Joanna’s friends, Edgar Allen Poe-bot (photo: Jason Hargrove)
Department of Writing alumni Jeremy Lutter and Ben Rollo premiered their short film Joanna Makes a Friend on December 3 at the 2011 Whistler Film Festival. Starring Fred Ewanuick (Corner Gas, Dan for Mayor) and Dalila Bela, Joanna Makes a Friend was adapted by Rollo from his own short story; when Joanna, a lonely nine-year-old girl, is ostracized by the other kids at school due to her love of the macabre and a fascination with Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft, she ends up making a robot friend out of spare VCR parts in her father’s garage.
The film’s genesis lies in last year’s Whistler Film Festival, where Lutter successfully pitched the idea to the highly competitive Motion Picture Production Industry Association. Not only did Lutter then win the Short Film Award—netting him a $115,000 prize ($10,000 cash plus in-kind services)—but he went on to crowd-fund the remaining budget needed to shoot the movie through I