2017 Soo Film Festival Logo
  • SOO FILM FESTIVAL
  • Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan
  • Sept 12-17, 2017

Anna

Narrative Short, Canada, 2017, 13 min, Color

Audience Choice Award - Best Narrative Short

About the Film

A young woman takes a chance at love which leads her into the dark world of human trafficking. The only way to cope with her new reality is through her music.

This film will be shown before Stuck in Traffic, Modern-Day Slavery in Michigan, a documentary that deals with the same subject.

A Q&A session with Anna's director and a panel of local experts on this issue follows the documentary.

Great Lakes connection:

The director is based in Toronto, Ontario.

Cast & Crew:

Director: Natalie Dale
Writer(s): Natalie Dale
Producer(s): Natalie Dale, Chris Violette, Suzy Queen
Key Cast: Natalie Dale, Chris Violette, Marianthi Evans, M.E. Lewis, Grace Gordon, Nadin Rizk, Robert Bellissimo, Jerrold Karch, Lindsay Christopher, Derek Herd

Director Bio:

Natalie Dale is a Toronto-based filmmaker. Her passions include acting, writing, specials effects makeup, producing, and directing.

Whether it was watching Fred Astaire dance his way to greatness or Audrey Hepburn captivate an audience, Natalie's love of film began at a young age. She spent years volunteering on the film sets of her friends and took the time to learn everything from pre- to post-production. This sparked her desire to begin studying directors like James Wan and Robert Rodriguez. With years of practical training and a deeply rooted passion for the business, Natalie strives to be the face both on and off the camera.

"By understanding and respecting every department on a film set, you become a better actor and filmmaker. You learn to work as part of a team to help everyone achieve greatness. At the end of the day, you want to work with people who share the same passion, and you do that by creating a family on set. Every position is equally important when we are all working towards creating something exceptional."

Director Statement:

Anna was a very important story for me to tell because it's the type of situation that could happen to anyone, no matter where you live. I decided to set the film in a suburban neighbourhood in a popular city because a lot of the time when you are watching a film about human trafficking, there's a false generalization about it because they're most of the time set in a foreign country. The viewer tends to think “Okay, I'm not going to travel to this location because that's where I'll most likely be kidnapped and trafficked”. With Anna that's not the case.

In Canada between 2009 and 2014, there were 396 victims of police-reported human trafficking.

Trafficking is a worldwide epidemic. Each year 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked across international borders. Approximately 80 percent are women and girls.

Anna is the story about one women in a world of millions of victims.

Screenings

Saturday, September 16, 2:30pm
Soo Theatre

with Stuck in Traffic, Modern-Day Slavery in Michigan

Q&A with panelists

Not rated (subject matter)
Narrative Short
Canada
2017
13 min
English
Color

Links

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