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April 2, 1998
(Tourism, Culture and Recreation)


Co-production treaty signed for Canada-Norway film project

An international co-production treaty signed today in Oslo, Norway lays the groundwork for a feature film to be shot later this year in Norway and Newfoundland.

The treaty, signed on behalf of Canada by Sheila Copps, Minister of Canadian Heritage, will be added to 30 or more such international agreements that Canada already maintains with other countries to facilitate joint-venture movies and television programs.

Tourism, Culture and Recreation Minister Sandra Kelly, who is in Norway for Viking Millennium discussions, represented the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador at the treaty signing. Also attending was Canadian producer for the film, Ken Pittman, of Red Ochre Productions.

"This is a significant agreement for Newfoundland and Labrador, as the groundwork has already been laid for the production of a feature film later this year," Kelly noted. "The treaty signed by Minister Copps on behalf of the Government of Canada is one of the key steps to enable the project to begin."

The first movie project anticipated under the new Canada-Norway treaty is tentatively entitled "Misery Harbour," and is a co-production of Red Ochre Productions of St. John's, and Motlys A.S. of Oslo. The story is based on the novels of Danish/Norwegian writer Axel Sandemose,

and portrays the adventures of a teenage boy in the early 1900s who boards a schooner in Oslo, and sets sail for Newfoundland. A statement from Red Ochre productions describes the voyage as a stream of mistreatment and narrow escapes, leading up to the vessel's arrival near Fogo Island, where the youth jumps ship and swims ashore, where he spends the next phase of his life.

Shooting for the production is scheduled to take place in Scandinavia in September and October of this year, and at Fogo Island, Gander, and St. John's in Newfoundland in November and December.

"It's a very timely production from a tourism perspective," Kelly says. "The film project will be another facet of the connections being established or re-kindled between Newfoundland and Labrador and countries with a Norse heritage as we usher in the Viking Millennium."

Red Ochre Productions acknowledges the provincial telefilm equity fund as one of the investors in the project, along with interests in Norway, Denmark and Sweden. It adds that Telefilm Canada and Alliance Releasing are also involved in the project, with Goldwyn Films of London scheduled to distribute the film in the world market.

Contact: Doug Burgess, (709) 729-0928.

1998 04 01 3:05 p.m.

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