Christine Sirois is a first-year journalism student but her screenplay is a whole different kind of
storytelling ( Photo: C.J. Roussakis )

When Christine Sirois started out to put her script to the screen, the most that was physically required of her lead actor was to dole out shrimp and molluscs in the manner of any seafood counter employee.

Months later and at the height of Sirois’ production, the same player was standing on Bank Street done up in a foam rubber lobster costume.

Such is movie magic.

Kosher Rebellion is the Carleton Film Society’s funded production for this year. The film, currently in post-production, is the brainchild of first-year journalism student Christine Sirois.

 “Most great movies start with the idea of, ‘What would happen, if?’ ” Sirois said, describing her creative process.

In Rebellion’s case, Sirois has us wonder what would happen if a kosher-keeping Jewish boy obtained employment at a seafood counter, rebelling against his religious and overbearing parents in the process.

Sirois beat out several other selections to gain film society funding. The process Sirois describes sees members pitching their ideas to the rest of the society. The final selection is made by the society executive based on feasibility and the quality of the screenplay at hand.

Kosher Rebellion was chosen over “a post-apocalyptic war story, which would look great if done by Hollywood but not really feasible on the [film society] budget.”

While it is her script, Sirois declined to direct the film.

“Production was actually a really big collaboration,” Sirois said. “I was going to direct the film as well but it was way too much to handle.”

Matthew Tyne was handed those reigns, with Grant Jeffry as art director and Ralitsa Doncheva as director of photography.

Sirois found the trickiest thing about the production was actually getting adults to be the parents.

“We ended up using a bunch of Carleton students,” she explained, “and had a guy do a voiceover for the mom, a ‘moved-to-New-York-City-from-Eastern-Europe’ kind of voice.”

Employing at least a dozen people, Sirois required a decent budget, which is where the film society stepped in.

“Because the film society was really modest with their budget in the first half of the year, [the Carleton University Students’ Association] gave us a fair chunk of change for this half of the year.”

 
In the end, Sirois was allotted a budget of $600, which covered all the necessary expenses.
 
However, Sirois maintains that they’re not exploiting Carleton students to make the film. In fact, they only asked for $7 during the first semester — though what that went toward she couldn’t remember.
 
Overall, Sirois is satisfied with the production her film is shaping up to be.

“It’s totally cool,” she said. “Because it’s a student film you can’t really expect your vision to come through 100 per cent. You cut corners and there are compromises, but it turned out better that way because it’s ridiculously more ridiculous. ” (This last bit was in reference to the previously-mentioned lobster outfit.)

“I think it’s great. Everyone else has such good ideas too, with directing or editing or art or whatever. It’d be a shame to let it go to waste.”
 
Kosher Rebellion debuts at the Carleton Film Society gala at the Mayfair Theatre on April 9, at 7 p.m.