Thanks to Hollywood strikes, Vancouver Island director can finally make passion project

An independent film on Vancouver Island is getting a chance of being made because of twin strikes affecting unionized actors and writers in the United States.

“It’s now or never,” says director David Bercovici-Artieda.

The Metchosin-based filmmaker says he’s spent decades in the industry forging relationships with other Canadian artists, who’ve become family. Since many of them aren’t working on bigger budget productions as a result of the strikes south of the border – there’s an opportunity here for non-profit projects like his to go ahead with some of the talent that’s not on the picket line.

“They don’t have a job. They have the time. So the artists create,” he says.

Bercovici-Artieda is about to start rolling on a project in Victoria – bringing a long-time vision to life.

He’s turning lessons from his Jewish father, who survived the Holocaust, into a story of compassion in a short film called The Fast Runner.

“As artists we have a responsibility,” he says. “I think that via this film we’re putting our two cents to make sure that we bring a little bit of hope and forgiveness and a little bit of love we all need,” he says.

One of his closest friends has written the script, which has already received recognition through a series of awards and nominations.

“This is about a little girl who is struggling with her own anger at the injustice that’s happening to her and her community,” says The Fast Runner writer Michael Adams.

On Sept. 28, the cameras will start rolling, turning Victoria’s Waddington Alley into a ghetto for one set, and the Roundhouse into a concentration camp platform for another.

“Taking the role as the writer, as the interpreter of this gem of a story that David came up with was to find a way to really tap into the humane side of the stories that David was telling – really tap into the compassionate side of what his father was teaching,” says Adams.

The Fast Runner is funded by donations. Bercovici-Artieda says more support is needed for Canadian artists.

“We criticize what’s going on in society. We tell stories of hope. We can change people’s mind for better or for worse,” he says. “The state of the world affairs today is troubling.”