Film school’s scouting tour sets sights on Nunavut

Grace Dove, a Shuswap actress from Prince George, B.C., played a lead role opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in the 2015 film The Revenant shortly after she graduated from Vancouver Film School. She will be joining the film school’s talent-scouting trip to Iqaluit later this week. (PHOTO COURTESY OF VANCOUVER FILM SCHOOL)

James Griffin, the founder of Vancouver Film School, will also be part of the film school’s delegation visiting Nunavut this week. (PHOTO COURTESY OF VANCOUVER FILM SCHOOL)

Aspiring actors in Iqaluit will get a chance later this week to audition in front of bigwigs from the Vancouver Film School.

Among the film school’s visiting panel of judges will be Grace Dove, a Shuswap actress from Prince George, British Columbia. Shortly after graduating from Vancouver Film School, Dove went on to play a lead role opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in the 2015 film The Revenant.

The school’s founder, James Griffin, will also be part of the panel, along with executive producer Christopher Ian Bennett.

The national talent-scouting tour coincides with the film school’s 30th anniversary, said Bennett. “We’re the oldest and most established one in Canada. And we wanted to celebrate that and ask what the next 30 years are going to look like.”

Growing the number of Indigenous students is a part of that plan, said Bennett, so that “as Canada evolves and grows, we don’t forget that the foundation of our nation rests with Indigenous people.”

To reflect this, the school recently announced new scholarships for Indigenous students.

Two awards will cover the full $20,500 cost of a one-year diploma program in acting for film and television, while another two awards will pay $10,000 in tuition for that program. A third pair of awards will cover $5,000 for a four-month certificate in acting essentials.

While the film school’s applicants must usually submit an audition tape, the live auditions being held in Iqaluit on Saturday, Nov. 25 will be “kind of American-Idol style,” said Bennett. “You’ll find out right there if you’ve been accepted into that program, and you’ll be eligible for that scholarship.”

Griffin, the school’s founder, hasn’t been involved with all the stops on the tour, but he didn’t want to miss the school’s first official visit to Nunavut, said Bennett. “He’s so excited. We’ve always believed that Indigenous peoples across Canada have a real understanding of storytelling, probably more than most cultures. At the end of the day, that’s what every one of the 12 programs at our school has in common: storytelling. So this feels in a lot of ways like one of the more important places for us to visit.”

Bennett described Dove as an “incredible ambassador” for Indigenous Canadians. “We’re very proud that Grace Dove graduated from Vancouver Film School—but even more than that, the first role she lands out of school is the lead role opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant.”

Those who perform in the live audition will need to bring a two-minute monologue to read. They will also perform a scene with Dove. Then they will be interviewed by the panel, to “talk about why they want to do this, what’s their passion,” said Bennett. “Then we’ll deliberate as a panel, and they’ll find out a few minutes later if they’ve been accepted.”

Also joining the film school’s delegation will be Claudia Casper, an author who won the Phillip. K. Dick Award for science-fiction writing, who is also Griffin’s wife. She plans to do a public reading of her work during the visit.

The film school’s delegation plans to meet with community leaders and to visit the high school on Thursday, Nov. 23.

On Saturday, Nov. 25 at 6 p.m., the group will hold an open house at the Frobisher Inn, where Griffin will speak about the economic opportunities that the film industry could offer Nunavut. Attendance is free, but you must register in advance.

You can register for a live audition at the film school’s website.