University Film Festival releases new movie

By Kassandra Coates

 

The University of Windsor’s Film Festival has decided to release a new movie called Blight.

Blight is set in a fictional 1910s town with a mysterious illness. It is a thriller about the lengths families will go to to protect one another. Douglas Cunningham, the director of the movie, said the film centres on socially-damaged characters trying to stay together in an increasingly hostile environment.

“I wanted to tell a story about characters that have to adapt and survive in a state of chaos,” said Cunningham. “It’s at this breaking point, desperate and bankrupt, that they interact.”

It took nearly two-and-a-half months to make the film and is currently still in the process of being edited. They had a crew of eight local performers and 25 volunteers taking part in all kinds of tasks.

A  U of W drama student, Madison Gignac said she was thrilled to be one of the actors in the film.

“I love acting, it’s my passion. So when I got this opportunity, I took it right away,” said Gignac. “The cast and crew were just amazing.”

The producer of the film, Nat Dupes, said it was quite a struggle coordinating a whole cast and crew of students with various schedules, but they made it happen.

“We shot early mornings and weekends mostly, especially since our location was in Essex and based out of Windsor,” said Dupes.

Dupes said she is currently working on an ongoing project that has special effects and is planning to submit it into the festival as well.

The film will be shown to the public at the film festival in mid-April, with tickets being sold at the university starting in March.