Fortescue is a Feature length film set in modern day Haliburton.
A quiet reflection on womanhood, insanity and friendship, our story begins capturing the whimsical and platonic love that exists between two old friends, as they eat, tan and play on the sunny shores of an old worldly summer cottage. When a boyfriend arrives on the scene, for them all to perform an age old fairytale for the neighbouring cottagers, one of the friends descends into a frightening trance, sharing the pains of living shackled to a dated vision of how women should be in the world.
Our story touches on questions relating to the underlying tensions in female friendships, the male gaze, purity culture, depictions of women in the Western canon and violence against the mentally ill.
Kelsey Falconer - LEA
Kelsey Falconer (she/her) is a Toronto-based actor-musician with a theatre turned tv/film career. After graduating from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland with a degree in acting, she worked at multiple theatres including a season at the Charlottetown Festival, the Grand Theatre, and the Globe Theatre. She has had roles on The Handmaid’s Tale, Workin’ Moms, Station Eleven, Reacher, The Boys, and a regular role on the Netflix series Grand Army. She will be next seen in a recurring role in the newest season of Fargo opposite Jon Hamm. Aside from acting, Kelsey is a certified cabinet and fine furniture maker as well as as certified yoga instructor.
Chelsea Preston - GABBY
Chelsea Preston (They/Them) is a multidisciplinary performing artist (actor, singer, dancer, songwriter, choreographer) and costume designer originally from Vancouver Island. They have performed on-stage across Canada and the UK for the past 15 years. Recently, they played the role of Roxie Hart in Chicago at the Stratford Festival in 2022. Their TV/Film credits include Judy in Station Eleven (HBO), Jennifer the Dreadfully Loathsome 'Gabby' in What We Do In The Shadows (FX), Mara Linscott in Hot Zone (National Geographic), and Coraline in Frankie Drake (CBC).
Tyson Coady - KEVIN
Tyson Coady is a Toronto based artist who expresses himself through songwriting, acting, and visual art. With diplomas in Musical Theatre and Sound & Music Recording, Tyson has had a varied career (the spice of life!) having acted in Musicals in Vancouver, to writing, producing, and performing music in Toronto, and to having acted in commercials, TV, and film. Notable credits include an Actor role on The Boyz, a Lead role in indie feature A Song For Us; and with much pride, a lead role in one of Rebeccah Love's short films Parlour Palm, which was screened on CBC, at VIFF, FNC and more! Tyson is thrilled to be joining our team again on screen and to be under the direction and vision of Rebeccah; and humbled to produce a work among such a talented and prolific cast and crew.
Nickolas Franco - NOAH
Nickolas booked his first role as "Charlie Otero" for "BTK: A Killer Among Us" and later starred in a short film, "What We See" produced by Evan Goldberg in collaboration with Real Star Productions. After graduating, he continued to train by taking acting classes at the Lighthouse Studio. He has appeared as "Claudio" in season three of "The Boys." as "Tim" on Amazon Prime "Reacher" and recently as "Lamar" in season four of "Titans." When Nickolas is not acting, he advocates for a Children's Aid Society which has been an organization that has helped him throughout his youthful years in the foster care system.
Rebeccah Love - WRITER/DIRECTOR/PRODUCER
Rebeccah Love is a Toronto-based filmmaker, writer, visual artist and community organizer. She studied at the University of King’s College, then completed a BFA in Film Production at Ryerson University, and an MFA at the University of Guelph in Creative Writing. She has produced eight short films, focusing on love, illness and neighbourhoods. These stories have played TIFF, VIFF, FNC, Kingston, the Future of Film Showcase, and CBC. She is an organizer in the arts community: as editor of the Toronto Arts Report she pays close attention to developments in the worlds of theatre, fine art, filmmaking, writing, arts administration and arts journalism. She is interested in questions relating to mental health, city planning, art history, folk storytelling and is very excited to be working with such a stellar cast and crew.
Tara Grundmanis - PRODUCER
Tara Natalia is a Toronto based producer from Midland, Ontario. She earned her Bachelor of Commerce at Toronto Metropolitan University and studied film production at Sheridan College in the Advanced Film and Television program. She is passionate about documentary, genre films, and female driven stories. Her recent film, Love and the Art of Despair, is about filmmaker Rebeccah Love, whose struggle with mental illness doesn't stop her from making films. She is excited to add Fortescue to her filmography and bring this women centered story to life!
Eric Rowe - CINEMATOGRAPHER
Eric Rowe is a Toronto-based cinematographer who has developed a style of elegant naturalism. After graduating Ryerson’s Image-Arts: Film program in 2014 he immediately jumped into cinematography and has since been honing his craft on International television, Episodic Series’, Music Videos, Narrative Shorts and Documentaries.
Rick Bartram - EDITOR
Hailing originally from Nova Scotia Rick Bartram is a Toronto based picture editor. He’s an alumnus of the prestigious Canadian Film Centre's Editor Lab. He holds a BFA in Film Production from the Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) as well as a BA in English Literature & History from the University of King’s College. His work has screened at festivals across the world including Raindance, Hot Docs, VIFF, Mill Valley Film Festival, and RIFF. His work has earned recognition and multiple awards over the years. He’s been nominated for three CanadianCinema Editor's Awards for best editing.
Thomas Hoy - COMPOSER
Thomas Hoy is an Ottawa-based composer and musician. His background is expansive; classical composition, theatre, pop/electronic music, and, of course, film. His scores have turned up in multiple film festivals and even earned him a Canadian Screen Award nomination. Film credits include Little India: Village of Dreams, Don’t Talk to Irene, Random Acts of Legacy, Acres and Re:Orientations - and that’s before you even count those with Rebeccah Love. Rebeccah and Thomas have collaborated on five films, starting in 2016: Drawing Duncan Palmer, Acres, Props Girl, Parlour Palm, Eve Parade. Now among his longest-running collaborators, Thomas is honoured to work with Rebeccah once again on her first feature film.
Celina Clarke - ART DIRECTOR
Celina Clarke studied theatre at Concordia University. Celina acted in Rebeccah Love’s short film Eve Parade in 2021. She loves creating and designing beautiful spaces. The themes covered in this film of mental health and female friendship resonate with her deeply. She is an advocate for removing the stigma surrounding mental health. Female friendship has played an important role in her own mental health journey. This is her first project as an Art Director and she is incredibly excited to collaborate with Rebeccah and the rest of this talented cast and crew.
Eli Meadow Ramraj - ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
Eli Meadow Ramraj is a Canadian director, screenwriter, photographer, and philosopher. Born and raised in Singapore, Eli went on to live, study, and work across the globe, including in London, Vancouver Island, and Toronto. He recently completed his Bachelor's Degree at the University of Toronto on a full four-year Scholarship. In 2022, Eli was selected as one of 20 emerging Canadian filmmakers for Canon Canada’s first ever 12-month creative incubator program, Canon Futures. In September 2023, Eli will be moving to Berlin to pursue a Masters in Directing and further study in his philosophical interests in consciousness, meditation and spirituality.
Vinu Rowe - CHEF
Vinutha Rowe is a Toronto based chef & personal cooking instructor with a diverse background of career positions in the food industry, MICE sales & corporate marketing. With an Indian undergrad in Hospitality & Hotel Management & Canadian diploma in Culinary Management from George Brown College, she has been in the service industry for the last decade. She currently provides personalized culinary experiences & hosts private events at her home in Italian, Indian, & Lebanese cuisine. She also conducts cooking programs & workshops for kids as part of afterschool programs in various public schools. She operates a YouTube channel DakshinMasala to share her grandmother's South Indian recipes. She is excited for her first time collaborating with Rebeccah & working on a film set.
Jake Van Buskirk - GRAPHIC DESIGNER / VISUAL RESEARCHER
JVB (Jake Van Buskirk) is a photographer, designer, and art director. A Jake-Of-All-Trades. He brings his signature blend of conceptual thought, fresh strategy and professional design to align brands with their business objectives. After receiving his BFA in film production at TMU JVB co-founded Parachute Coffee (an e-commerce DTC brand) and is an award-winning creative with recognitions from The One Show, ADC, the Dieline, CBC and more. JVB has collaborated with Rebeccah Love many times before and is just as excited about her first feature as he was on her first short.
Mike Gillespie - PRODUCTION CONSULTANT
Trained as an editor (Trebas '02) and a film critic (Brock '09), Mike built the largest university television network in Canada as an Executive Producer (BrockTV '07-'11), created a small $10,000 student filmmaking grant (BSFF ‘09) and co-founded a film festival (Render This ‘10), all before relocating from Niagara back to Toronto in 2011. He later produced & edited a trilogy of feature-length Canadian music documentaries ('12-'14), before shooting a fourth doc during the pandemic (‘21).
After working in content creation for tech (Tucows, ‘11) and news (Canadian Press, ‘14-’17), Mike’s production company, Last Frame Pictures, became a full-time pursuit in 2017. Since then he’s produced and/or shot commercials for Visa, RBC, and Tim Hortons - as well as music videos for Dine Alone, Warner Music, and more. Mike’s narrative works have also been showcased in LA, Venice, Austin, Berlin, Toronto, and other cities around the globe.
In addition to filmmaking, Mike also enjoys shooting portrait photography out of his studio in the west-end Toronto neighbourhood of Parkdale.
Feminine, joyful and eccentric, the aesthetic vibe of our world is meant at first to capture the feeling of a sensual utopia - think Pierre Bonnard, Girls, Frances Ha, the levity of the Impressionist paintings paired with silly feminine mischief. Pagan and witchy undertones help to paint the portrait of an unconventional kind of love that can exist between two women: not romantic, not sexual, but a kind of platonic bond that sometimes confuses the male gaze.
Partway through the story, our characters mount a DIY production of Rapunzel in their living room. Our "play-within-the-film" set will be inspired by a handful of cinematic "plays-within-films", though our production will be constructed on a much smaller budget! The emphasis is on the ornate creation of playful artifice, an imaginary world layered on top of our the tense cottage love triangle:
But the world soon devolves into a tense and spooky nightmare - the terror of psychosis evoking a haunted but beautiful energy, tapping into a historic pains of the female experience.
Our production will be shot in Haliburton, Ontario, four hours away from Toronto. One of the largest expenses of our production will be our rental accommodations, as we will need to be housing almost twenty people.
Other large costs include the design of our “play within the play”, our food expenses, camera equipment, vehicle rentals, props, costumes and, most importantly, all of our salaries!
OTHER WAYS YOU CAN HELP
We welcome all forms of support, financial, emotional, promotional! If now is not a good time to give, we would love for you to spread the word, and hope to see you at the theatre once our film is complete!