What would you do if you only had ONE WEEK? opens MARCH 6th.

One Week ago, I played for the advanced screening of a Canadian Feature film called ONE WEEK. Coincidence? No, I am just cheesy, and wanted to blog about this today so that I could say that.

Anyhow, I was invited by the people who hosted the screening, the First Weekend Club, to play some songs during the wine reception, prior to the showing of the Movie. I was delighted to be asked and was happy to participate.

It was a gorgeous location, in a private screening theatre called District 319, one of the most beautiful venues I have had the pleasure to visit. The reception room was very sparse and clean with natural stone, wood, and earth tones mixed with a modern and sleek styling. It featured a sitting area and bar with a glass wall overlooking the theatre. The theatre itself was everything you would expect from an exclusive screening room (see pic). (BTW, here is the Canada Screens review of the night, including a review of moi! )

The reason we all were there, was to help promote the film ONE WEEK. The main character, Ben Tyler (Joshua Jackson from Dawsons Creek) was just diagnosed with a terminal illness. He should be in a hospital. He should be with his doting fiancee (Liane Balaban) and family. He should be dealing with the news. But instead, all he wants, is to go on a road trip - on a motorcycle no less. In search of a profound experience, he rides from Toronto to Tofino, stopping at landmarks that are both iconic and idiosyncratic on his quest to find meaning in his life and for a chance to really live, even for just "One Week".


I was lucky enough to catch the film. I wish to tell you all.......this is an excellent, touching, thoughtful, funny, engaging movie. I truly hope you will go and see it THIS weekend.

One Week is a Canadian film that deserves to be seen and recognized, but in order to do that, it needs support, here is why..........................

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

( this is from the First Weekend Club mission statement )

What you may not know, is that the current system makes it very difficult for Canadian films to succeed. The bottom line counts. Theatre owners will extend a film's release only if the first weekend box office is strong.

In other words a film simply won’t last through to its second weekend if it doesn’t have a strong enough audience on opening weekend. No matter how great a film may be it will get kicked out of the theatre if people don’t show up to see it within those first three critical days.

Now think about the films you’ve seen. Either there has been so much advertising you just HAD to see it, or it is the film that people have been talking about for weeks… In other words, there has been time for word-of-mouth to travel…

Imagine this scenario: You see a great film on a Friday, a Canadian film, you tell your friends and they get excited to see it the next weekend, and it has vanished… This happens all the time because the ‘first-weekend’ wasn’t strong. You wonder how that can happen as it was such a great film. Canadian films struggle to find screen space, and when they finally do, their may only be two or three weeks to promote it.

And with marginal marketing dollars, Canadian films just don’t stand out next to all the noise made by our American friends. Think about the latest Spiderman movie. We heard about that movie on the radio, on TV, saw trailers (that probably cost more to make the most Canadian films) saw bill boards and bus shelters and interviews and on and on all dedicated to promoting the film several months in advance of its release.

Even the release date (May 4th) was known by everyone well before it opened. How can Canadian films compete? The answer is through word of mouth and by getting as many people as possible to see a film on its opening weekend.

This is why we are called First Weekend Club.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Does it seem wrong to you that Canadian films get pulled so easily?

It seems wrong to me, and obviously so, to the First Weekend Club, who work tirelessly to promote Canadian films and keep them in the theaters.

I am assured by FWC Executive director, the stunningly lovely Anita Adams , that the FWC only promotes what they deem to be worthy films. The FWC do not promote every single Canadian show that is released, they can't possibly, but they do work endlessly to bring attention to the films that are truly deserving of a wide audience, and having seen this film, I understand why they wish to promote it.

Please don't let this one fall through the cracks people. Your attendance can make a difference!

Canadians, we need to support our film community, we need to go see this film, I ask you to tell your friends to go see this film, before it gets pulled from the theatres.

And here is the film trailer............. to entice you..........;)

Also, many thanks as well to Dean Busher, who did photography for the event. Dean is a great photographer in this city, if you are looking for a professional photographer I invite you to visit his website.