Verona The Movie Opens

Jeff Green | Nov 01, 2023

It seems like a lifetime ago when filmmaker Sebastian Back, who grew up in Verona, and producer Maeve Kern, reached out to the community in and around Verona for help during a film shoot they were organising, from the ground up.

They had worked together before, on the short film I am, I am, which was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2019 as part of the Next WaveYoung Creators Showcase.

The timing of the shoot for their new project, a feature length film called Verona, was difficult, to say the least. In March of 2021, the first anniversary of the COVID pandemic was coming up, and the protocols that needed to be followed for a two week film shoot in June of that year were extensive.

But the reaction of the local community to calls for material support, locations, and actors was tremendous, and Back and Kern, who were both still in their early 20s at the time, were able to pull everything together in a matter of weeks.

The shoot went off as planned for three weeks in June of 2021, and although it took a lot longer to bring the film from the raw footage stage to a finished product, it had its sold out debut at the Kingston Film Festival in early March of this year, and will be having its theatrical debut at Landmark Cinemas in Kingston next Monday (November 6).

The main character in the film is Camilla, played by Toronto actor Kat Kahn, “a young woman whose family, and romantic life go through a variety of major shifts in the days that follow the death of her estranged grandfather,” in the description accompanying the Kingston Film festival screening.

Kat Khan described the filming process as a collaborative one, and looking back on it now, Back said, in an email correspondence with the News, that the script changed substantially with input from the actors and others on the set.

“So much changed [during filming] and all of it was surprising. I wanted to figure out what directing meant to me. Making the movie was a big exploration and experiment in that sense. Showing it to people is the next step in that experiment.”

Frontenac County residents who see the film will certainly recognise Verona landmarks in the movie, Back said, although he added that he now regrets that none of the shooting took place at Topper's, given the fire from earlier this summer.  The film could have “immortalised that spot in the movie” Back said.

Since completing his work on the film, Back has been doing a lot of writing with a focus on finding his voice before bringing his next project forward.

For her part, Maeve Kern is now working at the video production company Archipelago Productions in Toronto as head of production. She said she is “working on 10 projects that range from feature length documentaries to workplace comedies, adding that she also looks forward to “ work with Sebastian when the next time comes around!”

The screening times at Landmark Films in Kingston are available from Wednesday morning each week, and Verona is on the schedule that is out now for next week. 

Landmark Cinemas is located at 120 Dalton, near the junction of Hwy. 401 and Division Street.