Lights, Cameras, Jobs! Alberta film industry part of Culture Days

Alberta's film industry will be front and centre on Saturday and Sunday as part of Cochrane Culture Days

From 12 noon to 6 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m.to 5 p.m. on Sunday, multiple film excerpts will be shown, and at least seven presenters will be part of "Back Stage," located in the Cochrane LIons Events Centre, 109 5th Ave.

It includes a presentation by Brock Skretting, head of advocacy for Keep Alberta Rolling, that will provide some insight on the industry and its impact upon Cochrane. Additionally, Skretting will be premiering a short film prepared especially to salute Cochrane's arts community.

"Cochrane has a long history in the film industry in Alberta," he points out.

He says Alberta settings are popular among filmmakers.

Skretting rattles off many films, including 1986's "Rad" to the more current "Tin Star" season one and two, that were shot here. Not long ago, the production company for the major film "Togo" set up shop in Cochrane for about six months. That film streamed on Disney Plus and starred Willem Dafoe.

Keep Alberta Rolling is a grassroots nonprofit organization created to showcase the benefits and potential of the Alberta Screen Industry. It keeps Albertans informed of the vast opportunity it presents for creation of jobs, economic diversity, and foreign investment.

"It's not just actors, directors, and camera people. You need a lot of those, too, but you also need carpenters, tinklers, electricians, drivers, the makeup and wardrobe people and caterers to make the food. So there's a lot of different type of skills that go into make those big projects, and those are skills that Albertans already have."

Jane Kaczmer, president of the Cochrane Integrated Arts Society and the main organizer of Culture Days, is thrilled to add the film industry to the weekend lineup that salutes and showcases our vibrant arts community.

"I'm so pleased because I don't believe we've done film presentations like this," says Kaczmer.

"Two of them are people who graduated from high school in Cochrane (Reamonn Joshee and Aaron Bernakevitch) that are coming back and doing this, and then others are from the Calgary area. Some are from Edmonton and may or not be here to do a presentation, but if not we'll certainly have their movies to show."

Because of COVID-19, there are social distancing measures in place, as there are for all of the weekend events.

Only 50 people can be present at any given time at Back Stage.