirits of captives drowned in the west African slave trade?

In work encompassing immersive, multi-sensory, site-specific installations and performances, this innovative dancer, filmmaker, multi-media creator and performance artist creates analog and digital work deeply rooted in themes of anti-oppression and social justice.

Since getting her start in film at Cinevic Society of Independent Filmmakers, Kemi has participated in artist’s residency programs with CineVic, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and Dance Victoria, and guest curated the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria’s programming series Blueprints for the Afrofuture. Currently, she is the City of Victoria Artist-In-Residence.

Referred to in this episode:

Music group Drexciya: https://open.spotify.com/album/7bBx5uPv2YgRIAFyXBWhEV

About Kemi:

Website: https://www.kemicraig.com
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/kemi.craig
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kemi.craig
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3008707/

Kemi’s projects:

Afroquatics: https://aggv.ca/exhibits/afroquatics/

Blueprints for the Afrofuture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U654RmSSLU4

UVic talk: https://gatewaytoart.uvic.ca/2024/02/05/artists-talk-kemi-craig/

What Home Means to You
https://www.victoria.ca/city-government/news/free-super-8-film-screening-what-home-means-you-0

Subscribe to catch the latest episodes of Push In on Apple Podcasts:

https://apple.co/2S5WB7q

Podcast Production Team:

· Technical Director: Paul Ruta

· Sound Editor: Michael Korican

· Host, Researcher & copywriter: Joyce Kline

· Co-Producers: Joyce Kline, Michael Korican, Paul Ruta

From how to apply for the position, to how much you’ll get paid, Victoria’s 2022-24 Artist-in-Residence Kemi Craig shares everything you ever wanted to know about her job but were afraid to ask!

Kemi is a dancer, filmmaker, multi-media creator and performance artist whose work encompasses immersive, multi-sensory, site-specific installations and performances that encourage audience and community engagement.

After getting her start in film at Cinevic Society of Independent Filmmakers, she's participated in artist’s residency programs with CineVic, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and Dance Victoria. Most recently she was guest curator for the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria’s programming series Blueprints for the Afrofuture. She holds an MFA degree from Emily Carr University of Art + Design and her work with both analog and digital technologies is rooted in themes of anti-oppression and social justice.

Mentioned in this episode:

What Home Means to You
https://www.victoria.ca/city-government/news/free-super-8-film-screening-what-home-means-you-0

About Kemi:

Website: https://www.kemicraig.com
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/kemi.craig
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kemi.craig
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3008707/

Kemi’s projects:

Blueprints for the Afrofuture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U654RmSSLU4

UVic talk: https://gatewaytoart.uvic.ca/2024/02/05/artists-talk-kemi-craig/

Subscribe to catch the latest episodes of Push In on Apple Podcasts:

https://apple.co/2S5WB7q

Podcast Production Team:

· Technical Director: Paul Ruta

· Sound Editor: Michael Korican

· Host, Researcher & copywriter: Joyce Kline

· Co-Producers: Joyce Kline, Michael Korican, Paul Ruta

You may say you’ll never do it but, if you’re an indie filmmaker, chances are at some point you’re probably going to wind up producing your own work. In this fun and frank episode, actor, writer, director, and producer Ana de Lara really tells it like it is: Why ultra low budget films are so tough to produce, how she ended up producing in the first place, and why producing isn’t fun! An accomplished actor, Ana also shares what it’s like to be flown to Prague for a Cascade commercial, and being cast as everything from Chinese to Indigenous...when you’re a Filipina-Canadian.

Ana de Lara has 17 awards and 5 nominations for her award-winning short films and the two features she’s produced: All In Madonna and Open for Submissions. A Women in the Director’s Chair alumna, she won Telefilm’s New Voices Award, Talent to Watch, Whistler Film Festival MPPIA Award, Vancouver Women in Film Matrix and Best Narrative Short awards, Broad Humor Film Festival’s Best Director, and Asians on Film Best Comedy and Best Screenplay Awards.

Watch a few of Ana’s shorts:

Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/anadelara
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqXaXMzVXEqtTt3ttNY6tvA

More about Ana:

IMDb: https://m.imdb.com/name/nm1891405/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anadelaraonline/
WIDC: https://www.widc.ca/director/ana-de-lara/

Subscribe to catch the latest episodes of Push In on Apple Podcasts:

https://apple.co/2S5WB7q

Podcast Production Team:

· Technical Director: Paul Ruta

· Sound Editor: Michael Korican

· Host, Researcher & copywriter: Joyce Kline

· Co-Producers: Joyce Kline, Michael Korican, Paul Ruta

With all the talk about toxic masculinity, it’s a real treat to watch a film that explores traditionally held “masculine” qualities like aggression, competitiveness — even homophobia — while also acknowledging masculinity’s potential for tenderness, nurturance, and protectiveness. Working with amateur actors from the Bogotá barrio, filmmaker Andrés Felipe Ángel manages to pull that off and more in his sensitive autobiographical coming of age film Rage. It’s a real treat to hear Andrés share how he developed the film from a single visual image, why he’s a self-styled “cultural manager,” trends in Columbian filmmaking, being in consideration for the 2025 Academy Awards, and finding the perfect litter of puppies he needed for Rage.

Andrés is an audiovisual producer and live performer in the Bogotá drag scene. His films include Rage — Fieras in Spanish — and Bogotá Se Quema. Rage screened at the Moscow International Film Festival and the Bogotá Short Film Festival, where it won Best Screenplay, Best Direction and Best Short Film and is in consideration for the 2025 Academy Awards. Now it will screen in this year’s Short Circuit Pacific Rim Film Festival.

More about Andrés:

IMDb:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm13942771/

Linked In:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andres-felipe-angel-3b505b188/

More about Rage:
https://mubi.com/en/ca/films/rage-2023-andres-felipe-angel

Rage at 2024 Short Circuit Pacific Rim Film Festival:
https://cinevic.ca/short-circuit-film-festival-2024/

Subscribe to catch the latest episodes of Push In on Apple Podcasts:
https://apple.co/2S5WB7q

Podcast Production Team:

· Technical Director: Paul Ruta

· Sound Editor: Michael Korican

· Host, Researcher & copywriter: Joyce Kline

· Co-Producers: Joyce Kline, Michael Korican, Paul Ruta

When you’re on set and your film deals with the potentially triggering subject of suicide, how do you provide for the physical and emotional needs of a diverse cast and crew? This was the challenge that led filmmaker Ana de Lara to collaborate with Women In the Director’s Chair to develop a ground breaking new program called Safer Creative Spaces. In this episode, Ana shares how the program helped her create a more caring environment on the set of her upcoming web series Best Friend Me.

Ana de Lara has 17 awards and 5 nominations for her award-winning short films and features All In Madonna and Open for Submissions. She’s a Women in the Director’s Chair alumna, winner of Telefilm’s New Voices Award, Talent to Watch, Whistler Film Festival MPPIA Award, Vancouver Women in Film Matrix and Best Narrative Short awards, Broad Humor Film Festival’s Best Director, and Asians on Film Best Comedy and Best Screenplay Awards.

More information on Women In The Director's Chair: https://www.widc.ca/

Watch a few of Ana’s shorts:

Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/anadelara
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqXaXMzVXEqtTt3ttNY6tvA

More about Ana:

IMDb: https://m.imdb.com/name/nm1891405/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anadelaraonline/
WIDC: https://www.widc.ca/director/ana-de-lara/

Subscribe to catch the latest episodes of Push In on Apple Podcasts:

https://apple.co/2S5WB7q

Podcast Production Team:

· Technical Director: Paul Ruta

· Sound Editor: Michael Korican

· Host, Researcher & copywriter: Joyce Kline

· Co-Producers: Joyce Kline, Michael Korican, Paul Ruta