PERTH NATIVE'S MOVIE PREMIERES IN HOMETOWN

By Katie Hunter

Zarko has been kept out of the way for years. In fact, he might have stayed out of harm's way

forever, if it wasn't for four college age kids who accidentally let him loose. And then trouble begins.

This is the storyline for a new movie by the same name made in the Perth area. Zarko is a demon who

likes playing tricks on people and when the four kids let him loose, he begins with simple pranks that

escalate until the lives of the kids are in danger.

"It's not a horror," says director Travis Gordon, "it's a dark comedy. It's zany--unlike anything I've

ever seen."

This is the first movie that Mr. Gordon has directed, but he is no newcomer to the dramatic arts. He

has been in many plays, murder mysteries, and a few movies.

Mr. Gordon also teaches workshops in Ottawa and during the March break, he was doing seminars

at high schools in Kanata. However, he really likes directing.

"I got hooked on directing in college. It's a lot of fun--hard work because there are so many people

involved, but fun. I probably went into this a little naive," he said with a chuckle.

As well as directing the movie, Mr. Gordon also wrote the whole script. And he ended up editing it.

"I know a lot of people from school who know the technical stuff, so they helped me out a lot, but

I didn't know anyone who knew how to edit, so I started reading and took some courses and learned

by experience."

According to Mr. Gordon, he couldn't have done everything without the help of two very important

people. Julie O'Halloran has been his right-hand woman and the production manager and Amiel

Beausoleil, who is the producer, looked after getting all the funding for the project.

"They (O'Halloran and Beausoleil) looked after everything and that allowed me to focus on writing

and directing," he said.

Mr. Gordon is a Perth native and decided to shoot the movie in the area because it is so beautiful.

The crew was given the use of a cottage and so they went to work.

For people familiar with the Perth area, Zarko will be fun to watch because of the local landmarks they

will recognize. The first part of the movie involves the kids' road trip to the cottage and all of the

footage was shot in Perth.

Mr. Gordon used many people known in the Ottawa area acting scene in the movie. Once such actor

is Blair Paul, a well-known actor and an excellent painter, that Mr. Gordon first worked with in a

production in Ottawa. Gordon liked him and so he asked him to come and act in Zarko. Mr. Paul

plays the role of the owner of the cottage which the kids stay at.

The movie premiered at Fiddleheads on Wednesday and, at present, the group is working on setting

up other showings in Ottawa. There is also another project that Mr. Gordon is working on, which he

has about 80 percent written.

"This one (Zarko) was like taking baby steps--the next one will be off and running," he said.