Every now and then there is a contest that comes along that changes somebody’s life. Where an artistic challenge is met by an equal stroke of genius and miracles happen. This is precisely what happened in the case of Hobo With a Shotgun. A couple of punk assed thirtysomethings from Halifax — Rob Cotteril and Jason Eisener — heard about the SXSW’s Grindhouse Trailer Contest. The challenge: to make a fake trailer to be shown in theatres, sandwiched between double features by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s Grindhouse series, an homage to the 1970′s Grindhouse back-to-back low budget horror flicks. After meeting as if by fate on the set of Trailer Park Boys where they both worked, the duo came up with the idea and shot the trailer for Hobo With a Shotgun in a mere 6 days with a budget of $150, and blam! They were being flown to LA to meet Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez.
The trailer that they made for a movie that did not even exist was being shown on the big screen, smack dab in the middle of Tarantino’s Death Proof and Rodriguez’s Planet Terror. Big things were happening.
Having earned some industry credibility, they successfully procured funding and made another movie, a short called Treevenge. They took it to Sundance Film Fest and received an honorable mention. Now, nearly three years later, Hobo With a Shotgun — the feature — has just finished shooting and is going into the editing room.
Meanwhile in Quebec, the now 21-year-old Xavier Dolan has been making major waves, having won the Prix Regardes Jeunes at Cannes two years in a row with his semi-autobiographical feature J’ai Tué Ma Mère (I KILLED MY MOTHER) in 2009, and again in 2010 for his new film Les Amours Imaginaires (HEARTBEATS), a twisted romance about a kinky bisexual love triangle. The actor-turned filmmaker-director, who is openly homosexual, exudes both risk and passion in his work. The film Heartbeats opens with a quote by poet Alfred de Musset that “the only truth is love beyond reason.” A possible reflection on Dolan’s personal philosophies about romance? Or perhaps a reflection on love in general? I would have to go with the latter.
