Ahead of N.B. premiere, filmmaker grateful to community for her especially low-cost 1st feature

Hannah Rudderham · CBC News

· Posted: Nov 07, 2025 1:40 PM EST | Last Updated: 3 hours ago

When Britany Sparrow of Fredericton sat down 6 ½ years agone to constitute a movie script, she realized rapidly that it required much than a abbreviated movie treatment. 

“Writing and directing a feature, I feel, is benignant of similar a bucket database happening that a batch of aspiring filmmakers have,” said Sparrow, who has written and directed 9 abbreviated films.

“I didn't truly acceptable retired to bash it astatine the beginning, but I came location 1 time and started penning this publication … and past I conscionable fell successful emotion with the story.”

Years aboriginal and the publication volition beryllium making its New Brunswick debut Sunday astatine the Silver Wave Film Festival, which began Thursday. The showing starts astatine 7 p.m. successful the University of New Brunswick's Tilley Hall.

Filmmaker Britany Sparrow sat down much than six years agone to constitute a publication that would aboriginal go her penning and directing diagnostic movie debut. (Hannah Rudderham/CBC)

Still Your Song follows 5 erstwhile members of the indie stone set Low Tide who instrumentality to their tiny town, wherever they are asked to execute for their precocious schoolhouse reunion.

Sparrow said each of the main characters goes connected a idiosyncratic journey, learning however to emotion themselves, portion the movie besides explores themes specified arsenic grief and nostalgia.

The movie was completed with a fund acold smaller than what would beryllium classified arsenic a “low-budget” film.

“Typically, a debased fund movie is immoderate movie with a fund of little than $5 million,” Sparrow said. 

“In New Brunswick, radical thin to marque what they telephone a micro-budget film, which is, I think, betwixt $500,000 and $1.5 million.”

For Sparrow’s film, aft crowdfunding and a tiny grant, the fund came successful astatine $12,000.

This meant that overmuch of the enactment was made imaginable by volunteers and cogwheel borrowed from the New Brunswick Filmmakers' Co-operative. Shot implicit six months, the squad had to usage weekends and times erstwhile the actors and unit were available, since they weren’t being paid and couldn’t instrumentality clip disconnected work. 

The shooting schedules for diagnostic films typically would instrumentality 20 to 25 days, said Sparrow, but due to the fact that she and everyone other progressive had a time job, the process had to beryllium dispersed out.

This meant the actors had to support their appearances passim the filming process — ever getting the aforesaid haircuts, consistently dying their hair, adjacent sticking to the aforesaid colour of nail polish.

About 60 actors and unit took part, but determination was overlap, with immoderate unit members acting oregon being extras.

“One of the things that is truthful peculiar astir the New Brunswick movie assemblage is the information that we are consenting to amusement up for each other,” Sparrow said.

“We're a scrappy radical of radical that don't person a batch of resources … and I cannot talk highly capable of the radical that kept showing up.”

The assemblage was 1 of the things that kept Sparrow successful the state aft she moved here.

Growing up successful British Columbia, she wanted to spot much of the state aft doing 2 years of her undergrad astatine home. She moved to New Brunswick successful 2004 for the University of New Brunswick's originative penning programme — not expecting to enactment — and erstwhile she took a movie elective, everything clicked.

WATCH | How Still Your Song came together:

One of the large players down the movie was Kayla Ossachuk. When Sparrow started penning the script, she approached Ossachuk, who had been an adjunct manager connected 1 of Sparrow’s abbreviated films, and asked her to beryllium her producer. 

For Ossachuk, the reply was immediate. 

The pair, nether their caller associated institution Battle Cat Films, began readying logistics and applying for funding. Funding for films is hard to travel by successful New Brunswick truthful it wasn’t easy, Ossachuk said.

She said they were capable to use to a circumstantial backing watercourse for being an all-women team, but adjacent that didn’t enactment retired since it was a Canada-wide exertion process.

“I deliberation a batch of radical extracurricular of New Brunswick hide that New Brunswick is simply a province, and that we person creatives here, and we person artists, and a batch of radical present person to bash a batch with a small spot due to the fact that of that,” Ossachuk said.

“Obviously, if we could wage each of the artists who worked connected everything that we've ever done, we would person a thriving creation community, but that's conscionable not the lawsuit successful this province.”

Kayla Ossachuk, shaper for Still Your Song, said securing backing for New Brunswick films tin beryllium difficult. (Hannah Rudderham/CBC)

But still, the brace persevered and made bash with the $12,000 fund and a dedicated radical of actors and crew.

For Ossachuk, the six years flew by, and earlier she knew it, she and Sparrow were embarking connected a “hometown tour,” wherever they premiered the movie successful some of their hometowns — Vernon, B.C., for Sparrow and Kenora, Ont., for Ossachuk.

“I deliberation for a batch of my life, my parents person thought that my filmmaking is benignant of similar a backmost burner benignant of enjoyment, and I deliberation this was the archetypal clip that they really were capable to … ticker thing that I had a immense manus successful and say, ‘Oh, this is what you're doing, we recognize now,” said Ossachuk, who has lived successful New Brunswick for 10 years.

For Sparrow, the premiere successful Vernon brought unneurotic radical she'd known her full beingness but didn’t needfully cognize what she did.

But Sunday, erstwhile Still Your Song volition amusement successful New Brunswick for the archetypal time, volition beryllium a peculiar time arsenic well, Sparrow said. 

“I went to my archetypal Silver Wave successful 2005 arsenic a movie student, and I retrieve however chill it was seeing my sanction successful the credits of a movie, and I retrieve I was sitting with a person of mine, and we were some like, 'We're going to beryllium up determination 1 day,'” Sparrow said.

“It feels precise afloat ellipse that this is happening this way.”