The Green Chain Script Scores a Canadian Screenwriting Award Nomination

Tony Wosk here with a special guest blog for The Green Chain. Usually I prefer to let Mark handle the blogging, but today is really a special circumstance. On behalf of the producers of the film, I wanted to congratulate our esteemed (and way too busy) writer/director Mark Leiren-Young on being named a finalist for the Writer's Guild of Canada’s 2008 Canadian Screenwriting Awards. Knowing all the wonderful films produced in Canada this past year, I find this peer voted award pretty darn cool.

From my first reading of The Green Chain, I always thought it was wonderfully written; and the script is actually why I got involved in the film in the first place, so it’s great to see that Mark’s being recognized for it and that others found the screenplay as compelling as I did.

Last year Sarah Polley won the award with her screenplay for Away From Her, which went on to garner an Oscar nomination.

This year the competition is just as fierce with screenwriters including Travis Macdonald (Normal), Clement Virgo & Chaz Thorne (Poor Boy’s Game) and Kari Skogland (The Stone Angel). Congrats to all of them as well.

Looking forward to the awards ceremony on April 14th, and not just because of the open bar.

(photo of Mark Leiren-Young by Tim Safranek, courtesy of The 2008 Cleveland International Film Festival.)

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The Green Chain Storms Cleveland

The airport just reopened after a blizzard and the city's still cold, but the audience at The Green Chain's American premiere couldn't have been warmer.

Writer/director Mark Leiren-Young and producer, Tony Wosk, both flew to Cleveland for the premiere and the response was fantastic.

Mark (that'd be me) joked before the movie about Ohio being a big forestry state. And that kicked the night off with a big laugh. The thrill for Mark and Tony was how many laughs there were - and how lovely the response was - from an audience that isn't necessarily raised on the politics of trees.

The movie was followed by a half hour "Question and Answer" session covering everything from the movie's shooting location, to Tricia Helfer's fearless performance as Leila Cole. And some members of the audience were surprised when the final credits started to roll and they realized our actors were actors and that this isn't a documentary -- a comment the movie has received after almost every screening we've done so far.

The Q&A continued at The Hard Rock Cafe when several audience members visited Mark and Tony with more questions and comments.

The Green Chain is part of the Cleveland International Film Festival's special "It's Easy Being Green" environmental program and is also featured as part of the festival's spotlight on new Canadian films. The movie was invited to Cleveland after festival director, Bill Guentzler, screened it at the Vancouver International Film Festival and decided to bring it home.

Mark's looking forward to meeting the audience at The Green Chain's second and final screening at the Festival, this Thursday morning at 9:30 a.m. Okay, he's not looking forward to being awake at 9:30 a.m. but... he is looking forward to meeting anyone passionate enough about their movies to see them so early!

The Big Ohio Primary News -- The Green Chain is Elected to Play Cleveland

The Green Chain's American premiere is set to rock the home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The 32nd Cleveland International Film Festival is featuring The Green Chain in their newly launched "It's Not Easy Being Green" section and also in their special slate of Canadian films, "Oh Canada."
The American premiere is Tuesday, March 11 at 7:00 pm, with a second showing Thursday, March 13 at 9:30 am. Currently only Festival members can purchase tickets, but general admission tickets will be on sale soon.
Founded in 1977, the Cleveland Film Society has presented the Cleveland International Film Festival every spring for over three decades. Ohio’s premier film event features over 240 films originating from close to 60 countries.
To buy tickets click here.
Here's the official synopsis from their program.
Who doesn’t love trees? Surely the logger loves trees, even the firefighter, and especially the environmentalist protester. But so does the movie star, the logging executive, the tree-sitter living 100 feet high, and the waitress in a small British Columbian town. This film is compromised of a series of monologues by all of the above and more. What these interlocking stories tell us is that there are multiple sides to the environmentalist issue. Each of these individuals has different reasons to love trees. To some, trees are their livelihood; to others, trees are a reason to fight. What’s more is that all of these reasons to love trees inadvertently affect other people’s lives. In exposing the different viewpoints of the logging industry, which is currently dividing and destroying communities in Canada and the Pacific Northwest, Mark Leiren-Young creates a film-- a sort of staged documentary-- based on true tales. While not as laugh-out-loud funny as Christopher Guest, but much more biting and hard hitting, this film will make everyone question where their tree devotion falls along THE GREEN CHAIN.

Kingston Checks out The Green Chain March 1 & 2nd

The Green Chain's Ontario premiere at the Kingston Canadian Film Festival is set. The movie debuts Saturday, March 1st @ 9:30 PM. The second showing is Sunday, March 2nd @ 3:40 PM.

Kingston is the world's largest all-Canadian Film Festival, so start humming "O Canada" and tell all your friends in Ontario to check out the show.

For ticket information click here.

And here's the official program synopsis by Elan Mastai...

The battle between loggers and environmentalists is defining and dividing communities across Canada, and this thought-provoking, unexpectedly funny, and wonderfully acted film explores both sides of an issue that’s never clear cut. Writer-director Mark Leiren-Young tackles a challenging subject with an innovative approach — seven characters deliver seven monologues arguing their perspectives and quietly revealing their intriguing personal connections. The film’s strong environmental core is elevated by incredible performances; many delivered in a single stunning take, from a knock-out ensemble cast including Battlestar Galactica’s Tricia Helfer and Tahmoh Penikett, and multiple Genie and Gemini winners Babz Chula, Brendan Fletcher, and August Schellenberg.

Stay tuned for news about The Green Chain's American premiere!

The Green Chain Crowned by Kingston

Some groovy green news...

The Green Chain is one of the six initial selections for the world's largest all-Canadian film festival -- The Kingston Canadian Film Festival.

The other five early selections are some of this year's most acclaimed Canadian features -- Up the Yangtze, Breakfast with Scot, The Tracey Fragments (featuring Oscar nominee, Ellen Page), Shake Hands with the Devil and Green Chain star, Tricia Helfer's "other movie" the S&M comedy, Walk All Over Me.

The Kingston Canadian Film Festival is held February 27 to March 2, 2008.

We'll share our dates as soon as we know them...

The Green Chain Podcast: Tzeporah Berman Part 2

Powersuit Power, Eco-Politics

Berman: ForestEthics crusader.

Tzeporah Berman: Part two of a 'Trees & Us' podcast.

"Green is the new black," says ForestEthics founder, Tzeporah Berman, with a laugh as she tells The Tyee about the rest of the world finally starting to catch up to British Columbians on environmental issues.

In 2007, the former Greenpeace organizer talked politics in Hollywood with Paris Hilton and played politics in Bali with Canada's environment minister, John Baird.

Last week's interview covered Berman's role in Leonardo DiCaprio's cinematic plea to save the planet, The 11th Hour, the upcoming battle of Athabasca and her life under the media microscope.

This week, in the conclusion of our special two-part podcast, Berman deals with the founding of ForestEthics and catalogues some of their major victories . . . including their war against environmentally dirty underwear.

The uncompromising activist also talks about with the challenges of making compromises, the power of powersuits, staying hopeful and discussing lingerie with Gloria Steinem.

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Mark Leiren-Young talks to Tzeporah Berman (part two). (mp3 file)

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The Green Chain Podcast: Tzeporah Berman

From starring in The 11th Hour for Leonardo DiCaprio to fighting to survive the 11th hour in Bali, last year Tzeporah Berman was everywhere.

At a party in Vancouver a few months ago celebrating ForestEthics' astonishing victory in convincing the BC government to preserve 2.2 million hectares of habitat for the world’s only mountain caribou the key players in the group were introduced to the audience and applauded. Everyone else in the organization was identified by their official title. Berman was introduced as, “our rock star.”
A former star with Greenpeace and one of the founders of ForestEthics, the woman BC Premier Glen Clark once called an enemy of the state has been on the frontlines of the Canadian environmental movement for over a decade. But in 2007 she became… a rock star… achieving Suzukisque status when she was chosen as one of the featured players (along with Dr. David) in Hollywood’s cinematic plea to save the planet, The 11th Hour and scored an official audience with the media icon of our age, Paris Hilton.
She ended her amazing year facing off against Canada’s Minister of the Environment, John Baird at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali-- a story she chronicled for The Tyee.
I met Berman at the Forest Ethics office in downtown Vancouver not long before she left to Bali. Here's part one of a special two part podcast about spinning celebrity, Berman's biggest battles, sticky fights in the tar sands and how we’ll always have Paris.
- MLY