UBC departments of Film Production, Creative Writing and English boast three alumni who have collaborated on the film A Shine of Rainbows.
It’s a small world after all: Editor Alison Grace (BA ’71 Film), Screenwriter Dennis Foon (MFA ’75 Creative Writing), and Associate Producer John Bolton (BA ’99 Hon. English) collaborated on the recently released and award winning film A Shine of Rainbows. A UBC Arts degree can connect you with talented peers for years after you graduate and take you around the world; in this case, a film set in Ireland.
These alumni come from diverse backgrounds. Alison Grace is a film editor who has worked on the television series Intelligence and Defying Gravity. Some her early work includes Double Happiness, a film screened as part of the UBC Film Production Program’s 40th Anniversary Events.
Dennis Foon was born in Detroit. After studying religion at the University of Michigan, he attended UBC, an experience which he described on his website as “precipitous.” Foon co-founded Green Thumb Theatre, and has gone on to write many award winning films, plays and novels. Foon says that “at the Departments of Theatre and Creative Writing at UBC, I learned many crucial lessons that made a professional career possible for me. “I was taught dramatic structure, how take and use criticism, what makes a piece of theatre or writing ‘work, and much, much more.’”
He comments, “I also had the great benefit of working with highly talented classmates who became friends and collaborators. My time at UBC laid the groundwork for my career, and for that I will always be grateful.” Foon and Grace have collaborated on at least four projects. His latest screenplay for the film Life, Above All, is premiering in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival.
John Bolton is an award-winning filmmaker from Vancouver whose work has been screened throughout BC, Canada and the world. Through his own production company, Opus 59 Films, he recently produced and directed a series of profiles of BC artists for the Knowledge Network, and he also recently returned to UBC to shoot two hockey films set to classical music with the UBC Women’s Hockey Team for Bravo! Television.
Bolton says that “English at UBC – especially studying Shakespeare with Kate Sirluck, doing directed studies with Paul Yachnin (now at McGill) and working on my undergraduate thesis with Jerry Wasserman – taught me about balancing creativity and critical thinking, which is as good a definition of producing and directing as any.”
He adds that “As an emerging producer, it was a genuine pleasure collaborating with such established artists as Alison and Dennis, two of the most talented, dedicated and easygoing professionals I’ve ever worked with.”
A Shine of Rainbows is about Tomas, a shy eight-year old orphan who is saved from a friendless, solitary life by Maire, a beautiful spirited woman who whisks him away to the rugged coast of Ireland and into her magical world.
Tomas is not well received by Maire’s husband Alec, who can’t hide his disappointment with the frail boy. But Maire is undaunted, and introduces Tomas to the wonders of his new world. Tomas thrives and makes friends on his journey of self-discovery. Slowly, Alec too begins to see in Tomas what Maire has always seen.
When tragedy strikes, Tomas is faced with his greatest challenge yet, risking everything to triumph.
A Shine of Rainbows is a story about the transformational power of love – about finding acceptance, discovering magic, and about realizing that rainbows are all around you – and within you, too.
