About Under the Volcano

'Under the Volcano' is a short film project cowritten by Sebastian Harder and Greig Oldford and starring Greig Oldford, Marie Kozlova, Jason Pelley, Colleen MacIsaac, Sean Kemp and others. The film is set on a volcanic island that both relies on the volcano for its survival and is threatened by it. Mark (Greig Oldford) works at a power company which harvests geothermal energy, but is forced to confront his life when he is asked to make a compromising choice by his charismatic supervisor (Jason Pelley). Marie Kozlova plays Natalka, a young boxer that forces Mark to confront his demons.

We are grateful to acknowledge the support of the Centre for Art Tapes (CFAT) and the National Film Board (NFB) in this project.

'Under the Volcano'has been in development and production for two years and is slated to be finished spring 2012.

Credits

Directed by: Sebastian Harder
Written by: Sebastian Harder and Greig Oldford
Produced by: Sebastian Harder
Co-produced by: Darin Roche
Starring: Greig Oldford, Marie Kozloava, Jason Pelley, Sean Kemp
Edited by: Sebastian Harder and Greig Oldford
Audio Editor: Lukas Pierce
Score by: Andrew Gormley
Additional music by: Windom Earle

Greig Oldford

Greig is a Halifax-based filmmaker, writer, and comedian.   He enjoys long beaches, walking on said beaches,  and surfing waves that oft break on the aforementioned beaches.    He’s also a master’s student in environmental studies, specializing in environmental decision making, governance, and ecological economics. And he makes maps and has a degree in that.

Greig has been making comedic and documentary shorts since his junior high Graphic Arts teacher gave him a camera and his mom allowed him to edit on two stacked VCR’s.  More recently, he has produced a number of comedic digital shorts and, working with the visual and new media artist and director, Sebastian Harder (www.sebazistan.com), he co-wrote and acted in a 44min dark-comedy short film, Under the Volcano (2011 – post-production), supported by the National Film Board and the Centre for Art Tapes.  Over the past four years he has honed his skills as a stand-up comic, performing around the province at amateur, charity, and professional events, sharing the stage with funny people like Cathy Jones (22 Minutes) and Picnicface. He has acted as an extra in two locally produced films, Rollertown (directed by Andrew Bush) and Flammable Hearts (directed by Andrew Hines) and the Picnicface Television Show (2011). In the winter of 2011, Greig co-wrote a feature length dark comedy called Selfish Gene with Andrew Gormley.  In the spring of 2011 he co-wrote, directed, co-edited, and acted in the web PSA for TEDxHalifax & TEDxNovaScotia, a video / speaker series which he currently curates, licensed by the TED international conference series.  In the fall of 2011, he was a finalist in the 10×10 program at the Atlantic Film Festival, an intensive five day program, where he teamed up with Sebastian Harder again, directing a music video for Andy Brown.

Marie Kozlova

Marie is a student in Halifax. Under the Volcano is her acting debut. (More info soon.)

Jason Pelley

Jason Pelley was born in Montreal, QC. After his graduation from university Jason has traveled all over the world while working as a private consultant. He now resides in Atlantic Canada where he owns and operates a farm and sustainability consultancy. Jason's creative outlets include writing for various publications, post secondary lecturing and public speaking on various topics. Under the Volcano is his acting debut.

Sean Kemp

Sean has starred in a number of films and has extensive theatre experience. Sean studied acting at the State Institute of Cinematography in Moscow, Russia. He is also a very talented musician. He has performed in England for the Marlow Theatre, the Sir John Mills Theatre Company, the National Theatre, and the Wimbeldon Theatre. He has also performed extensively in Canada.

Under the Volcano Props.

One of the major challenges was getting the look right. The film is set in the late 1980s, so it was important that the technology matched the era. The following is just some of the old stuff we collected over the course of filming.