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The film seal of ‘labelle’

Historic moment for Vancouver team

By Nicole Fitzgerald

Please insert bad French accent here. There should be lots of phlegm racketeering, “r” rolling and rhythm ping ponging that only a Quebecer can do.

Musee, le boo boo fliberdeegiberdee Legend of Jacques Le Nards Vancouver la duex bro winneh de grande pris pour le Filmmaker Showdown en Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival. Comprende?

Or as writer, producer and director Shawn Divers would have subtitled in his winning film: The hilarious, French-jibberish film the Legend of Jacques Le Nards co-produced by two Vancouver brothers won the grand prize for the Filmmaker Showdown at the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival Tuesday at the Telus Conference Centre.

More than 68 filmmaking teams entered the 72-hour competition that began last Friday and finished Monday morning. However, only 50 teams managed to produce, shoot and edit their five-minute short films. The 50 were then narrowed down to eight finalists. Those eight films were screened in front of 2,000 people and a panel of industry professionals to compete for $15,000 in prizes, including $2,000 cash and a $7,000 HD camera.

Shawn and Luke Divers co-produced the winning film, garnering the most votes by judges and the biggest applause from an audience whose bellies were sore from laughing.

Before we begin the Divers boys tale, Shawn would like to clarify.

“No seals were hurt in this film,” he said with all the seriousness in which the star of the film executed his lines penned in “French” jibberish with English subtitles.

The Legend of Jacques Le Nards poked fun at The CBC heritage specials that air historical moments, such as how the Canadian flag came to be or how women were given the right to vote.

Only instead of exploring how hockey was born, the mocking film delved into Whistler history — how tight ski-racing suits came to be.

“We wanted to pick something that related to Whistler,” Luke said. “Something that might come out of its history.”

So the imaginary figure and historical account was created and executed with all the flare of the heritage commercials: subtitles, the inventor seen as crazy, the painstaking process of drawing up this revolutionary invention, the failures and finally a random incident that inspired the conception.

For Jacques Le Nards, the aha! moment was water dripping off his sealskin boots. And this is where the seal comes in. We see Jacques approaching a live seal with club in hand. And voilà, in the next frame our mighty Whistler-equivalent to Samuel Morse is sporting his speeding sealskin ski-racing suit.

“I went down to Georgia Straight and rented a boat to go to Amble Island and lie belly down on Seal Rock to get the (seal) shot,” Shawn said.

Hunting seals with a film camera was the least of the team’s concerns. The boys were left scrambling for a set when they were turfed from the home they planned on using. Turns out the person who promised the team the space was not in fact the owner. Police were called when the crew was in full swing. So the team was forced to evacuate and build a set along a kitchen wall in John Hewson’s house.

The film was everything a 72-hour scramble on no budget should be. A crane was built from two pieces of pipe and wheel gaskets, and a dolly constructed from plywood and angle brackets bought at Home Hardware.

Shawn and Luke brought the experience of three other time-squeezed film competitions to the Whistler show — although after the weekend’s sleet, rain and thunder, the two weekend warriors made a mental note to check weather forecasts for future filming endeavours.

“I love competing,” Shawn said. “I love to see everyone tested under extreme conditions, and all the blood and tears that follow. It’s a true expression of the art form. It’s a bit like smoking crack. I get a serious high off this.”

There was plenty to get high off over the course of the evening. A 50-film montage included clips from films covering everything from the U.S. selling Canada to Russia for $1 to housing a whale in a bathtub.

A few finalist highlights included the cinematography and originality of the Creeking Game , the underwater world and grapefruit chase of Untitled , the dramatic tear jerking Camouflage (by Whistler’s own Angie Nolan) and witty humour of the mockumentary Freesleeping . The only entry that would have also given the winning film a serious run for the $2,000 prize money with a special screening of Robjn Taylor’s Dog Shirts . Although handed in late, judges decided Taylor’s signature quirky film deserved screening. Audiences agreed.

While 72 hours may not seem like a lot — already filmmakers including Taylor and the Divers brothers were re-editing their works for future festival submissions — there are now 50 more films in the world than one week ago; 50 more creative minds putting their crazy visions into action. Fifty more Jacques Le Nards trying to make history.

Bonne chance.