Shadowing Project
“Building Our Future”
“MENTORING TODAY WILL HELP BUILD A MORE DIVERSE TOMORROW”
Based on the fact that there are few if any Aboriginal members of the DGC Atlantic and in tune with his Employment Equity efforts to bring Diversity to the Film industry, Hank White created the Aboriginal Shadow Program. The main function is to provide a chance for BIPOC to obtain experience in the film and television production industry in Atlantic Canada.
Project: Our Goal is to mentor underrepresented groups with on the job training by key professionals. This will provide a gateway into the Film and Television industry.
Background: Stone Cold Productions and Redemption Pictures used the Shadow Program for the film “CHARLIE ZONE”. We succeeded to have Aboriginal Trainees, from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in the trainee positions and in the general crew. On the film 8:37 REBIRTH we expanded the shadow program to have eight Indigenous trainees and two Keys in the Art Department and Grip. Shot in November 2020. We are proud to say that many of the trainees were later hired by other local and international film productions. We look forward to expanding the program on our future productions. Including our upcoming productions “Janus” “Jeffrey’s Turn” and “Captain Beaver Tail and the Northern Defenders” animation feature”.
The Shadow Program was initially used in our short film, “Intersection”, “The Cab Driver” “The Decision and “Fractured”. SCP was the second unit production team on the Documentary, “Walking On A Sea Of Glass, The End of Apartheid in Bermuda” and involved in the documentary “Sanctuary” by Virginia Jauregui.
How will the shadow program work?
The Director; Director of Photography; First AD and the Sound Director, will each have a member of the Shadow Program work with him/her as an assistant; as well as general crew. The Third Assistant Director (3AD) positions will be Aboriginal and or people of Colour where possible, under the guidance of a professional member of the Film unions, whose sole purpose will be, to mentor the trainees. All Trainees will be paid to scale in accordance to their position and fee structure.
Who can participate?
The Shadow Program is for the Indigenous groups, Black and People of Colour. The men and women who participate should be at least grade ten education and willing to learn and work in the film industry.
Indigenous Crew and Joe LeClair.
Industry Development:
An industry study pointed clearly to the significance of Film, Television and Series production as crucial to the development and sustained growth of our industry. It states,
“The local industry needs film and television series to provide the kind of sustained growth around which it can build”. But as well as the production this industry needs the human resources to meet the demands of that particular genre; especially in production. While we have many US and Canadian MOWs and Feature Films Produced here in the past years but due to Government cuts a large pool of our most gifted crew had to leave the province to pursue employment in other provinces. We are now trying to rebuild a pool of competent production personnel with a new diverse voice and vision. The Shadow Program will enable this pool of professionals to grow with a previously under represented group.
Rebirth Films Incorporated acknowledges that we are located and filmed in Kjipuktuk, in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and the unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People. This territory is covered by the “Treaties of Peace and Friendship” which Mi’kmaq, Wəlastəkwiyik (Maliseet), and Passamaquoddy Peoples first signed with the British Crown in 1726. The treaties did not deal with surrender of lands and resources but in fact recognized Mi’kmaq and Wəlastəkwiyik (Maliseet) title and established the rules for what was to be an ongoing relationship between nations. We are all treaty people. © 2021 REBIRTH FILMS INC all rights reserved