Caleb Daniel vents his feelings

By DTL
Posted April 30, 2026

CD sends DTL a Facebook “Friends” request for the stated purpose of “talk[ing] shit to you” over something or other. Apparently he was triggered by a comment DTL made, but he doesn’t say what he’s so angry about.

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BC Buds (2024)

Written and directed by Rudy Lenz. With Marito Lopez, Julian Nelson, and Keilani Rose. Comedy / thriller, 2024, 23:00, colour.

A brother and sister operate a small cannabis farm. Their newly-developed strain of Weed attracts the attention of Yakuza gangsters . . . and a trio of deadly assassins.

Official website   •   IMDb   •   Watch on YouTube

You are not a distributor

By DTL and MAT
Posted February 26, 2026

Finding distribution for an independent movie can be so difficult that many creators seek to bypass what they think of as gatekeepers. Some of these creators try to become distributors themselves.

Sometimes these individuals manage to combine stupidity, ignorance, wishful thinking, entitlement, and self-righteousness into a toxic stew that, while doing them no good, can serve as object lessons to the rest of us of what not to do.

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Can you make a living making movies independently?

By KO’D
Posted January 15, 2026

If you have any kind of artistic aspirations, you probably want to spend most of your time creating your art. Ideally, you want to do it full-time. Alas, you will find that you still have to pay for a place to live, food to eat, clothes to wear, etc. — the daily expenses of being alive. Is it possible to make a living from making movies independently?

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Crafty Short Films

By DTL
Posted December 18, 2025

Crafty “presents snack-sized stories, both narrative and nonfiction, with an emphasis on heart and humanity. We host these stories on our YouTube Channel.”

One thing I don’t see any mention of is payment. So they’re going to take your movie and put it on their Channel, and monetize that Channel, and keep all the money from that Channel. You are giving them your work so they can make money from it.

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Don’t make these movies!

By MAT
Posted February 27, 2025

Making any movie is hard work, and it’s possible to do all that work and still make a bad movie. It all starts with an idea — so make sure your idea is original and interesting to people other than you. Here are some movies that we have already seen eleventy-squillion times, so you don’t need to make them again.

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Unsolicited career advice for Directors

By KO’D
Posted February 6, 2025

If you want a career as a Director, make a feature as soon as you can.

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Do you want to make movies or be a movie-maker?

By KO’D
Posted January 16, 2025

Why do you want to make movies?

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Roads of Ithriyah (2022)

Written by Javier Badillo and Shayan Bayat; directed by Javier Badillo. With Shayan Bayat, Bahram Heidari, and Mitra Lohrasb. Drama / war, 2022, 1:13:04, colour. Shot in BC.

Ahmad, a Syrian militant, wakes up concussed in the desert after an explosion and can’t remember what side of the war he was fighting for.

As he survives the walk to a safe outpost called Ithriyah, he discovers a small vial of perfume in his pocket that triggers memories of his mother and sister. The memories begin to paint a picture of uncomfortable truths of his past and set him on a collision course against his current self.

Watch on Youtube: trailer   •   full movie
Watch full movie on Prime

Mom Pot (2020)

Written and directed by Jesse Hood. With Amy Laity, Lori Schock, and Dale Willman. Comedy, 2020, 17:11, colour.

A recently widowed woman tries to get her life back on track with help from her daughter . . . and some marijuana edibles.

IMDb   •   Watch on Vimeo

Not the Same (2018)

Written by Damian T. Lloyd and Adam Canuck Zimmerman; directed by Adam Canuck Zimmerman. With Jessie Liang, Rachel Mazz, and Corey Woods. Drama, 2018, 1:43:08, b&w.

Data-analyst Allie is being transferred by her job. Before she leaves, she has a single day to spend with her two estranged friends Blanca and Courtenay. Allie must repair the ruptured relationship between the two of them — a rupture they don’t know she is responsible for.

IMDb   •   Watch on YouTube   •   Buy on Gumroad

Shooting Windfall (2016)

By DTL
Posted March 11, 2015

Recounting the shooting of the short drama Windfall, and the lessons we can learn from it.

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Can’t Get It Up (2012)

Written and directed by Josh Rimer. With Josh Rimer and Tyrell Witherspoon. Comedy / musical, 2012, 3:35, colour.

In this song parody of Chris Brown’s “Don’t Wake Me Up”, a horny young man encounters an unexpected setback upon getting home with his hook-up from the club. (And watch the behind-the-scenes video.)

Watch on YouTube

Shooting Can’t Get It Up (2012)

By DTL
Posted September 27, 2012

At the beginning of this month, Josh Rimer invited me to be Cinematographer for his latest comedy sketch. The shoot went smoothly. Writer / Director Josh had a good idea of what he needed to shoot to tell the story, and welcomed suggestions from his collaborators. We shot in one location at a time, moving through Josh’s apartment. We were there for less than a full working day.

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Writers and Producers together

By DTL
Posted December 10, 2011

Reporting on the “Writers and Producers Together” event hosted by the Praxis Centre for Screenwriters. Thirty movie-production companies sent a speaker each, and they had four minutes to tell an audience of aspiring screenwrights what they want to see from Writers.

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Vancouver is not indie-friendly

By MAT
Posted November 18, 2011

The outsized presence of the Hollywood industry, the resulting careerism among wannabe creators, and the desire of said creators to puff themselves up into as big a deal as they can pretend to be make Vancouver a hard place for independent creators to make their own projects.

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Feed your people

By DTL
Posted November 26, 2010

When you’re shooting your micro-budget epic, don’t neglect the people who are gambling their time and talent on the project. Give them food and drink to fortify their mortal selves.

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Distribution: Making your movie available

By DTL
Posted October 20, 2010

Today, making a professional-quality movie independently is within the reach of anyone with a middle-class income. But getting it seen is still the tough nut to crack. Canadian movie-makers have lamented for a hundred years that big American distribution companies have locked up all the available venues, and it’s impossible for a Canadian movie to get bookings.

Fortunately, avenues for distribution have multiplied. With an ever-increasing number of cable channels, and with Web distribution becoming the definite future, there’s never been such an insatiable need for content.

Right now, it’s never been so easy to make a movie, and it’s never been so easy to place your movie before an audience.

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Shooting Puppet Magic! (2010)

By DTL
Posted August 20, 2010

Recounting the four-day shoot for the short movie by Lanagara College’s Film Arts Programme.

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Dare to dream

By DTL
Posted June 29, 2010

It has never been so possible for anyone to make a movie independently. And it has never been so possible for anyone to place that movie before the public. Dare to dream your dreams, and turn them into reality!

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Warner Bros. cartoons, then and now

Reviewed by DTL
Posted August 25, 2004

From 1930 and 1969, Warner Bros. produced some of the best animated cartoons ever made — funny, outrageous, even genuinely touching at times. But today, every time Warner Bros. tries its corporate hand at animated cartoons, it demonstrates afresh that it doesn’t understand what it has.

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Spider-Man 2 (2004)

Written by Michael Chabon, Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, and Alvin Sargent; directed by Sam Raimi. With Kirsten Dunst, Tobey Maguire, and Alfred Molina.

In the sequel to Spider-Man (2002), Peter Parker is beset with troubles in his failing personal life as he battles a brilliant but unstable scientist named Otto Octavius.

IMDb   •   Buy it at Amazon

Reviewed by DTL
Posted July 7, 2004

The second Spider-Man movie is not a good movie, but it is a fun movie.

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Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)

Written and directed by Michael Moore.

Michael Moore makes a case that George W. Bush and his cronies used the terrorist attacks on USAnia of September 11, 2001 to push unjust and illegal wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that right-wing warmongers had long wanted.

IMDb   •   Buy it at Amazon

Reviewed by JN
Posted July 3, 2004

Michael Moore’s latest movie Fahrenheit 9/11 debuted earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Palme d’Or. It became, in its first weekend of release, the highest-grossing feature-length documentary of all time, despite efforts by parent company Disney to suppress the movie.

I recommend that everyone, regardless of political leanings, see this movie. It is by turns funny, touching, informative, sarcastic, infuriating, sickening, and crazy-making, and sometimes many of those at the same time. Even if you disagree with its politics, you’ve got to admire the artistry of its construction. Any movie that can provoke this much outrage and debate is worth seeing.

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Why Saturday Night Live isn’t funny

By DTL
Posted May 21, 2004

Most people go through identifiable stages in developing their sense of humour. The Saturday Night Live stage seems often to coincide with being allowed to stay up late, and with discovering the joys of a well-rolled joint.

The “good old days when it was funny” refers to one of two periods: A) the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players, or B) whenever you started watching the show until the cast changed and you stopped.

The sad truth is this: SNL was never a funny show. Oh, there were certainly funny parts, but overall the sketches were under-written and under-rehearsed, bits went on too long, and the talent creating the show always had a better time than the audience watching it. Why is that?

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The Canadian movie industry

By DTL
Posted April 26, 2001

What movie industry exists in Canada does so primarily as support for American productions. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

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