Photon Films and Media
snaps up Trevor Mack’s Coming-Of-Age Drama
PORTRAITS FROM A FIRE 

Photon Films and Media has acquired the Canadian rights to the Indigenous coming-of-age drama Portraits From A Fire. The film is directed by Trevor Mack, story is by Trevor Mack & Derek Vermillion, and it is written by Manny Mahal.

The film follows Tyler (William Lulua), an eccentric and lonely teenager who spends his days filmmaking, and vlogging in his Indigenous community, and hanging out with his grandparents. His father, Gord (Nathaniel Arcand), is physically present but remains emotionally absent from the boy’s life. Tyler cannot understand why. That is until he meets Aaron (Asivak Koostachin), a mysterious, charismatic figure who ends up being a huge influence on Tyler. He also encourages Tyler to showcase to the community his most personal film, one that deals with his mother’s disappearance. This leads to a reckoning between past and future, life and death, and father and son.

Currently the film is enjoying a robust festival run that includes stops at CineFest, CIFF, VIFF, EIFF, imagineNATIVE, just to name a few. Following the festivals, Portrait From A Fire will have a special Spotlight Series presentation at Landmark Cinemas across Canada on November 1, and then becomes available on all major VOD platforms, and iTunes across Canada on November 9.

Mack is an award-winning Tsilhqot’in nation filmmaker from the interior of British Columbia. Raised by his single mother and family, his culture and upbringing provided a strong foundation for storytelling that is expressed through his current film work. 

In 2013, at 21 he debuted his first short film, The Blanketing. It screened across North America and in New Zealand at festivals such as the Vancouver Indigenous Media Arts Festival, Toronto Independent Film Festival, and imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, among others. Mack’s 2nd short film, Clouds of Autumn, debuted at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival in 2015 and went on to screen at other film festivals such as the Vancouver International Film Festival, Ottawa International Film Festival, Whistler Film Festival, American Indian Film Festival, imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, Tacoma Film Festival, and the Maoriland Film, among others. Clouds of Autumn received the ‘Best Canadian Short Drama’ award at the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival

The film also stars Sammy Stump, Melanie Bobby, and Pauline Bob-King.  

Portraits From A Fire is produced by Rylan Friday, and Kate Kroll.

Executive Produced by Screen Siren’s Trish Dolman.   

Cinematographer is Kaayla Whachell.

Editor is Elad Tzadok. 

Launched in 2010, Photon Films and Media (photonfilms.ca), formerly Pacific Northwest Pictures, is a leading Canadian entertainment company specializing in the development, financing, production and distribution of feature films for the domestic and international marketplace. With an emphasis on high quality films from leading filmmakers in diverse genres, Photon Films brings those films to consumers with innovative forms of marketing and distribution across all distribution platforms.

Recent releases include the Academy Award Winning Sound of Metal with Riz Ahmed and Olivia Cooke, Emma Seligman’s Shiva Baby starring Rachel Sennott, Molly Gordon and Dianna Agron, The Smith’s themed coming-of-age dramedy Shoplifters of the World, Mogul Mowgli with Riz Ahmed, Mathieu Turi’s claustrophobic horror Meander, Helen Shaver’s drama Happy Place for which Mary Walsh won a Canadian Screen Award for Best Supporting Actress, the award-winning Violation from Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli. Upcoming releases include Juniper, starring Charlotte Rampling, Falling for Figaro with Danielle Macdonald and Joanna Lumley and the documentaries Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché and Dear Future Children.