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Art imitates life in Ana Valine’s bone-chilling thriller ‘Once There Was a Winter’

The film – starring Kate Corbett, Teach Grant, Juan Riedinger, and Kris Demeanor – is inspired by director's time working on a northern pipeline
Juan Riedinger and Kate Corbett appear in 'Once There Was a Winter.'
Ana Valine’s psychological thriller 'Once There Was a Winter' follows a quartet of characters – portrayed by Juan Riedinger and Kate Corbett (pictured), as well as Teach Grant and Kris Demeanor – as a quick stop at a remote mobile home turns into a standoff between embittered brothers, with innocent Lady (Kate Corbett) caught in the crossfire. The film has its world premiere at the 2017 Vancouver International Film Festival.

 

Ana Valine wants to chill your bones.

The Vancouver filmmaker – whose darkly comedic first feature, Sitting on the Edge of Marlene, was a big winner at the 2014 Leo Awards – deep-dives into thriller territory with her sophomore feature, Once There Was a Winter. The highly anticipated film has its world premiere on Sunday as part of the 2017 Vancouver International Film Festival.

Valine’s psychological thriller follows a quartet of characters – three men credited only by their trades (Welder, Hunter, Plumber), and a female welding assistant referred to as Lady, sometimes the exceptionally patronizing "Little Lady" – as a quick stop at a remote mobile home turns into a standoff between embittered brothers, with innocent Lady caught in the crossfire.

Once There Was a Winter is chilling cinema on multiple fronts: the long-buried tension between the brothers that hangs like frost in the air as they trade thinly veiled barbs over booze, guns, and meat; the creeping sense that Lady grows more vulnerable to harm every second she remains in the company of these three men.

And there’s the cold associated with the setting itself: a claustrophobic mobile home on a plot of land in BC’s unforgiving north, replete with snow and wolves and night’s darkness.

Valine drew some of her inspiration for Once There Was a Winter from the time spent working on a northern pipeline when she was in her late 20s. “I was the only female on the crew, and in those situations, you’ve got to learn to roll with it,” says Valine. “You’re just there to do your job and you’ve got to stay safe and you also have to prove that you’re strong enough to be there, not just physically but mentally, too.” Valine says that one night during her time on the pipeline, she found herself in “kind of a dodgy situation, and I realized that if anything did happen to me, no one would know where to find me.”

Thus, Once There Was a Winter also serves as “a nod to the women who don’t make it out of those situations,” according to Valine.  

Valine and co. (four actors, 10 crew) filmed Once There Was a Winter on location in Dawson Creek, in and around a remote trailer they found on Craigslist. The 17 shooting days were an exercise in method directing, says Valine. “I had been joking about going up and doing full method filmmaking, but it wasn’t a joke,” chuckles Valine. “There was no power in the trailer, so we had to run power in. There was no water. We had to go in an hour early every day and make sure the wood stove was on so it was warm enough.”

But the location proved a worthy stage for Once There Was a Winter’s cast of players – Kate Corbett, Teach Grant, Juan Riedinger, and Kris Demeanor – and Valine's searing script. They shot chronologically, mostly at night, and “it was a bit like theatre,” says Valine. “It was important to have strong actors, seasoned actors, because it was a demanding shoot.”

In order to succeed in their demanding roles, Valine called upon her actors to understand something that she admittedly found difficult to explain. “This particular film is hard for me to explain. I made [Sitting on the Edge of Marlene] from my head and my heart, and with this one, it’s all gut and groin. It’s a visceral feeling, and it still is. It’s still hard for even me to watch the film. So to try to explain that to a cast, that this is a film that you feel rather than watch… They went. They just went. They let go, and they went with it. They committed, and they were responsive and worked with each other and played with each other, and really connected to the journey, which is not an easy journey.”

As far as psychological thrillers go, Once There Was a Winter is a bona-fide nail-biter. It’s also an unusual specimen in that it is irrefutably woman-centered. “The film is intentionally not completely balanced, even though it is an ensemble piece, but it is Lady’s story, and it was filmed and written particularly to be from Lady’s perspective, so when the audience sees it, they’re experiencing it more from the feminine perspective,” says Valine. Still, “Even though it’s a female story, and it’s a woman’s film, it doesn’t pass the Bechdel Test, and it’s in a very masculine world. So it was an interesting story for me to tell, because she’s strictly outnumbered, and as female filmmakers, it feels like that, too. Most of the time, we’re outnumbered. Even on a crew, we’re outnumbered, and it’s not that it’s a bad thing, because most men are very supportive, but there is that life imitating art.”

Once There Was A Winter screens Oct. 1 at the Rio Theatre and Oct. 6 at Cineplex Odeon International Village Cinemas as part of the 2017 Vancouver International Film Festival. Tickets and schedule information at VIFF.org.