Guelph Tribune, Ontario, Canada
Aug 4, 2006

Role reversal for duo making movie in city

Virginia McDonald, Guelph

Videomaker Glen Curtis (left) and director Carlo Essagian at West End
Community Centre.

When Guelph director Carlos Essagian rolled the cameras here last
week it was a case of role reversal for Conan Doyle’s Lost World star
Michael Sinelnikoff.

Twenty years ago, Essagian took a course in television close-ups with
the British character actor, who’s also a Montreal-based producer and
teacher. They kept in touch.

Essagian went on to rack up his own credits in Hollywood and Canadian
film and TV, most recently in Atom Agoyan’s Ararat.

Essagian moved here five years ago, changed his scripts to showcase
Guelph, and offered his former teacher a cameo in a short film called
Driver’s Test.

"I said, ‘You’re bringing me all the way from Montreal for one
line?’" jokes Sinelnikoff as he relaxes on the set. "He said, ‘Yes,
and it better be a good one.’"

Asked if he’s ready for his close-up, Sinelnikoff, whose series still
screens worldwide, quips that he isn’t sure he’s getting one.

Guelph, however, is showcased, in an opening aerial shot courtesy of
local Talon Productions. Driver’s Test is shot the back parking lot
of West End Community Centre by Guelph videomaker Glen Curtis. It
follows an octogenarian’s fears and frustrations as he re-takes his
driver’s test with the same examiner who flunked him, even though
he’s vowed to never drive again.

"He didn’t want society to make the decision," says Essagian, who
based the story on his own father’s experience and also stars as the
driver’s son.

"I woke up one morning and the film was already written in my head,"
says Essagian, who figures the humour will also appeal to aging
boomer drivers who will be also be at the mercy of someone half their
age.

"Carlos has shown me a couple of short films he did. They’re really
quite excellent. It’s obvious he has talent," says Sinelnikov, who
plays another furious, flunked-out senior driver in the film.

"I’m going to park my butt here. They can stick their driver’s
licence up their arse," interjects actor Dean Hagopian, still in his
driver’s character as he takes a seat.

His long list of film and television credits range from co-star and
principal roles to smaller parts in well-known productions such as
Denys Arcand’s acclaimed Jesus of Montreal.

In the TV movie Little Gloria Happy at Last (true story of the
custody battle over heiress Gloria Vanderbilt) Hagopian served papers
to Angela Lansbury, the formidable aunt Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney.

"I tripped on a cable and fell head first into her bosom." It was
worth it, he says, to play a scene with Lansbury.

The Ottawa-Montreal Hagopian hails from Galt, "I still can’t bring
myself around to calling it Cambridge," he says, and draws the
Armenian he uses in the film from his father, "who never drove,
didn’t ride a bicycle. He walked to work."

The city Hagopian can’t stand to call Cambridge has its own film
liaison office at city hall, as does Kitchener-Waterloo and Acton.
This year a $12,000 budget request from Guelph’s economic development
department to set up such an office to promote the city as a film
site wasn’t granted. The request is on the books for 2007.

Meanwhile, the department’s marketing and research coordinator
Jennifer Peleschak is pulling together a web page that will include
films, TV productions and commercials already filmed here, potential
locations and a link to the Ontario Media Development Corporation,
which provides incentives for film companies to shoot outside the
Greater Toronto Area. "Toronto directors love us because we’re so
close," says Peleschak. She’s also excited about Guelph’s talent
including Essagian, who has two more projects planned practically
acted out the entire short for her when he approached the city.

Sinelnikov, the first director of Cirque de Soleil, is working on his
own film, the true story about how the famous artistic company
started by two street performers nearly didn’t open.

He predicts that Essagian’s shorts will be "calling cards" for the
"energetic, resourceful" director now based in Guelph.

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