TRY DIFFERENT WAYS BEFORE YOU FIND ONE THAT FITZ JONATHAN BUSCH / jonathan@vueweekly.com It’s time to put down Todd Babiak’s The Garneau Block, and find a new cultural text in which to identify the most recognizable locales of Edmonton. Ladies and gentlemen, I present Fitz, a freshman effort from local filmmaker Jeff L Burke, about the trials of love in the big city. Now, I once watched a porno all the way through to see how it ended (2002 AVN award winner Fade to Black, by the way), so not only do I have an exceptional patience for low-budget cinema, I also recognize its transcendent capabilities. The paper plate flying saucers of Plan 9 from Outer Space, the endless drag queen rants of Paul Morrissey’s Women in Revolt, Madonna’s pre-stardom role as a street hussy in A Certain Sacrifice, all precious rhinestones in my book. Basically, hook me with up a half-decent merlot, and I’ll watch anything. Fitz, named after its tormented male protagonist, follows one man’s triple bind between family, commitment and romance. He’s a wisecracking radio DJ who, after discovering his overachieving ex-girlfriend Emma is packing up and moving East with his son Brandon, must decide between joining them, or staying in Edmonton with his incredibly talented artist girlfriend Faith. But wait, a ballsy rock chick named Autumn enters the scene, only to establish a lively, erotic tension with our hero, and soon the shit gets much too insane. Director Burke left a military career in 2005 to pursue his interests in filmmaking at the Monday Night club at FAVA, and eventually mounted the challenge of his first feature film in Fitz. He wrote, produced, catered, etc, etc, the whole ball of wax—even editing its entirety at home on Sony Vegas 5. And I admire such an effort; it looks almost like a real movie. Fitz is a perplexing hunk of masculine torment, played with excruciating hubris by Manuel Sinor. He drinks beer, defends the integrity of Britney Spears, and has an undying devotion to fathering his socially awkward little boy. The emotional shambles of the situation hover over Sinor’s performance as though Fitz will never make a decision; when he finally does, it’s as though a sense of oneness has been achieved. Not so fast; I’m not spoiling the ending, guys. But I will nonetheless share the startling array of female dynamics on display in Fitz. Emma (Allie Bailey) is at first a selfish, stone-cold bitch, seemingly symptomatic of today’s modern working mother. Faith (Shannon Koshman) is a hot-blooded, passionately creative woman, who lives in her studio in what appears to be the second floor of Red Strap, and has a penchant for throwing coffee cups and picture frames. And Autumn (Mariam Bocari), don’t even get me started; she’s a fistful of tainted emotions and jet-black shoulder-length wet curls. Fitz’s journalist buddy Ron (with whom I strongly identified with, because I’m also a writer) describes her in a pit-fire sequence as “Garbage meets Lindsay Lohan;” honey, you read my fucking mind. In all seriousness, I recommend you get over your guilt about missing The Lives of Others, and check out Fitz’s one-night only showing. It features the LRT, the Power Plant coffeehouse, and a sincere effort by a filmmaker whom I hope keeps making new work. It’s more than a just a movie, its a labour of love. V Thu, Jun 7 (7 pm & 9 pm) Fitz Written & directed by Jeff L Burke Starring Manuel Sinor, Robert Moberg, Allie Bailey

Art imitates life in debut film The Edmonton Journal Published: Tuesday, June 05, 2007 EDMONTON - Fitz doesn't know what to do. His ex-wife Emma has just told him she's leaving town -- and she's taking their five-year-old son with him. What happens to the radio DJ is the subject of new independent movie Fitz, from local filmmaker Jeff Burke. The 31-year-old, originally from Cape Breton, wrote the screenplay while he was in the military in 2003. Inspired after seeing the 2000 John Cusack flick High Fidelity and director Kevin Smith's cult classics, he decided to pursue filmmaking of his own, and began attending moviemaking workshops at the Film and Video Arts Society of Alberta every Monday night. Fitz is Burke's first film, which he modelled after a similar situation he was in with his ex-wife and their son, now 10. "I thought it would be a good idea for a film--what would a guy do if he was put into this situation?" he asked. In real life, Burke's ex-wife ended up staying in Edmonton. To find out whether Fitz also gets a happy ending, catch the movie when it screens at the Garneau Theatre on Thursday at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Tickets are $10 at the door. © The Edmonton Journal 2007 http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/culture/story.html?id=5464bdee-f3d6-4617-84e5-72daa3d986b2 ---------------------------------- Beatroute Magazine – June 2007 Issue Fitz Edmonton filmmaker showcases real life struggles By Blake Betteridge Jeff Burke served in the military for 12 years, and it was there that his passion for film making took shape. While stationed in Ontario, Burke wrote Fitz on a broken laptop and with the help of his military pension was finally able to realize his dream of shooting his movie. The movie revolves around the struggle between Fitz, played by Manuel Sinor, his ex-wife Emma and their son. When Emma, played by Allie Bailey, decides to move East with their son, Fitz is put into quite a predicament. Does he stay for his career and girlfriend, or does he move to be close to his son and start over? Complicating matters is the introduction of a new girl, and the possibility that Fitz may have met his soul mate. “Fitz is a movie about a man who has to decide who he truly loves the most. In the end he knows that someone is going to be happy and someone is going to get hurt, and he’s not sure who to do that to,” explains Burke. When setting out to make his film, the Edmonton filmmaker just wanted to tell a good simple story. To be sure, the film contains clichés, but as Burke puts it, “there are clichés in it, but that’s why clichés are clichés.” Burke wants people to see Fitz and decide if they would do the same thing as the character, or if Fitz did the right thing. Burke has an interesting way to introduce Fitz’s friends, who the protagonist relies on heavily for advice. The moment a new character enters the film Burke is quick to introduce them with a monologue or a short scene explaining who they are and why they are there. To say the least, there’s not a lot of mystery involved with who the characters are and what their role in the movie is, but it at least clears up who’s who and why they’re there. Compounding the lack of mystery in the characters, in the end, Burke chooses to leave no loose end untied. However, he leaves Fitz wondering what could have been and leaves the impression that the lead character is going to continue to question whether what he did was the right thing for the rest of his life. Despite Fitz’s doubtful choices, he is apparently happy with decision he’s made. Burke has never taken any formal film school training and has instead relied on the guidance and support of the night film club at FAVA (The Film and Arts Society of Alberta). He is inspired by film’s ability to tell a wide variety of stories and the medium’s ability to shock the viewer. An example of where Burke’s inspiration comes from is in Jaws. “The part in Jaws where Roy Scheider is at the back of the boat throwing out the chum, and everybody’s enjoying the banter back and forth and it’s just funny, then all of a sudden you see a great big shark come out and it switches,” he says. “You can see the audience’s reaction change from humour to horror. It’s stuff like that that I’d like to write about. I want to get that reaction from the audience.” Fitz opens on June 7th at the Garneau Theatre in Edmonton.

Conceived during the fall of 2003, the screenplay was written in just four weeks, over the next couple months, he started to explore the possibility that the film could be shot with a no-budget setting and using actors he knew from the FAVA Monday Night Club in Edmonton.
Realizing that even though he had no formal training on filmmaking, and had up to that point only made a handful of short films, Jeff decided to proceed and thus decided to use his own funds.
Gathering a crew of four people, ten locations, and eleven actors, the movie was shot on weekdays during normal 9-5 hours from Aug 2nd – Aug 26th. The total footage shot was 22 hours, and was edited on his home computer using Sony Vegas 5.0.
Editing was completed in Jan 2007 and FITZ was chosen as Official Selection for the 2007 Indie Can Film Festival in Mississauga, Ontario.