'Simulant' movie has a special Sask. connection

Saskatchewan-born film producer Chala Hunter helped bring Canadian Sci-Fi movie Simulant to life.

She describes the experience as a “chance encounter” where she responded to a job ad posted by movie director April Mullen.

“We made this film in the depths of winter, in Hamilton and the surrounding areas, and I learned so much about making a feature in Canada,” Hunter said in her Facebook post.

“My work on the film led to me being credited as an associate producer, as well as April’s assistant, and in a world where imposter feelings run high, I am grateful to Wango Films for crediting my work and efforts in this way.”

Mullen said making feature films in Canada is a major challenge.

“Our opening weekend was up against John Wick and Super Mario Brothers and also Avatar. So as you can see, those budgets are much larger than us and the films have a lot more support coming from the studio system,” Mullen told CTV News.

“To have original content made by Canadians and have it play on Canadian screens is extremely competitive and very rare.”

The movie opened on April 7 and is playing on 40 screens around the country, including at Saskatoon’s Scotiabank Theatre and Regina's Cineplex Cinemas Southland location.

“It's about humanity and the themes of AI sort of joining into society, whether we can integrate whether we can coexist,” Mullen said. “It's about bringing a loved one back to life. Would you clone yourself, would you clone a loved one and bring them back to life if you could, it's a very large life philosophy, like a thinker sort of piece and it leaves you with a lot of questions and a lot of discussion points.”

Mullen said the film also had action-packed scenes and allowed the actors to play roles that they don’t usually play.

“It's like all of these amazing elements come together in a short 22 days to make movie magic. So I love the whole 22 days. It's a marathon but you get to see everybody create incredible unique work every day and I love watching people do what they do best.”

In the Facebook post, Hunter also expressed her love of film.

“I look forward to producing, directing and writing so many more impactful and empathic stories, to connect with and move people, to remind of our aliveness, our every single moment present tense potential to be kind, creative, daring, tender, fierce, funny and interconnected.”