Victoria meets Hollywood after local filmmaker Suzanne Moreau’s short film GINNY’S ENTERPRISE premiered at the Femme International Film Festival in Los Angeles on Oct. 19.
The short film is about an imaginative 10-year-old Trekkie growing up amid the Cold War in the 1960s as she struggles to gain fairness and love from her blindly patriarchal mom, and equal status with her bullying brother. Ultimately, she escapes that oppression by going into her imagination. She finds her refuge and space by becoming the captain of her own U.S. enterprise. She imagines herself as the captain, and she has a rich imaginary life outside of the home.
The 18-and-a-half-minute film already received a warm reception at private screenings at the Toronto Lift-Off Film Festival in July, as it won an audience choice award. At Int’I Women Film Festival, also in Toronto, lead actor Mae Robb won for best youth artist.
At the Femme International Film Festival, Moreau met people from other provinces in Canada, the U.S., the Philippines, Belgium, and even Tibet. The first Tibetan film that had been produced independently was at the L.A. Film Festival.
“I got to go to any of the films that I wanted to see,” said Moreau. “And that was really rewarding too because it gives you an idea of what people are making out there and what’s got traction and what’s being accepted.”
The Saanich Historical Artifacts Society, also known as Heritage Acres, was one of the places filmed by the local production. Heritage Acres’s museum, schoolhouse and around the ground can be spotted. Other exterior locations were shot in south Oak Bay and Fairfield.
The independent filmmaker was born in Victoria and currently resides in Oak Bay. Moreau has had a long career, but not in arts.
It wasn’t until she retired from her career in public service that she took up being a filmmaker.
“It took a great deal of courage and vulnerability to find my voice and speak it through the art of visual storytelling, but it makes sense to follow up on my public service career goals in social justice with a new incarnation through visual arts,” said the filmmaker.
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