Christina Saliba of Misfit Films is thrilled to announce that the psychological thriller short, White Noise, directed by Tamara Scherbak (Is Your Teen a Homosexual?, Only Sky & Water, Dedashka) will have its world premiere at the 2023 Fantasia International Film Festival in the Les Fantastiques Week-ends du Cinéma Québécois programme on July 23rd, 2023 at 8:00 pm at the Cinema du Musée.
White Noise, starring Bahia Watson (The Handmaid’s Tale, Star Trek: Discovery), Ryan Hollyman (X-Men: Apocalypse, The Strain), and Guifre Bantjes-Rafols (Coroner, Private Eyes), is based on a screenplay by Scherbak and Christina Saliba.
White Noise is produced by Christina Saliba (A Score to Settle, Bandit), associate produced by Cynthia Amsden, (2020 CAFTCAD Awards) and executive produced by Anne-Marie Gélinas (SLAXX). It was shot in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and it will be broadcast on Bell Media’s CRAVE in Winter, 2024.
White Noise follows Ava, who suffers from an extreme hyper-sensitivity to sound. When this reaches new terrifying heights, her doctor enrolls her in an experimental trial involving an anechoic chamber: the world’s quietest room.
“I’m so excited that White Noise will be having its world premiere at Fantasia! Being from Montreal, Fantasia was the film festival that captured my heart even before I knew I wanted to be a filmmaker, so it’s really special to be able to screen here. Fantasia is the perfect place to launch White Noise as both the programmers and the audience are so engaged in every screening and the adoration for genre films is palpable. It really feels like a community of film lovers,” says writer/director Tamara Scherbak. “I can’t wait to share White Noise with the world so everyone can see the incredible performance of our lead, Bahia Watson, who was absolutely phenomenal in the role of Ava, which was such a physically and emotionally demanding role. Sylvain Bellmare’s sound design and Hans Laitres’ sound mix really turned sound into a character of its own. The entire crew did a stunning job bringing the world of White Noise to life, from the evocative cinematography of Roland Cody Laroque, the miracle work of Christina Vincelli’s production design and the rhythmic editing of Craig Scorgie, just to name a few. Filmmaking is truly a team and collaborative effort, and this really shines through with White Noise.”
“White Noise is a very personal story, as it is based on a condition I have had since I was a child called misophonia (a hyper-sensitivity to certain everyday sounds),” says producer Christina Saliba. “It is an affliction that devastated my relationships and caused extreme social isolation. What is equally destructive is the medical system’s dismissiveness and neglect to the plight of those that suffer with it. White Noise is a story about the horrors of invisible illness, medical gaslighting, and reclaiming one’s power in unconventional ways, told through the lens of genre. Having our world premiere at the Fantasia is beyond exciting as not only is Montreal our hometown, but Fantasia audiences are some of the best in the world. Not only are they die-hard fans of genre films but they appreciate the deeper meanings told behind the horror. We hope White Noise haunts audiences long after its initial viewing, yet resensitizes them to the very real challenges of silent sufferers.”
Cinematography by Roland Cody Larocque (Oversight, I Want to Be Like You), production design by Christina Vincelli (Nadia, Butterfly, LARPs), costume design by Marie-Elyse McGuire (The Changeling, Handmaid’s Tale), sound design by Sylvain Bellemare (Arrival, Incendies), and editing by Craig Scorgie (In Flames, Women Talking).
White Noise is produced with the financial participation of the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC), the Harold Greenberg Fund, and the Canadian Film Centre in association with Bell Media’s Crave.
ABOUT TAMARA SCHERBAK
Tamara Scherbak has written and directed a body of work across the genres of fiction, documentary and experimental cinema that have travelled to film festivals around the globe.Notable works include Dedashka (2009), winner of Best Director at the Montreal Festiv’elles Film Festival for women filmmakers, Only Sky & Water (2011), which screened in competition at the Hot Docs Film Festival and Is Your Teen a Homosexual? (2018), one of nine scripts selected for development at the 2015 Berlinale Talents Short Form Station. That short fiction film has screened at over 30 film festivals such as NewFest, Rendez-vous Québec Cinema and the Kyiv International Short Film Festival. Tamara has also directed work for the National Film Board of Canada, and Vice Quebec including the 4-part web series For The Better. She is an alumna of multiple prestigious talent labs of the Toronto, Berlin and Reykjavik International Film Festivals as well as the Netflix-Banff Diversity of Voices Initiative.
ABOUT CHRISTINA SALIBA
Christina Saliba started off her career as a wildlife biologist working with marmots, prairie dogs, and rehabilitating seal pups. She then fell into the world of film and started writing pitches for a documentary film production company looking to venture into wildlife docs. She worked her way up the ladder as a production coordinator on shorts, features, and commercials. In 2017, she joined Goldrush Entertainment as a development executive, discovering new intellectual property, creating pitch materials, and providing support in pre- to post-production. Through Goldrush Entertainment she was an Associate Producer on A Score to Settle (Nicolas Cage) and Most Wanted (Josh Hartnett).
In 2021, Saliba graduated from the Norman Jewison’s Film Program Producers’ Lab at the Canadian Film Centre and won the Whistler Film Festival’s Power Pitch Competition for her psychological horror film, White Noise. In 2022, she also graduated from the Whistler Film Festival’s Producers’ Lab, the Women in Film and TV – Vancouver’s Genre Lab, and the Blood in the Snow Film Festival’s Horror Development Lab. She’s been a recipient of funding from the art councils, the Harold Greenberg Fund’s shorts-to-features program, SODEC, the Canadian Film Centre, and Telefilm Canada.
We know you’re excited about this one because we are! See the new official Trailer for Noah Baumbach‘s WHITE NOISE starring Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig! Also below, some new Artwork for the Film.
Logline: At once hilarious and horrifying, lyrical and absurd, ordinary and apocalyptic, White Noise dramatizes a contemporary American family’s attempts to deal with the mundane conflicts of everyday life while grappling with the universal mysteries of love, death, and the possibility of happiness in an uncertain world.
CAST: Adam Driver, Greta Gerwig, Don Cheadle, Raffey Cassidy, Sam Nivola, May Nivola, Lars Eidinger, Andre Benjamin, Jodie Turner-Smith
Artwork:
WHITE NOISE is coming soon to Netflix.
(Photo/video credit: Netflix)
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