Go to Movies has snapped up world gross sales rights (excluding Canada) to R.T. Thorne’s function bow, “40 Acres,” a dystopian survival thriller, which is screening in Toronto’s Particular Displays.
“R.T. is an thrilling director who has proved himself in different codecs,” mentioned Go to president Ryan Kampe. “Audiences might be taken along with his business strategy to social-issue filmmaking. [The film] epitomizes what we attempt to do at Go to by merging the 2 areas.”
Filmed on location in Northern Ontario, “40 Acres” follows soldier-turned-farmer Hailey Freeman (Danielle Deadwyler, who additionally stars in Toronto’s “The Piano Lesson”) and her household as they defend their distant homestead towards a militia.
Michael Greyeyes (“Rutherford Falls”) stars as Freeman’s companion, with Toronto’s Kataem O’Connor because the eldest son who needs a special path after assembly a younger lady (Milcania Diaz-Rojas) past the fence.
“Expressing concepts about land and meals sovereignty in a movie that includes Black and Indigenous characters is sensible with their shared traumas of the colonial previous,” Thorne mentioned.
Jennifer Holness of Hungry Eyes Media produced, in affiliation with Crave, a division of Bell Media. Mongrel Media distributes in Canada.
Thorne, who began out directing music movies, has constructed a deep, world-building resume over the previous 20 years, most lately as co-creator and multihyphenate on Hulu’s “Utopia Falls” and serving as a director and exec producer on interval drama “The Porter.”
“Through the years, I’ve been provided loads of stereotypical scripts about Black life, as if I’d solely be considering that — however I’m considering tales instructed from totally different views,” mentioned Thorne, who began “bumping round” concepts for “40 Acres” six years in the past.
“When the pandemic hit, it confirmed us that the infrastructure that holds collectively our society is extra fragile than we thought,” he continued. “I believed, ‘How would I shield my household if issues go darkish?’”
Now primarily based in Toronto, Thorne was born in Calgary, Alberta (a serious beef producer) and his father labored in produce. “I grew up understanding the farmers’ relationship with the land as noble and essential,” he mentioned. “While you undertaking that into the dystopia style, a household of farmers in a time of meals shortage has the most important goal on their backs.”
“40 Acres” is supported by Telefilm Canada, NOHFC, Canada Media Fund, Ontario Creates, CBC, City Put up Manufacturing, FELA and Again Dwelling.
