Conquest stars Mark Meer and Wakisha Williams.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Norm Coyne
May 14, 2023 - 7:00 PM
An Indigenous Kelowna-base filmmaker has written and produced a film that was shot entirely at a comic convention in Prince George under a unique mentorship model.
Norm Coyne of Barker Street Cinema paired celebrity filmmakers with local Prince George filmmakers at the Northern FanCon convention to create the movie Conquest over a three day time span, according to a Barker Street Cinema media release.
“Both the film and the convention possess a spirit of empowerment and inclusivity,” Coyne said in the release. “It is a beautiful thing to see emerging talent level up from this type of initiative.”
The film’s tagline reads: “When an incompetent intergalactic conqueror crash lands at a comic convention, he must find a way to subdue the locals or face the wrath of his merciless counterparts.”
Coyne, who is an Upper Similkameen Indian Band member, said the film is a colonization story with a “different kind of reflection.”
“The message of this film is one of considerate immersion into culture and the positive effects of that journey,” Coyne said. ”The mentorship element echoes the importance of learning that is prominent in the film.”
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Celebrity filmmakers included Tina Teoli, former head of makeup department for The Flash and The Good Doctor, Allisa Swanson, costume designer for The 100 and Firefly Lane, Evil Ted Smith, art department for The Fifth Element, and Marc Bernardin, Writer’s Guild award winner for Castle Rock and a supervising producer of Picard.
The film stars included Mark Meer of the video game series Mass Effect and Ming Chen of AMC’s Comic Book Men and was directed by award-winning filmmaker Kate Kroll.
“I have been following Kate’s career closely and I believe she is headed for the top,” Coyne said. “She absolutely needed to be the person to direct this film.”
Conquest writer, producer Norm Coyne with director Kate Kroll.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED/ Norm Coyne
The Prince George convention was founded by Coyne in 2015 and has hosted over 100 celebrity guests and filmmakers. He focused on filmmaking in 2018 to promote Prince George as a location for film and television. He created a workshop series called Creative Corner to boost careers in the film industry, which sparked a series of films shot in the city and inevitably led to the mentorship shooting model of Conquest.
“Being in a position to access high level industry talent who are open to this kind of filmmaking model is an unbelievable opportunity,” Coyne said. “It is a testament to the power of an event like Northern FanCon.”
The film is set to premiere at festivals this summer.
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