Accolades to Amnon Buchbinder for Whole New Thing

Share

TORONTO, September 12, 2005 -- Heralded by four-star previews, York University film professor Amnon Buchbinder’s new feature, Whole New Thing, will receive its world premiere screening at the Toronto International Film Festival tonight.

Buchbinder knew he had a winning script on his hands when ThinkFilm made an offer for the Canadian rights to Whole New Thing one week after receiving the screenplay.

Buchbinder originated the concept, co-wrote the script and directed the film, which he describes as “a coming-of-age story about a precocious youth who realizes he is not an adult, and adults who realize they need to grow up.”

Set in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, Whole New Thing revolves around 13-year-old Emerson Thorsen (Aaron Webber), who has been home-schooled by his eco-hippie parents (Rebecca Jenkins and Robert Joy) in a household of casual nudity and sexual openness. Emerson’s lack of aptitude in math sees him sent off to the local school, where he meets English teacher Don Grant (Daniel MacIvor), who becomes the object of the boy’s affections.

“I felt from the first moment that there was the potential to take something that could be really creepy and inappropriate, and use it to look at one of life’s most beautiful things -- the purity of first love,” said Buchbinder. “Something about the contrast seemed a good way to look at love and see some things about it that we don’t often notice.”

The film was done on a shoestring budget and at breakneck speed. Working with his co-writer and associate producer Daniel MacIvor, executive producer Camelia Frieberg, his brother, composer David Buchbinder (who created the music), and the talented acting and production team, Buchbinder took the project from story proposal to cast and crew screening in just nine months. He led the film shoot while commuting between the production site in Halifax and his full-time job teaching screenwriting at York.

Whole New Thing is Buchbinder’s second feature film, and his second world premiere at TIFF. His critically-acclaimed, Genie Award-winning first feature, The Fishing Trip (1998), scripted by a student as an assignment for Buchbinder’s first-year film class, was likewise launched at TIFF.

Buchbinder is also well-known for his short films, which span the dramatic, experimental, documentary and performing arts genres and have been screened at festivals around the world. Parallel to his own productions and his work at York, he is much in demand as a story-editor for feature films, and has taught professional screenwriting workshops across Canada. His new book, The Way of the Screenwriter, was launched by House of Anansi Press in Toronto on September 8.

“A story is a living thing. And you don’t work on a living thing, you work with it,” said Buchbinder. “This is the way of the screenwriter … learning how to work with a story through a painstaking process of trial, error and self-exploration."

Whole New Thing will play September 12 at 9:00 p.m. at the Varsity Cinemas and September 14 at 4:00 pm at Cumberland 2 as part of TIFF’s Contemporary World Cinema series. Next stop is a gala screening September 16 at the Atlantic Film Festival in Halifax, followed by showings at the Sudbury, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver film festivals. Buchbinder will tour with the film, giving book readings and seminars alongside the screenings.

The “Accolades to” series showcases York University’s vibrant cultural community by profiling faculty, students, alumni and friends who deserve accolades for their outstanding achievements and contributions to the fine arts. Supporting this creative talent, York’s new Accolade buildings will offer Canada's future artists, scholars and educators a state-of-the-art teaching, exhibition and performance complex in which to learn, create and innovate. Opening in 2005/2006, the Accolade Project reflects York’s stature as a rising cultural powerhouse and key partner in Toronto's cultural renaissance.

 


-30-


For more information, contact:
Melissa Hughes, Media Relations, York University, 416-736-2100 x22097/mehughes@yorku.ca