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23 · Wednesday, March 10, 2010 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.oakvillebeaver.com Fledgling filmmaker gets helping hand By Dominik Kurek OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF An Oakville-born filmmaker has been granted $45,000 to produce a documentary film that will air on the provincial television network. Aaron Hancox, 25, who was born in Oakville and currently resides in Toronto, and his colleague, Allie Caldwell, are working on their project Unheralded. The concept for their 30-minute film was selected as winner in the National Film Board-TVO 2009 Calling Card Program. One documentary, in this case Unheralded, and one new-media documentary project were selected through the contest. Unheralded will air on TVO's Canadian documentary series The View From Here during its 2010-2011 season. "The win means a lot because as emerging filmmakers it's really difficult to get the first big project going . . . We're doing a film and it's going to be on TV and it's difficult to get that chance," Hancox said. "For us to get that money, it really makes a big difference," he added. "It means now "It means now we've got a broadcast licence and we've got a co-producer in the NFB and that really legitimizes what we are doing in the eyes of the industry." Aaron Hancox, filmmaker we've got a broadcast licence and we've got a co-producer in the NFB and that really legitimizes what we are doing in the eyes of the industry." The film is about small town newspapers in Ontario that are succeeding today during a time when large papers are falling. Much of the film focuses on the four-person staff of Ontario's Lakefield Herald, where Caldwell was born and grew up. "Allie grew up in Lakefield so she knew the paper and I spent a lot of my time in a small town called Hudson when I was young. We're both really familiar with the small town life and newspapers," Hancox said. Hancox was born in Oakville and moved around Ontario and Québec. He went to school at Montreal's Concordia University and then completed a master's degree in MAKING INROADS: Oakville-born filmmaker Aaron Hancox is getting a head start in his industry thanks to a grant from the National Film Board and TVO. media production at Ryerson University. He and Caldwell went to Concordia together where they collaborated on projects and they have worked together since then. The pair also won for best student documentary at the Montreal World Film Festival in 2006. "The kind of stories that TVO and NFB tell, we thought that was a good fit for our project because TVO really likes the regional stories that are taking place in Ontario. The NFB tells a lot of social issues documentaries," Hancox said of why he thought they won. "We came up with the idea for Unheralded, our documentary, which is perfect because it's topically relevant right now because the newspaper industry is a changing industry. There's a lot of interesting things going on right now with a lot of the big city dailies closing down but a newspaper like the Lakefield Herald, which we're focusing on, is actually doing really well." Hancox and Caldwell are a two-person team as producers, editors, videographers and on-air personalities. Four bands, including one from Oakville, are hitting a local stage this Friday, March 12 for a rocking performance. The concert will feature headliners Hello Kelly along with To Tell, Unlikely Heroes and Oakville's own indie poprockers What If This Dream Is All We Have? "It's a hyper show. It's really good. It's an entertaining live show," said Laura Cree, founder and promoter with Arkyle Media, the concert's organizer. "People should expect to be dancing, jumping, getting excited." Hello Kelly is currently on a 10-city tour with Oakville as one of its stops. The two-hour concert will be at 7:30 p.m. at River Oaks Community Church, 2435 Munn's Ave. Tickets cost $10 and a non-perishable food item to be donated to Oakville's Kerr Street Ministries' food bank. For more information, visit www.arkyle.com. Hello Kelly ready BEST PRICES EVER $ 600 OFF to rock River Oaks HI-EFFICIENCY HST! Beat the Newfoundland! Our unique 10-day guided tour travels throughout the province and includes visits to St. Anthony at Newfoundland's northernmost tip, and L'Anse aux Meadows, the only authenticated Viking site in North America! Finish your tour in St. John's. Your holiday includes: return airfare with WestJet from Toronto, coach travel, accommodation at 3-4 star hotels, breakfast daily, 4 lunches, 4 dinners, daily sightseeing as listed in the itinerary, and all taxes except HST. Explore CENTRAL AIR 1.5 TON 2 TON 2.5 TON 3 TON WAS 3100 $ 3200 $ 3400 $ 3600 $ Hurry GOV Rebate Ends Soon! 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