White at work

Sherry White is one of this province's most active and enthusiastic young filmmakers. Since one of her early accolades (writing and starring in the feature film "The Bread Maker," which premiered at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival), she has gone on to star in CBC's "Hatching, Matching and Dispatching," and co-starred/co-wrote/co-created the pilot episode of CBC's "Rabbittown." Her most recent CBC-TV tie is as a writer for "MVP: The Secret Lives of Hockey Wives."

Though lack of work has periodically sent her to Toronto, ideally she said she would be based 100 per cent from St. John's (with a good chunk of that time spent in her own bed with a coffee and laptop on Livingstone Street).

Which she has luckily been able to do to a satisfying degree, lately. White recently wrapped a 30-minute film tentatively titled "A Fine Catch." The story chronicles nine-year-old Pearl's love for her outrageously foolish and single father, as she types letters to various women of all cultural backgrounds. When a lady-friend decides to visit during the Christmas holidays, Pearl observes another side to Dad which reveals why he has not yet escaped singledom.

"(The film) is definitely two parts drama, one part comedy," says White. "I don't even know if it's one part comedy actually. There are a few funny moments, but the tone is different."

Tough shoot

The crew thought that a film with one set and three cast members would be a breeze. Not surprisingly, shooting in Newfoundland can often be more like a blizzard (literally).

"We shot in Shea Heights," White explains. "We thought it was going to be painless. But our first day of shooting was the morning after we had the 50 cm of snowfall. So we started late, and ended early, when a snow plow ripped up the grounding cord outside. When you're shooting with a little kid (Pearl is played by Meadow Goudie-Wells), you only get an eight-hour day anyway, so we lost most of our first day.

"The second day, one of the actors was sick, so we had to rearrange the day, which was chaos. We were rushed."

"A Fine Catch" was funded through Telefilm's new Picture Start program - a pilot program launched last October in partnership with NIFCO, to boost the development of professional filmmakers.

"The new program is great," says White. "Since I started working in film here, I have always found there were opportunities, especially when I was an emerging filmmaker. But as we get more experience, it becomes more challenging. So this is a great step in the right direction. Without NIFCO and the Film Development Corp., there wouldn't be a film industry here. The people that work in those organizations are so great, they are watching our backs."

While the memory of Myrna Furey and her tight-ass husband Todd lives strong in many "Hatching, Matching" devotees, White says her acting days are becoming less common. She prefers control to vulnerability.

"Acting requires a shedding of skin that is very difficult to do. I think as I get older, I'm more aware of my limitations. Plus you don't have much control over your career as an actor, it's harder to steer it. As a writer, I wake up to a job every morning, whether someone wants to hire me or not. As an actor, it wasn't that way. And directing, well that would be the dream, to support myself as a director. Or a showrunner."

"Whether someone wants to hire me or not" doesn't seem to be an issue of late. In addition to MVP, she is working on a movie-of-the-week for CTV ("When Matt Became Jade") and she's developing a Comedy Network series with Matt Sawers in Vancouver. She also has a feature ("Crackie") in development with Jennice Ripley and her feature "Maudie" is being developed by Mary Sexton at Rink Rat, along with Screendoor Productions in Toronto.

On top of that, her recent short "Diamonds in a Bucket" has so far screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, LA shorts, Vancouver, Atlantic, St. John's Women's International Film Festival, Bahamas International, The Female Eye, and Glamour Magazine's Online film fest. It won Best Short Film at the Female Eye.

Airing tonight

The film will air on CBC, tonight at 8 p.m. The story outlines when Vivian (Liisa Repo-Martell) meets Harold (Glenn Downey). She wants a man - any man - and he wants a woman to adore him and fix his tea. They meet, destined to have a relationship of the most sadly pathetic variety ... until Harold's 30-year-old daughter (Susan Kent) intervenes and trashes everything.

As on the go and industrious as White is, her best work is still done from her own bed with a coffee and a laptop screen glowing in her face. Sounds like a good deal to me.

heidirwicks@gmail.com