About five years ago, Coquitlam director Trevor Cornish was bandying about ideas for a short film when his writing partner told him a true story.
Early in his career, Niall Kelly had worked in an arts and crafts store when a crazy man approached him, demanding to use the staff-only toilet but was denied due to company policy.
The concept struck Cornish as funny and he started to sketch out a screenplay based on the events. In Roland, the title character - portrayed by Daniel Beirne - is stocking shelves at Crafty's Art and Supply when he is accosted by a troublesome customer - played by Richard Denison - who brands Roland a "piss Nazi" for refusing entry to the loo.
In July, Cornish got the surprise of his life: Roland was picked out of 750 entries to run with 39 other shorts at this month's Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
TIFF organizers "called me out of no where and I thought it was a personal rejection. Luckily, it was not," the Port Moody secondary grad said.
The movie, which had its world premiere at TIFF on Sept. 11, was well received. "It's so surreal to watch your film on the big screen and you're surrounded by all of these people," he said, adding, "Obviously, it's a great opportunity to have your work premiered before such a large and diverse audience."
And next week, Cornish will see the west coast debut of Roland when it's screened at the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF). It will be shown as part of a shorts program, titled Objects of Desire, on Oct. 3 at 9:15 p.m. at SFU's Goldcorp Centre for The Arts (149 West Hastings St.) and on Oct. 10 at 1 p.m. at Vancity Theatre (1181 Seymour St.).
Cornish said having his production at VIFF is like coming full circle as he got his start making trailers for the festival. Over the next 13 years, Cornish climbed the industry ladder and became a director of music videos, television and video games plus commercials; he garnered international awards for the latter genre.
After VIFF, Roland will travel to Tacoma for the film fest there. As for Cornish, he will continue on a new short, called A Real Affair, as well as on two screenplays.
