Off The Grid: the true story of a Canadian film producer.

I am a Canadian independent film producer who owns a small production company in Toronto and I am currently completely off the grid. I have relinquished my work, my office, my Facebook account, my email and my cell phone to my team.



Last night after a late writing meeting (Life On The Edge a new script by Emily Pohl-Weary www.emilypohlweary.com) and Cannes prep my fellow producers and my lovely assistant Carlie did a life intervention on me. I’m not kidding. We are heading to Cannes International Film Festival for the first time in less than a week. I own five properties that I adore and am stoked about. My little company is flourishing and finally getting some Canadian recognition… and I am in the middle of having a nervous breakdown from exhaustion. Working usually more than 12 hours a day with my cell phone ringing most nights and weekends, I never stop. Mighty Brave Productions ( www.mightybrave.com ) is essentially me backed by a huge creative family whom I’ve been collecting for my whole life. Things are in theory set up to progress without me, but somehow the calls and questions never stop. After our last night’s intervention powwow it became clear that is not possible to go to or plan our time in Cannes if I am down for the count physically and emotionally.


We have a short film as part of the Short Film Corner 2008 22:00 called The Gospel of Phi. This is awesome but not nearly as exciting as the fact that SPOTVISION (an awesome Canadian Company www.spotvision.com) is sponsoring us so that we have a trailer spot on the ginormous screens that are all over Cannes. These spots are usually reserved for studios. Some of the screens are big as 20 meters ha ha. My folks thought I misunderstood something in that sponsorship, but no I didn’t. Mighty Brave Productions will be splashed all over Cannes 871 times during the festival to the eyes of the worldwide film community. My mug is up there too (I am an actress/ producer for those who don’t know me) so this is all excellent. We have clothing sponsors, media support, fans and people helping us. I have properties I love and a team I trust. What more could I want?

Well I want the phone to stop ringing so I can sleep. I want our generous private donors to become more wealthy and suddenly, unexpectedly generous. I want a surprise twenty five thousand dollar cheque in my mailbox. I want all my films to suddenly make residuals. I want my creative team to have zest and meet all dead lines cheerfully and graciously. I want everyone to take responsibility for themselves. I want our commercial clients to pay on time. I don’t want shoot dates to change. I want Bell Telephone to stop lying to me and remove all the unwarranted charges that I can’t afford and never agreed to. I want a phone line in the office that doesn’t cost more than my mortgage. I want to have money to pay my assistant. I want family and friends to stop thinking I’m unemployed (26 awards, a dance with an Emmy nomination, and a Canadian Comedy Award later - one CCA actress nomination lost to Catherine O’Hara For Your Consideration www.canadiancomedyawards.ca ).

I want to feel safe that my little dog won’t be taken away (family politics). I want to have enough money to pay my bills and I want to feel relaxed and on top of my game in Cannes. I want to drink coffee in my backyard. I want my neighbour to stop bullying me to pay to cut down a tree that over hangs his property. I want the electricity in the office to not short every day. I want my office landlady to see how much value I’ve added to the space by renovating and cleaning and not jack the rent.

Well. I have the coffee and the silence.

I am off the grid. If you call my cell you get my assistant. No one knows where I am. To make call I have to use a payphone just like Tony Soprano. I have peeked on Facebook from my home computer but I can’t write to my friends because I am ordered off the computer and people are watching my F’book feed. I feel free, excited and um…is that a twinge of relaxation I feel?

Now that I’ve gotten that all out of my system I have some more goodness to share. But first of all …nobody knows where I am (sing song-y voice).

Like I said before I own five properties. Can you believe it, little old me, poverty stricken little producer no one takes seriously, owns five film properties. Life On The Edge by Emily Pohl Weary is one –she is nicknamed this generations’ sleazy Judy Blume. This one has also a wicked soundtrack but together by music producer Matthew Redman from local Parkdale bands. We come by our cool honestly!
Second I’m stoked about Chasing Aces to which I have producer and Canadian celebrity actress Kim Poirier (www.kimpoirier.com) and most recently the awesome and hilarious raw talent of Montreal internet phenomenon Jon LaJoie ( www.jonlajoie.com ). Here is an article from the Star from last week about Jon http://www.thestar.com/article/420002. Currently this script has no writer… if I had two weeks of extra time I could explain why. The short film version of Chasing Aces is the film that put us on the local indie map. It got us noticed. For long and complicated reasons, I will not have a one pager to take to Cannes. C’est la vie. One cannot take blood from a stone. Unless the stone is one of those god damned bloody ones. I would like to add in here that Christine Vachon is my hero, she is an independent producer out of New York ( www.killerfilms.com ) and I always live by her creed (is that the term I mean?) “Find talent and stick to it like glue.” Just last week I added to my Facebook quotes “If talent becomes to difficult, set it free.” –Lisa Wegner. I am not sure if anyone noticed.


Third property is a story by Morgan Drmaj (producer writer director of The Smart Women’s Survival Guide http://smartwoman.wnetwork.com) David Kohn and John R. Taylor called The Harrowing. Also starring Miss Poirier. This one pager and script will be ready to go, thank god.

Fourth script is Pandaemonium Rising, a terrific thinking man’s script based on Milton’s Paradise Lost. I picked this up from Isaac Rayment and James Hobday. They have been working on it for seven years before I came on board. It is a script with terrific potential. I gave my focus, my money and my team to them for weeks and the script was getting exciting. And in the last months the writing has fallen apart. What’s a girl to do? I used to want to play Vee the main female character, but the way the script is progressing I am no longer interested. There will be a one pager and I will get these writers inspired somehow. If you look at the MySpace site set up by Isaac you can read about the film. The owning shares idea is his and is not legally valid to do in Canada for some reason I don’t completely understand. www.myspace.com/pandaemoniumrisingmovie

I will insert here that during all this my awesome little dog is having some kind of stomach barfing pooping problems. We went to the Promise party in High Park under the cherry blossoms Sunday afternoon (http://www.tribe.ca/gallery_test/?level=picture&id=65) and Duffy somehow got his head right into someone guy’s Indian food and scarfed a lot of it before I could stop him. The guy was a hippy who didn’t seem to mind and kept eating. So Duffy who never eats any people food and is 12 (that is an 80 year old man terrier) ate spicy Indian Lamb Curry. So since Sunday he’s been eating grass trying to puke and last night his little stomach was guggling and chugging so loud it woke me up. He was crying softly and I massaged his little belly. I friggin’ love this dog he is my little lifesaver through stress. He is getting me through this. I don’t know where he’s going to go when I go to France. And I cry when I think about him being taken away from me.



This morning Duffy thought the Canada geese flying overhead might be some sort of security breach (he is a guard dog by nature, I am his charge). He there was honking and barking and then a neighbourhood skid yelled “shut the f*&k up!”. Parkdale.

What do I need so I can relax and get my mojo on for next week? Radio silence, with no responsibility is a great start. I need a free vet. I need friends to take care of me. I need three thousand dollars so Morgan can come to Cannes with us. He is my biz guy. Morgan is a white gracious male producer and as much as that sounds ridiculous, it is true that he will add a weight to our meetings. Hollywood trusts the white guy who was educated in the USA. And I trust him completely and love him for the life intervention. Time is tight. Flights are booked. My credit is stretched to the hilt. My phone and gas are being threatened. Without the additional funding it will be three lovely ladies going to conquer Hollywood. With brains and passion and guts. And high heels. Ha ha.

And then I will come home to creditors but I will sure will inspired be inspired creatively.


And another ten thousand dollars would allow me to breathe so I could be the creative producer I am meant to be without the wolf howling at the door. Several projects this season got postponed and I have been floating myself on love and rainbows for months. And my acting career is paying my bills and now for personal reasons my wonderful manager is in the USA (I am taken care of by the management agency). I have been encouraging people to pay back money they owe me. It’s dribbling in.



Twenty thousand from an angel investor would be the miracle I’m looking for. I am used to charming rich non-film industry folk and getting them to give me small amounts of money for my creative projects. One such gentleman once said “you have enough passion to fuel a small city.” Right before he cut a cheque.

I am excited to get to Cannes and learn how to pitch and talk to the “right” people. By that I mean film people who have more than five grand in their pocket.

There is a small commercial Mighty Brave Media gig shooting this weekend in the lovely city of Cornwall Ontario at the airbase. French and English both, we are a bi-lingual company. I have been grooming Aidan my Production Manager to produce and he is completely heading that project. I am proud of him. It is the first time I have been relatively hands-off on a project (well I still put a few days work in at the beginning). And I won’t be on set. Yay!

I have a great team, a great family and great friends. And a great little sick terrier gurgling and growing on the floor from stomach pain.

And I believe in miracles. I see them everyday in independent film and in my life. At least my life isn’t boring.

Now I’m pouring another cup of coffee and going to lie back down with my little feverish terrier. And then take him for a walk if he’s up to it.

And so goes another day.

Lisa Anita Wegner, big boss lady
Mighty Brave Productions
Mighty Brave Media
Zebra Pictures

& Duffy, excellent canine