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Calgary Herald Friday, December 3, 2004
LIGHTS! CAMERA! CALGARY!
Oliverio gives something back
Back filming in Alberta
Earlier this year, Edmund Oliverio, decided it was time to have fun again. Instead of planning early retirement in Arizona or hitting the open road in a souped-up Winnebago, Oliverio switched careers and became Calgary's newest film producer alongside partners Glenn Ludlow, and John Labow.
"I wanted to be happy again and the last time I was happy I was making movies," says Oliverio, who worked in the Alberta film industry as a producer and publicist during the 1980s and '90s.
"One of the things I've always been very good at is finding a niche and making things happen. That's an important skill in filmmaking."
In less than a year, Oliverio and his partners have started a production company, Agora Films International, and begun work on 11 productions, many of which will be filmed in and around Calgary.
As a group, Agora brings plenty of experience to the local industry.
Ludlow was Alberta's first film commissioner while Labow had a successful career as a producer in Toronto until moving back to Calgary last year. Labow, who was instrumental in the creation of TV Ontario, now runs the Canadian Casting Centre, located at the Currie Barracks, which facilitates casting as well as producing workshops in acting, management and set design.
The threesome has also managed to land their own table a local watering hole, The Joyce on Fourth.
"I've always felt that in the spirit of working together, members of the industry should gather on a weekly basis to share stories, get together as a community," says Oliverio, who orchestrated similar gatherings in the '90s.
Along with then Calgary Film Commissioner David Parker, Oliverio organized weekly gatherings for Calgary's film and television industries.
Each Monday, writers, directors, actors and technicians gathered at a bar on 4th Street. The group became known as the Reel Network.
With the return of Oliverio, so returns the weekly watering hole ritual where actresses can be seen poring over the latest edition of Playbill magazine and film students can be heard grilling their predecessors.
Some of the productions in the works:
-- Lisa Mayes-Stringer: The Story of Passion and Challenges is a documentary about the first black woman to become a pilot of Team Canada women's bobsled team. The film will also touch on the family history of Mayes-Stringer, whose grandparents were slaves in the United States who escaped to Canada. Some proceeds from the film will go to help buy a new bobsled for the team.
-- Clearwater, a comedic TV pilot about a man who's rushed into retirement after his daughter moves home to run the family business. The show, slated to be shot outside Turner Valley, will feature various characters including natives, draft-dodgers and truck divers.
-- Guinea Pigs, a documentary based on the lives of Second World War pilots who were badly burned after their planes were shot down.
-- The Legends of the Oil Patch, a biographical series on some of the most important people in Alberta's history, including Daryl "Doc" Seaman and Jim Gray.
Agora Films also gives back to the film community, sponsoring students at Mount Royal College as well as paying for their student membership in the Alberta Motion Picture Industries Association.
"I've always believed that if you work in the community you take something out of it and you should give something back," he says.
"I still have that journey to take and I'm not going to slow down. I still want to work. I still want to have some fun."
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