Charlottetown Film Festival features tale about gutter punk subculture

The second annual Charlottetown Film Festival happens Friday to Sunday, showcasing the works of emerging Atlantic Canadian filmmakers with over 40 submissions.

It kicks off Friday with a feature that was developed on P.E.I., thanks to a program for screenwriters.

It's called Hunting Pignut, and was written and directed by Newfoundland's Martine Blue.

As she told Mainstreet P.E.I.'s Angela Walker, she credits the creation of the film to her being chosen to attend the PEI Screenwriters' Bootcamp.

"I pitched an idea initially that would be very expensive to make, this was six years ago," said Blue. "The woman who runs the program, Louise Lalonde, said 'You should really come up with something simpler, something that you could feasibly get made, something with a smaller budget.' I had this idea for Hunting Pignut kicking around in my head as a book a number of years ago, so I just brought that up."

The film is set in St. John's, and features characters, including Pignut, who are part of the city's gutter punk scene.

"A gutter punk goes beyond regular punks, who are generally concerned about fashion and the music," Blue described. "Gutter punks are really not concerned with a lot, they can have tattoos on their faces or bodies, very unkempt, don't generally wash a lot, that kind of thing, lots of patches and dirty, ratty clothes."

Used own street experiences

It's something she knows about firsthand, having lived on the streets herself.

"I squatted for a number of years, and I travelled often without a place to go," she said. "So I'd stay in abandoned houses or I'd stay in construction sites that weren't locked up. I'd stay on rooftops, anywhere that I could."

Blue called the film a gritty, coming-of-age drama, with a main character who runs away to St. John's in pursuit of Pignut, who has stolen her late father's ashes.

It's a very different view of that city, but Blue says it has its own charms.

"I think visually, it's beautiful," she said. "I love alleys and I love graffiti, and we don't ever see that side of St. John's, even in most of our films we see the idyllic side. And it's also a part of any society, the underbelly of society, and I think it's important to see all facets. The gutter punk subculture is one that not a lot of people know about."

Hunting Pignut is the main showing of the festival Friday night. It will screen at 9 p.m. at City Cinema in Charlottetown, and a question-and-answer session with the director will follow.

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