PROVIDENCE BAY—Central Manitoulin has passed a motion to facilitate the filming of an art movie, ‘DADA,’ by providing a lease on the Providence Bay Hall with the full blessing of the Providence Bay Community Centre Board.
The motion, “that council allows a reduced rental rate for the Providence Bay Hall for the eight-week period from September 5, 2022 to October 28, 2022 for $4,554.82 + HST to DADApicture Corp” was moved by Councillor Derek Stephens and seconded by Councillor Angela Johnston.
Councillor Stephens supplied that the community centre board had no objection to the short-term lease.
“We’re feeling really lucky to be able to make a movie on the Island,” said director/screenwriter Canadian actor Aaron Poole when contacted by The Expositor. “We plan to be mostly in the area of Providence Bay for September and October. The film is a small budget art-house feature length fiction called ‘DADA’.”
Most of the details of the production are still being ironed out, noted Mr. Poole, but he did supply a short synopsis of the film’s premise. “In ‘DADA,’ a young teen and her father take a road trip to a cabin on the eve of her 16th birthday,” he said. “A nonsense game, born out of their distinctive playfulness, escalates into a power struggle when the girl pretends she can ‘no longer see’ the father. An only child, the girl has long fought between compassion and codependency with her overly eager divorced dad. Its seeming ridiculousness is her game’s special power: it uses absurdity to wear down the father’s authority and open new possibilities for their future.”
Mr. Poole said that “at some point we will reach out to locals for help on cast and crew,” but added, “for now we are preparing for our stay and will do everything we can to be good company in your home.”
The producer will likely be more familiar to Islanders as a Canadian actor. Classically trained, Mr. Poole stars in the CBS/ROKU series ‘Most Dangerous Game’ alongside Christopher Waltz. He has also made regular appearances in ‘Copper,’ ‘Strange Empire’ as well as guest appearances in ‘Schitt’s Creek,’ ‘American God’ and ‘Condor.’ He has received recognition from the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television for his lead roles in ‘The Beautiful City’ and ‘Strange Empire.’ He has also starred opposite two other Canadian film icons, Keifer and Donald Sutherland (‘Forsaken’) and starred as Mick Ronson in the David Bowie picture ‘Stardust.’
Mr. Poole is no stranger to the director’s chair, making his debut with the short film ‘Oracle,’ which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and screened at several other festivals. The feature film ‘DADA’ will be his next directorial project.
‘DADA’ was one of 29 films English and French language productions funded by Telefilm Canada in 2021. The production company is DADApicture Corp.
