Films

Cream Soda

1975, 11 mins., by Holly Dale with Janis Cole

Minimum Charge, No Cover

1976, 10 mins., by Janis Cole and Holly Dale

The film unfolds, revealing people who lead alternative lifestyles. We meet a transsexual, homosexuals, hookers, transvestites and female impersonators.

• Selected for the Student Film Festival, Montreal, 1976
• Winner Ann Arbour Film Festival, 1977

Thin Line

1977, 32 mins., by Janis Cole and Holly Dale

A rare look inside the Penetanguishene maximum security hospital for the criminally insane. Treatments with alcohol and amytol are filmed, and the programme at Penetang is compared to prison incarceration. Critics said; “THIN LINE may be a real first for documentaries on mental hospitals” (Saturday Night), and “One of the most powerful documentaries ever made” (Peter Harcourt, Who’s Who).

• Art Gallery of Ontario, 1997
• Finalist, American Film Festival, 1978
• Grierson Film Seminar, 1978

Dead Meat

1989, 13 mins., Story by Janis Cole and Holly Dale, direction by Holly Dale

A hit on the film festival circuit, DEAD MEAT is a black comedy set in the seamy streets of Toronto about an encounter between a drug addict and a hit man. Made at Norman Jewison’s Canadian Center for Advanced Film Studies.

• Toronto Film Festival, 1989 
• TVO, 1993 
• Selected for the 10 X 10 program, 1993 Toronto Festival 

Starring: David Hewlett, James Purcell, Shelly-Lynne Owens
Director of Photography : Michael Szucs
Writer : Robert Hunter
Art Direction : Eric Fraser
Producer : Iain Paterson

Additional movie information links provided courtesy of the Internet Movie Database. Check out IMDb’s Dead Meat page.

Hookers on Davie

1984, 86 mins., by Janis Cole and Holly Dale
Presented by Pan-Canadian & Spectrum Films

“The West end of Vancouver is a densely populated residential area close to downtown shopping and just minutes from Stanley Park. Within this same district is a 20 block area with Davie Street as its centre. It has been coined the prostitution capital of Canada. Available here are male, female, transvestite and transexual prostitutes who ply their trade daily from noon until 3:00 am. Up to 150 prostitutes can be found working these streets at one time. Many of them started as juveniles, around twelve years old, and many more of the transvestites started working as boys but instead found it more economical to work dressed as women. Because of the dangers and vulnerabilities they face on the street, the prositutes in this area have created bonds by working together.”

The film is shot like a documentary and put together like a dramatic fiction. The filmmakers allow the audience to be interpreter; there is no voice-over, and no contrived dialogue to explain the plot. The viewer is taken into the world of the men, women, transvestites and transsexuals who ply their trade on Vancouver’s Davie Street. “No maudlin cliche, it shows how rough and tough life on the streets can be.” – Brian Johnson, Maclean’s Magazine.

• Winner, Gold Plaque, Chicago Film Festival
• Winner, American Film Festival, Best Social Documentary
• Nominated, Genie Award, Theatrical Documentary
• Cineplex theatrical release across Canada
• CITY TV, 1987-90
• Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, 1985
• Toronto, Nyon, Vancouver, London, New York, Cinema Du Real, Filmex, & Miami Film Festivals, etc.

Produced by Cole/Dale, with assistance from The Canada Council, The Ontario Arts Council, Studio D – National Film Board of Canada

Cinematography : Nancy Bluie, Paul Mitchnick, and David Geddes.

Additional movie information links provided courtesy of the Internet Movie Database. Check out IMDb’s Hookers on Davie page.

P4W: Prison for Women

1981, 82 mins. (also a 54 min. version), by Janis Cole and Holly Dale

The film centers on five women, their stories, their relationships and their lives in prison. Inmates reveal their isolation as mothers, lovers, friends, and fellow inmates inside Canada’s only Prison for Women at Kingston, Ontario. “No ordinary prison film or women’s film, P4W is a dramatic, very touching portrait of five women you’re not likely to forget.” – John Katz, Toronto Festival Programmer

Produced with assistance from The Ontario Arts Council, The Canada Council, and Studio D of The National Film Board of Canada.

• Winner, Genie Award, Best Theatrical Documentary
• Winner, American Film Festival, Best Social Documentary 
• Winner, Yorkton Film Festival (short version), Best Film in the Festival, Best Film in the Human Condition Category, Best Cinematography
• First Choice, 1982-83
• Premier Choix, 1982-83
• City TV, 1984-85
• CBC, (short version) 1982
• Cineplex theatres across Canada, 1981-82
• Grierson Film Seminar, 1982
• Toronto, Berlin, Sydney, Cretail, & Filmex Film Festivals, etc.

Additional movie information links provided courtesy of the Internet Movie Database. Check out IMDb’s P4W page.

Shaggie: Letters from Prison

1990, 12 mins., Script and direction by Janis Cole

The filmmaker constructs a personal memory about her lost friend Marlene Moore. Labeled Canada’s most dangerous female offender, Marlene took her life inside the Prison for Women at the age of 31.

• Winner, Best Short Film, 1990 Toronto Film Festival
• John Spotton Cinema, the Bloor, and other Rep theatres
• London, San Francisco, Rendez Vouz with Madness and other Film Festivals
• WTN broadcast, 1995

Quiet on the Set; Filming Agnes of God

1985, 28 min. (also a 7 min. version), by Janis Cole and Holly Dale

A “behind the scenes” documentary on the set of Norman Jewison’s AGNES OF GOD. The film features Jewison, Anne Bancroft, Jane Fonda, Meg Tilly, cinematographer Sven Nickvist, and the cast of singing nuns.

• First Choice, 1985-86
• Home Box Office, 1985-86

Calling the Shots

1988, 118 mins. (also a 90 min. version), by Janis Cole and Holly Dale

“When we began filming women who were involved in feature film production, we realized how impossible it would be to include all the dedicated women who have contributed to the motion picture industry worldwide. Therefore, we would like to dedicate this film to all the women who have been instrumental in the realization of a major motion picture and it is our hope to inspire those who wish to.” 

“A feature length slice-of-life, embracing the role women play in the business and art of filmmaking. It’s an examination not merely of women working in the movies, but of women toiling in any highly professional, male-dominated field. On one level, a straightforward look at well-known women in the film business, the film transcends its subject; it elicits reflections on the nature of culture and who gets to make it. Entertaining, enlightening, and filled with astonishing moments of revelation.” Judy Steed, Globe & Mail

• Winner, Best documentary, Women in Film Festival, Los Angeles
• Winner, Best Arts History Documentary, American Film Festival
• Nominated, Genie Awards, Theatrical Documentary
• First Choice, 1989-90
• City TV, 1991-92
• International TV, Japan, Switzerland, Germany, England, etc.
• Toronto, Nyon, Cretail, Japan, Isreal, & Vancouver Film Festivals, etc.

A WIC Inc. production of a Cole/Dale Film

CALLING THE SHOTS – The Book

Writen by Janis Cole & Holly Dale
Published by Quarry Press -1993

Calling the Shots presents twenty engaging conversations with some of North America’s most successful women film directors who discuss their vision, ambitions, challenges and triumphs, while sharing their thoughts on cultural hierarchy, social structures, feminism, and the power of the film image. Featuring complete filmographies and production photographs, this book is an important contribution to cultural history, film theory, and all levels of women’s studies.
Click here for odering and more information.

Dangerous Offender

1996, 94 mins. Script by Janis Cole, direction by Holly Dale, a CBC production

A CBC Movie of the Week about Marlene Moore, the first woman in Canada to be declared a dangerous Offender. Heralded a TV Masterpiece by Jim Balwin, The Toronto Star.

• Launched the CBC’s ’96 fall season to 1.6 million viewers
• Sold Internationally to virtually all English language territories
• Nominated for 7 Gemini Awards in 1998; winner Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress

Starring: Brooke Johnson, Sara Botsford, and Patricia Gage

Producer : Duncan Lamb
Production Designer : Paul Ames
Director of Photography : Nikos Evdemon c.s.c.

Additional movie information links provided courtesy of the Internet Movie Database. Check out IMDb’s Dangerous Offender page.

Blood & Donuts

1995, 84 mins. Direction by Holly Dale, story consultant Janis Cole, a Daban Films Production

A dark, quirky story about an unlikely vampire, a cab driver and a donut shop waitress. Made through the Feature Film Project.

• Toronto Festival premiere, 1995
• Played Cineplex Carlton ’95
• available through video rental outlets

Starring : Gordon Currie, Justin Louis, Helene Clarkson, Fiona Reid, Frank Moore. Hadley Kay, J. Winston Carroll, and David Cronenberg

Production Design : David Moe
Director of Photography : Paul Sarossy c.s.c.
Associate Producers : Stephan Fanfara, Justine Whyte
Executive Producer : Colin Brunton
Writer : Andrew Rai Berzins
Producer : Steven Hoban

Additional movie information links provided courtesy of the Internet Movie Database. Check out IMDb’s Blood & Donuts page.

Bowie: One in a Million

2001, 10 mins.
Script and direction by Janis Cole

Documentary veteran Janis Cole expertly crafts a searing indictment of society’s failure to deal with the violence perpetrated against women by their abusive partners. This searing portrait pays homage to Cathy Bowie, a vibrant young woman whose life became a headline story and then faded to astatistic after she was murdered in her home by her husband George Jackson.

• Toronto Film Festival premiere
• Vancouver Film Festival

Additional movie information links provided courtesy of the Internet Movie Database.