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Dec 21, 2008-Dec 28, 2008 |
For the love of movies
Tandem talks to three talented Italian-Canadians
By John J. Hanan
Originally Published: 2006-08-27
As audiences, film critics and paparazzi all gear up for the 31st edition of the annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), industry insiders all already buzzing over the recently announced lineup of new movies and the movie stars that usually follow right behind.
There will plenty of Italian content to take in, including the world premiere of Primo Levi's Journey. A non-fictional road movie, director Davide Ferrario follows the life of a Holocaust survivor, retracing his footsteps from Auschwitz to Toronto.
Tandem will be running an upcoming feature on the film festival and it's Italian connections in the weeks to come, but this week decided against following the Hollywood hype and instead focused on three young, talented Italian-Canadians still waiting for the their time to shine in the spotlight.
All three have spent many years carving out a name out for themselves in the highly competitive entertainment industry, and acknowledged that moving stateside may one day become an inevitability given the often sad-state of Canadian film and television production.
While fans gawk, gaze and drool over Hollywood A-listers like Brad Pitt, the same excitement for the many talented Canadians working on smaller projects, never seems to translate at the box office.
The names below may not yet be familiar to anyone outside their immediate family, but with a little luck and plenty of hard work, they may one day get their chance to headline Toronto's film festival.
Chad Donella
The Actor
Ask actor Chad Donella what he likes about living in Los Angeles after moving there from Toronto eight years ago, and you get a long pause that seems like an eternity on the other end of the line. Besides being incredibly close to the beach, Donella is almost as close to all the major movie studios, and for that reason alone he decided to pack-up his bags and battle the notorious smog and sprawl of southern California.
"I have many friends and family back in T.O., so yeah I miss it a lot. I try to get back as much as possible but it's not as often as I'd like," says the 28-year-old actor originally from Stouffville, Ontario. After graduating from the York Arts drama program and appearing on some of Toronto's finest stages, including 'Wild Abandon' at the Tarragon Theatre and 'The Juliet Chronicles' at the Factory Theatre, Donella allowed himself to be wooed by Hollywood (being half-American made getting a green carder much easier) but disagrees that there aren't enough acting jobs in Hollywood North.
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