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Toronto, ON – October 7, 2020 - Newfoundland author and filmmaker Melanie Oates’ (Ida Here and There, The Manor) first-time feature Body & Bones will be released October 16 by Game Theory Films on iTunes Canada, on-demand, and with select Cineplex Events screenings at Cineplex Cinemas Mount Pearl (St. John’s, NL) starting October 16, as well as in the US through Vertical Entertainment. Written and directed by Oates, the film stars Kelly Van der Burg (Decoys, Ghostwriter) and Joel Thomas Hynes (Trickster, Little Dog).
Filmed in Witless Bay and St. John's, NL, Body & Bones is an emotional coming of age journey that follows Tess (Kelly Van der Burg), a young woman stuck in her small town in the care of her mother’s boyfriend after her mother’s passing. Withdrawn from her life, the one thing that comforts Tess is the music of Danny Sharpe (Joel Thomas Hynes), a local musician who left town twenty years ago. When she wakes one day to find him in her kitchen, it ignites a spark of life in her that quickly spirals out of control. The film features songs written and performed by Hynes, with his recently released solo album used as Danny’s music.
On making the film, writer and director Melanie Oates says, “The guts of the story come from growing up in a tiny, claustrophobic town of 200 people where I felt restrained and frustrated in every way. I spent my time dreaming of when I could leave, and being trapped in the agony of that longing. Like Tess in the film, I fell in love with someone older than me. In a desperate, obsessive way. The kind of love where you want to shape-shift to be exactly who you think they want you to be. I think that's an experience so many people have in their youth. It's interesting to look back and see those types of relationships through the lens of now, in this post Me Too era, and think about the dynamics of consent. I love films that explore the nuances of relationships in a vulnerable, honest way and I hope that's how people experience this film.”
Body & Bones made its world premiere to enthusiastic audiences at the FIN Atlantic International Film Festival (2019) where Hynes won the David Renton Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor. The film screened at St. John’s International Women’s Film Festival (2019), Whistler Film Festival (2019), Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival (2020), Victoria Film Festival (2020), and the Phoenix Film Festival (2019).
Click here to access the photography.
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