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Cast and Credits

Synopsis

The Production

The Actors

The Filmmakers

Production Facts

William Hurt Interview

Molly Parker Interview

Andy Jones Interview

The Filmmakers

Sturla Gunnarsson (Director)

Sturla Gunnarsson was born in Iceland and grew up in Canada where he graduated from the University of British Columbia. He began his filmmaking career with the Oscar nominated documentary After The Axe which he followed up with several celebrated documentaries including Genie and Prix Italia winner Final Offer and Emmy Award winning Gerrie & Louise.

Gunnarsson's first dramatic feature was Diplomatic Immunity. A political thriller about a diplomat caught in the crossfire in El Salvador's civil war, it won several international awards including the Prix Grande at the Cannes winter festival, and the Premio Coral at the Havana Festival of New Latin American Cinema, and was nominated for four Genie Awards.

Gunnarsson went on to direct numerous internationally acclaimed television films including The Diary Of Evelyn Lau, Mother Trucker and Scorn before making his second feature film, Such A Long Journey. Adapted from the novel by Rohinton Mistry Such A Long Journey was one the top grossing Canadian Films of 2000, was nominated for twelve Genie Awards and selected by film critic Roger Ebert as one of the top films released in the United States in the year 2000.

Rare Birds is Gunnarsson's third feature film. He lives in Toronto with his wife and two children.

Paul Pope - PRODUCER

Paul Pope is a filmmaker living in St. John's, Newfoundland. He has produced the feature films Extraordinary Visitor (1998), Secret Nation (1992), and Welcome to Canada (Associate Producer 1987). As well, he has produced a number of documentaries including: My Left Breast (2000), Rock Choral (1998), Eye of the Storm (1997), In Caribou Country (1996), and Lend Me Your Ears (1995).

Paul has also worked in film and television as an Assistant Director. Among his many credits, he was 1st Assistant Director of the feature film Violet, the 1/2 hour television drama Clothesline Patch, the hour long docu-drama The Untold Story, and the feature film Extraordinary Visitor.

Pope Productions was formed in 1998 to create film and television for the global marketplace. As a company, it has produced the internationally lauded documentary My Left Breast with CBC, The Plumber's Waltz for Bravo Television, Congratulations with Rhombus Media, and Bonavista for WETV.

Janet York - PRODUCER

Rare Birds is Janet York's first feature film. As Vice President of the Music Supervision Services Division of the Canada's leading full- service entertainment agency, S.L. Feldman & Associates, Janet has been a creative consultant and one-stop expert who can budget and assemble music soundtracks and negotiate synch and master-licensing deals since 1988. She has also developed and represents a select roster of proven soundtrack composers.

Janet is the Director of the film and television soundtrack label Unforscene Music, a partnership between S.L. Feldman & Associates and Nettwerk Records. Unforscene soundtracks include: Thomas and the Magic Railroad, Such a Long Journey, Hitman Hart: Wrestling With Shadows, Free Enterprise, Due South I and II, Inventing The Abbotts, Kissed, The Brother's McMullan, and Queer As Folk from the BBC television program.

Janet and Sam Feldman are the creative forces behind the television comedy series Big Sound, based on the day-to-day activities of a music agency. They joined forces with Peace Arch Entertainment and David Steinberg last summer to produce the 22 episode series for Global network in Canada and Channel 4 in the UK.

Sam Feldman - EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

Born in Shanghai China in 1949, Sam Feldman is a cofounder of A&F Music Ltd., with talent manager Bruce Allen, and the CEO of S.L. Feldman & Associates. Sam and partner Steve Macklam personally manage Joni Mitchell, The Chieftains, Diana Krall, Jesse Cook and Scandinavian stars Sissel and Lene Marlin.

S.L. Feldman & Associates has operations in Vancouver and Toronto, and is the premier music talent booking agency in Canada representing such artists as Bryan Adams, Sarah McLachlan, Barenaked Ladies, Nelly Furtado, Our Lady Peace, Matthew Good Band, Chantal Kreviazuk, Jann Arden and The Tea Party.

A&F Music has an interest in The Characters, Canada's foremost theatrical agency, and the New York music agency Little Big Man, operated by noted agent Marty Diamond. Little Big Man provides representation in the U.S. and elsewhere for such critically acclaimed artists as Dido, Tricky, David Gray, Sarah McLachlan, The Chieftains, Richard Ashcroft, Robbie Williams, Eagle Eye Cherry, Coldplay and Liz Phair, and is also a partner in the highly successful Lilith Fair.

A&F Music is also involved in music supervision services for the film and television industry, including soundtrack arrangements, and is affiliated with the soundtrack record label Unforscene Music. Sam is executive producer of the television sitcom Big Sound, now in its second season, which airs on the Global network in Canada.

Sam received the Walt Grealis Special Achievement Award for outstanding contributions to the Canadian Music Industry at the 27th Annual Juno Awards in 1998. He was also was inducted into the B.C. Entertainment Hall of Fame in 2000, and inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame in Toronto in 2001.

Edward Riche - WRITER

Edward Riche is a novelist and writer for film, television, theatre, and radio. For five years, Riche was a writer and performer on CBC Radio's The Great Eastern, a series he co-created. For this work, he received a CBC Vice-President's Award and a Writer's Guild of Canada Award. Riche also won the National Radio Award and the Atlantic Journalism Award for his writing on other radio projects.

The Resource Centre produced Riche's two stageplays, Possible Maps and List of Lights, for the Arts - Newfoundland's foremost venue for new theatre. Possible Maps has been produced across Canada. Riche's television work includes writing three episodes of CBC Television's Made in Canada series for the 1999-2000 season, and co-writing the six part CBC television series Dooley Gardens, which aired in 1999. He was a story consultant on the acclaimed television mini-series The Boys of St. Vincent (1993), and has written a variety of television commercials.

Riche wrote the screenplay for the feature film Secret Nation, released in 1992. Most recently, Riche is currently writing the screenplay for the feature film Rare Birds, adapted from his novel of the same name, published in 1997 by Doubleday Canada.