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The story of Ontario’s most notorious killers is coming to the big screen, but it’s not going to be easy.

The film, based on the events surrounding Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo, is causing controversy among Canadians who say the film is an attempt to exploit and capitalize on these tragic events.

Michael Sellers the producer and one of the writers on the film, is facing the controversy head-on and is on a mission to have the film released in Canada.

In early October, Sellers screened the film privately for lawyer Tim Danson, who represents the families of slain teenagers Leslie Mahaffy and Kristen French.

“I went up to Toronto to do the private screening for Tim Danson on behalf of the families, and they acknowledged that the film is not something they are going to oppose.” said Sellers. “That doesn’t mean that they endorse it by any stretch of the imagination, but they understand and acknowledge that it hasn’t taken a tawdry exploitation approach.”

Danson had originally vowed to take legal action against the movie on grounds that should it depict the rape and murders of French and Mahaffy, it would qualify as child pornography.

Since the news of the film became public, Sellers has received close to a thousand e-mails opposing his film. Surprisingly, only a single email from Arkansas was sent by an American against the release of the film.

The film was set to premiere at this summer’s Montreal World Film Festival on opening night, but was later pulled when organizers faced heat from corporate sponsors including Air Canada for the selection of the film. Sellers was not shocked by the decision of the struggling film festival to pull the film.

“I was surprised actually that they accepted it,” recalled Sellers. “There’s an issue there of whether arts lovers want corporations like Air Canada determining what can be seen or not seen in film festivals, which traditionally have been venues for provocative movies. I mean last year at the Toronto Film Festival they had that film about the guys that skin the cat alive.”

Premier Dalton McGuinty, who has spoken out against the film and has urged Ontarians to boycott the movie, congratulated the film festival for its decision to pull the film.

“Karla, obviously, the film not the person, just invokes very raw and deeply felt emotions. Yes, I believe that we have a right to make the film, the film has the right to be seen, but people shouldn’t be forced to see it,” said Sellers. “I believe that the families, in one sense, have taken a rational approach and I wish that other people who are trying to block the film would take a similar approach. At the same time, I’m respectful of the deeply felt emotions that people have on this and I don’t feel that the family’s moves trumps everybody else’s. The families are a big part of this, but this situation affected the lives and psyches of many people and not just the families.”

Playing the lead role of Karla Homolka is Laura Prepon, who is well known for her character ‘Donna’ on the television comedy That 70’s Show. In the role of Paul Bernardo is Misha Collins, a relatively unknown actor who had a recurring role on the first season of 24.

Although none of the actions of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka have been fictionalized in the film, the creators of the film were legally not allowed to depict Karla’s parents or her sister Laura. Instead a fictional elderly couple was created to carry out the actions which were done in real life by Karla’s parents.

“The actions that are depicted all actually happened, but they were transferred to another character,” said Sellers. “We’ve looked at all the true crime movies that have been done lately, and I don’t think any one has been done as accurately. We really felt that it was extremely important to stick to the story.”

The names of the victims however, were not used, and instead the film’s creators created fictional names to represent the girls which were slain.

“Legally it was not required because they are deceased, they’re part of the public record, but we felt there was no value to the film in using their names and we know the families of the victims prefer they not be used,” said Sellers.

Second-year General Arts and Sciences student Luca Lombardi has been following the film closely and is looking forward to seeing the film once it’s released.

“I want to see the film to make sure that she’s not portrayed as an innocent person, but as what I think she is, a truly violent criminal person,” said Lombardi. “The government shouldn’t be standing in the way of this film being released. It’s not their choice to decide what the public should and should not see. They should let the film be released and let the public decide if this is a film that is appropriate for them or not. To go ahead and let the government start deciding what we should be viewing is crazy.”

Sellers hopes that once the film is released, people will view it with an open mind and better understand the events which took place surrounding Karla.

“Karla will become a three-dimensional character. Any time you make a movie, you spend two hours trying to depict the person’s choices and existence, they’re going to emerge as a more rounded character and you’re going to gain insight into their psychological process. Humanity is based upon people making choices that make sense to them at the time they make them,” said Sellers. “No matter how evil someone is, they have a point of view and there are those in the world who feel there may be some value in exploring evil. I haven’t made a career out of it. This is the first time I’ve made a movie that precisely does this, and I don’t see myself constantly repeating this process but I think what people need to understand is that this film will deliver insight into her character which helps in a lot of ways, helps to understand the process which she went through.”

A Canadian distribution deal that would get the film into theatres is almost complete and should be announced in early December. Sellers expects the film to be released sometime after Christmas.

PUBLISHED IN HUMBER ET CETERA 11.10.05

The future of home video gaming has arrived with the release of Microsoft’s Xbox 360.

Game enthusiasts lined up Monday night at stores across Canada for the chance to be some of the first people to purchase an Xbox 360 in North America. Select EB Games and Best Buy locations were open at midnight so that those who reserved the system would be able to pick it up right when the Tuesday Nov. 22 release date hit.

The new system allows gamers to connect with each other in a way never before available through Microsoft’s Xbox Live online service.

“Players record and identify player skills and then instantly connect with other players online who have similar ability, interest or lifestyle,” said Chris Oliviera, EB Game’s Public Relations Director. “They also have the chance to participate in party chats, or receive and send text messages, as well as voice and video through the chat feature.”

A wide selection of games were also available for those picking up their 30 systems including Project Gotham Racing 3 and Ridge Racer 6 for racing fanatics, Perfect Dark Zero for fans of shooters and Peter Jackson’s King Kong, which is based on the upcoming big budget film of the same name. EA Sports also has Madden NFL 06, NBA Live 06 and Tiger Woods Golf 06 available for sports fans.

For $399.99 gamers can purchase the basic core Xbox 360 system, which includes the system as well as a wired controller.

Gamers looking to fully delve into the Xbox 360 experience can pickup a bundle for $499.99 that includes the core system as well as a wireless controller, 20GB hard drive, a headset for communication when battling online, and an Ethernet cable to get you connected.
While the price may seem steep to some, Oliviera believes those who purchase the system will be in for a whole new level of game playing.

“Those who are really looking to elevate their gaming experience, as well as intergrate their entertainment experience, are the individuals who are really going to key into the particular assets of this product,” said Oliviera. “The technology behind it is so exceptional and the experience is so much greater with this new generation.”

Anyone still looking to pick up the 360 should act fast as the console will definitely be in short supply once holiday shopping begins to pick up. Reservations for the system at EB Games stores have already been pushed back until early 2006, for those who pre-ordered it after the initial reservation period began back in May. Those who pre-ordered the 360 back in May were the ones lucky enough to have one waiting for them at midnight on Tuesday.

While the original Xbox was ridiculed by the gaming community for its larger than average size and weight, the new Xbox 360 comes in at a much smaller size with the option to customize it to your liking with purchasable faceplates.

“It looks a lot slicker than the big old bulky Xbox,” said Jeremiah Benskin, an Independent Documentary Production student here at Humber College. “Some of the games that are coming out for it look pretty intense. I was a big fan of the old Xbox. Especially Halo and Halo 2.”

The Xbox 360 is backwards compatible with certain original Xbox games, but only with Xbox 360 consoles that have the hard drive installed. Microsoft’s official Xbox 360 website contains a frequently updated list of games that have been made compatible with the Xbox 360.

Through the use of USB 2.0 slots, Xbox 360 owners will be able to connect a plethora of high-tech devices right into the system. By connecting a digital camera to the 360, users can view their photos as a slideshow on TV. In the future, this feature could also possibly be used to map a gamer’s face onto an in-game character or import various pictures to customize parts of a game. Music lovers can connect their iPod or any other MP3 player to the system and rip songs to the optional hard drive, allowing the gamer to listen to their music as a custom soundtrack while playing any 360 game. Songs can also be imported off music CDs, a feature that was available in the previous iteration of Xbox.

Aside from these features, the Xbox 360 fully supports a wide array of disc media, including DVDs, CDs, and mp3 or jpeg CDs.

Fans of multiplayer action will be happy to know that just like the previous Xbox, the 360 supports up to four player action.

The sleek white system is the first jump into the next generation of video game consoles, with Sony scheduled to release the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo looking to release its console codenamed Revolution in 2006.

PUBLISHED IN HUMBER ET CETERA 11.24.05

In a debut as well received as they could have wished for, Dead End Street burst onto the Toronto indie rock scene just a few short weeks after coming together to do what they love.

Dead End Street, consisting of Matt Burt on guitar and vocals, Brian Seligman on guitar, Keith Chenier on bass, Joe Organ on the keys, and Kyle Bryan on the drums (and occasionally spoons), formed in October and by the end of the month, had already played a successful show at Toronto’s Sneaky Dees.

The band hopes they can continue their success and hopefully parlay their passion into a full time gig.

“We’d all love to succeed at this, we’d all love to be able to make a living off this,” said Burt, the band’s vocalist and second-year Post-Graduate Journalism student. “Even if that means touring the country and driving in some beat up van all the way to Vancouver and hitting every little stop along the way, that would be amazing if we could get by doing that kind of thing.”

Both Bryan and Burt were previously members of separate bands that did some touring around Toronto before breaking up around the same time in 2004.

“Between the two of our old bands, we’ve played at the Opera House, the Horseshoe Tavern, the El Mocambo and a bunch of other Toronto venues, and we plan on hitting them with Dead End Street in the near future, followed by Wembley Stadium,” joked Burt.

Dead End Street returns to Sneaky Dees for their second show on Friday, Dec.2 . For more information on the band and to hear a few of their original songs, check out their website at http://www.desband.com/.

PUBLISHED IN HUMBER ET CETERA 11.24.05

Fans who missed out on Green Day’s “American Idiot” tour are in luck as the recently released Bullet in a Bible CD/DVD package gets you as close to the performance as possible without actually being there.

Filmed during Green Day’s stop at the Milton Keynes National Bowl in England, the DVD portion of the package interlaces footage of the concert with interview segments with Green Day that reveal insight into their quadruple platinum American Idiot album and the creation of it.

More than anything, the feature explores Green Day’s transition from their punk roots to their current status as a politically charged band intent on making a difference with the youth of America.

The concert itself is captured well and the excitement and enthusiasm of the crowd really adds to the excitement of the performance as Billie Joe Armstrong oddly enough leads the British crowd in a few anti-American themed sing-alongs.

The set list is primarily made up of songs from Green Day’s American Idiot album with a few older songs such as Longview and Basket Case thrown in. The band follows up a performance of King for a Day with a cover of Shout to the crowd’s delight. The fact that American Idiot was a great album to begin with makes this live performance that much better.

As for the CD part of the package, it works well for the most part, but at times it’s a little hard to get into when the audio is just the crowd chanting song lyric’s back at Billie Joe. Even then, after a few listens you’ll most likely find yourself singing along with the crowd at Milton Keynes.

Green Day fans can do no wrong in picking up this package, whether you’re an old school Green Day fan from the days of 1994’s Dookie, or if you’ve just recently got into the band. The package, featuring a full-length performance on DVD with interview segments as well as a live CD, costs about the same as a regular CD so fans should have no reason not to pick this one up.

At St. John’s Hall in Mississauga, there comes a Friday in every month when the sounds of the building turn from church hymns to body slams.

MDogg20 and Josh Prohibition are just two of the top American independent talents that the UWA has brought in to perform in front of local fans who would otherwise not get a chance to see them live.

Another wrestler who was brought in recently by the brothers is Austin Aries, champion of the Pennsylvania based Ring of Honor promotion. Aries, a very popular independent wrestler from across the border, enjoyed his time in Ontario and hopes to be back soon.

“I had a lot of fun, it was very professionally run, and there are a lot of good fans with a lot of energy. They’re respectful and appreciative of all the effort that everyone comes out and puts forth,” said Aries.

One of the more important aspects of UWA Hardcore that fans may not see is the contributions that the brothers have made to various charitable causes.

“Every year we do a big Christmas party where we invite the fans, and we have bands playing, and in the end we donate the money to charity,” said Osiris. ‘Last year we raised about $700. We just try to give back.”

“We finally got to fulfill one of our dreams,” adds Joe. “A little kid who had surgery actually wanted us to visit him in the hospital, which was amazing; just the fact that it made him happy. I don’t think of myself as someone at that level, but if it made a kid happy, that’s amazing,” emphasizes Joe.

“Well, if we follow my dream of merchandising,” said Osiris, “hopefully fans will love us enough to want to buy Osiris’ cane or have an auction and give the money to charity, or buy a broken garbage can from the show. We can start merchandising like that on eBay and just donate to charity and try to use our names to benefit someone else.”

As for where the promotion is headed, Osiris and his brother have an optimistic outlook on where they want this dream of theirs to go.

“I’d like to keep working on it and maybe one day turn it into a living,” said Osiris. “Be able to pay these guys so they can make a living and go on the road and become maybe a smaller version of WWE or maybe become the next ECW. That’s my dream to be able to wrestle as a job and continue to do what I love.”

“My dream has already been fulfilled,” comments Joe. “People are coming out and enjoying something that not just my brother and myself, but all of the guys, all of our friends, and family, have created. Just people coming out and spending their hard earned money is a dream come true for me. Everything else is icing on the cake.”

PHOTOS ARE COPYRIGHT OF EMANUEL MELO