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Alyson Court is known and loved by a generation of children for her role as Loonette on The Big Comfy Couch. But her career has taken her far beyond that. After appearing as a child on the iconic Mr. Dressup, and following her years as a clown, Court has made a living doing voiceover work for projects as varied as Beetlejuice and the Resident Evil video game series. She has also appeared on camera in the TV series Murdoch Mysteries. Recently, she was a voice director on The Magic School Bus Rides Again where she got to work with comedian Kate McKinnon.

Ron Diamond is the CEO of ACME Filmworks and the Founder of the Animation Show of Shows, now in its 19th year. The animated film spectacular, has showcased several Academy Award winners over the years and this year features films from eight countries, including three from Canada as well as an early short from Oscar Winner Pete Docter, and a restored film originally made in the 1960s.

Heavy Hearts are hard rock quartet from Niagara-on-the-Lake. Their new EP On a Chain is out now.

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The Strokes. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. LCD Soundsystem. What do these bands have in common? According to music journalist Lizzy Goodman, they helped define New York City’s rock revivalist movement in the early 2000s. In her book Meet Me In The Bathroom: Rebirth and Rock and Roll in New York City 2001-2011, Goodman talks about how in the aftermath of 9/11, indie music culture was reborn. It helped the nation heal, but it also brought forth a new generation of music.

David Hyde is a Canadian writer-director whose debut feature is the crime comedy Stegman is Dead starring Michael Eklund, Michael Ironside, and Linnea Moffat. A morality tale about criminals, Stegman is ultimately a touching father-daughter story.

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The Strokes – Last Nite

Episode 079

There are few movies quite like The Room. In fact, there are zero. Perhaps that’s why the “best, worst movie” ever made has garnered such a following since its release in 2003. One of the two lead actors in the movie, Greg Sestero, wrote about the experience – The Disaster Artist – to rave reviews. Now that book has become a film of its own starring non-other than modern Renaissance Man James Franco as the film’s writer-director Tommy Wiseau and Franco’s younger brother Dave as Sestero as well as Seth Rogen and a host of celebrity cameos.

Diego Klattenhoff may be a big TV Star in the states with series regular roles in both Homeland and The Blacklist, but the French River, Nova Scotia native has never forgotten his Canadian roots. While on hiatus, he returned north of border to star in the Apocalyptic thriller Radius.

Dizzy is a quartet from Oshawa, Ontario comprising of brother Charlie, Alex, and Mackenzie Spencer and their friend Katie Munshaw. Their debut album will be released in 2018

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Episode 078

It’s the final show from the 2017 Whistler Film Festival and today it’s all about first time filmmakers!

First, actor Michael Maize (Gotham, Happy!) talks about The Story of A Girl, which the directorial debut of actress Kyra Sedgwick.

Then screenwriter Ramona Barckert and producer Brian Robertson talk about Ordinary Days, a film in three acts, each of which is helmed by a different director. How did that affect the overall outcome of the film?

Jonathan Baker is “a personality who can act” as well as a director. He recently directed his first feature film Inconceivable, in which he also co-stars opposite Nicholas Cage. But before he made that, he interviewed various directors including John Badham, Jodie Foster and Taylor Hackford, about the perils of being a first-time filmmaker. The result is the documentary Becoming Iconic, which had its World Premiere at the festival.

Episode 077

Welcome back to the Whistler Film. Three more amazing guests are on the show today!

Katie Boland: Katie may only be 29, but has in the industry nearly her entire life. The daughter of a filmmaker, she has three films in the festival – Cardinals, co-starring Sheila McCarthy and Noah Reid, Never Saw It Coming, directed by her mother Gail Harvey, and the short film Lolz-ita, which she also wrote and directed. Her additional film an TV credits include Reign, Born To Be Blue, Motive, Terminal City, Lost Girl, Murdoch Mysteries, Daydream Nation, Adoration, Mount Pleasant, and Some Things That Stay.

Julian Papas: Julian became a one-man film crew as he followed Ingrid around and documentary her experiences and process of making Porcupine Lake and ended up with his own fly-on-the-wall documentary about process called The Other Side of Porcupine Lake.

Episode 076

Endeavours returns to the Whistler Film Festival and will have at least three shows this week. Today, has three great indie Canadian filmmakers with three very different films.

First up, Carl Bessai is something of a legend in Vancouver indie film circles. His previous work includes Severed, Repeaters, Fathers & Sons, Mothers & Daughters, Sisters & Borthers. His latest in the family drama The Lears, starring Anthony Michael Hall, Sean Astin and Bruce Dern.

Lowell Dean is the creator of Another Wolfcop, a Saskatchewan-shot hilarious horror-comedy about a werewolf cop that has what is probably the world’s first werewolf sex scene and features Yannick Bisson as an unscrupulous businessman.

Jackie English is a Toronto-based actress, writer and director, whose film Becoming Burlesque, is making its world premiere at WFF

It’s BITS

The Blood In The Snow Festival is back and better than ever. BITS is an all-Canadian, all-horror film festival in Toronto. I spoke with founder Kelly Michael Stewart as well the teams behind the films:

From Buckout Road:

From Red Spring:

From Darken:

From Once Upon A Time At Christmas

Also, Neil Osborne and Brad Merritt of 54-40 talk about their 35+ years in the music business, how it has changed, songwriting, and their upcoming new album.

Finally, screenwriter Susan Coyne on The Man Who Invented Christmas, a Charles Dickens origin story of A Christmas Carol

Today on the show: it’s AJ Jacobs and The Kents! 

AJ Jacobs is a writer, journalist, columnist and author who sees life as a series of experiments. He first came to prominence by reading all 32 volumes of Enclyopaedia Brittanica, which he chronicles in his first book The Know It All. Since then he was written about living Biblically, outsourcing his life, taking health advice and most recently, putting together the world’s largest family tree for a “global family reunion”. He talks about in his latest book “It’s All Relative”.

The Kents are a four-piece indie band from Lindsay, Ontario. After the success of their first EP Waking, they quickly got to work on their next project, the result of which is the five-song Within Waves, released in October.

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From The Kents’ Within Waves

Photo courtesy of Listen Harder PR, copyright Brody White

Episode 073

It’s the Winnipeg Special! Dave Schultz is a screenwriter and director, whose films include Jet Boy, 45 RPM and Rufus. His latest feature is Considering Love and Other Magic starring Sheila McCarthy and Eric McCormack. Solely as screenwriter, he has penned several action movies including the upcoming The Humanity Bureau starring Nicholas Cage. Although Schultz now resides in Calgary, he is Winnipeg born and Considering Love and Other Magic was filmed in his old neighbourhood.

Though the boys from The Middle Coast are originally from Brandon, Manitoba, they recently made the move to Winnipeg. They released their most recent album The Making Of in April of this year

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From The Middle Coast’s The Making Of

The Middle Coast Photo courtesy of Listen Harder PR

Episode 72 features freelance writer, editor and journalism professor Angela Mombourquette, who once upon a time, was an associate director at This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Canada’s seminal political satire TV series. With the show entering its 25th season, Mombourquette has compiled an oral history entitled 25 Years of 22 Minutes. It is available now.

Empire of Dirt is an indigenous film that was first released in 2013. Recently, it screened in Toronto and featured a Q&A with star Cara Gee, star and producer Jennifer Podemski and producer Geoff Ewart.