Award-winning indie film helping put Pembroke on the map, mayor says

When she saw the street in Kingston, Ont., filled with sand, Cameron Montgomery says something inside her changed.

Along with props modelled after an early-1900s street market, the sand had been brought in by director Guillermo del Toro, who in 2014 was shooting his gothic horror film Crimson Peak in Kingston's Springer Market Square.

As an artist, Montgomery says witnessing the behind-the-scenes staging and costume design gave her the film "bug."

Now owner of the arts and culture hub Studio Dreamshare in Pembroke, Ont., Montgomery hopes the filmmaking boom that has since hit eastern Ontario means others will share that experience.

"It helps people to get the bug when they see projects happening all the time," she said.

Award-winning indie film Painted Sharks is the latest project Montgomery helped attract to Pembroke and the Ottawa Valley.

Set in the late 1970s, the film portrays a mother and her children enduring domestic violence in a small town. It recently won several awards for both cast and crew, including from the Los Angeles Film Awards and the New York International Film Awards.

"For me, it was therapy," said the film's director Brian Lutes, who grew up in the Ottawa area and drew from personal experience to write the script.

But for the region, it's something of a departure from the sort of films — mostly romantic holiday flicks — that have largely defined its industry and helped generate a record amount of economic activity last year.

Pembroke Mayor Ron Gervais said he welcomes this new type of exposure for the budding industry.

"Whenever you have a film that reaches that kind of a status, where they're winning awards and so forth, I think it does even a better job of putting us on the map," he said.

Record year for Ottawa film

Including live-action and animation, the Ottawa film industry generated over $130 million for the local economy in 2022, according to the Ottawa Film Office.

That sum "is a lot," said Emilia King, professor of digital media studies at Ontario Tech University. "That's quite a significant change from previous years."

According to the Ottawa Film Office, a non-profit industry booster, that money was associated with the production of 30 feature-length movies and 15 television series.

"Ottawa wants to heavily punch above its weight," King said. "I think they see themselves as probably an underdog that's maybe been overlooked a little bit in the past, and now that's really, really coming into its own."

The region is traditionally known for made-for-television movies and "service production," King said, meaning local crews are often fulfilling contracts for major American channels such as Lifetime, or larger media corporations such as Netflix and Amazon.

The "streaming wars" have been a major boon for the local industry, she added, as streaming giants seek lucrative original content themed around topics that sell. Often, that means Christmas. Of the 30 feature-length movies produced last year, 16 were themed around the holidays.

Although King said Painted Sharks is not likely to be "a game changer" for the industry as a whole, she wonders whether it may signal a new type of film for the region: the return of expat filmmakers pursuing passion projects close to their roots.

Reception 'quite overwhelming,' director says

Montgomery started Studio Dreamshare in 2018 after she won a contest by the City of Pembroke offering six-months free rent on a two-year lease in a downtown studio space.

"Rural Ontario has a lot of really great opportunities to be creative, affordably," Montgomery said.

That affordability means the U.S. dollar goes a long way, an attractive prospect for American filmmakers. As well, Montgomery said the wide variety of settings across the region adds to the appeal.

Painted Sharks executive producer Robynne Eaton said local viewers may recognize the Douglas Tavern outside Eganville, Ont., Sandy's Deli in Renfrew, Ont., Barefax Gentleman's Club in Ottawa's ByWard Market and residential streets in Pembroke.

Gervais said a fire around 1900 razed the city's downtown and led to a mass rebuilding. As a result, many buildings in the area, including the iconic courthouse and Grey Gables building, lend themselves to certain period films.

Gervais said the city is hoping to attract more films like Painted Sharks by creating a tourism committee that will work specifically to encourage the industry.

Montgomery and Lutes are currently collaborating on another project in the region.

"A movie ends up taking on a life of its own," Lutes said. "And when somebody sits through it and says, 'You know what? That really speaks to me,' it's quite overwhelming."