Locked in a Basement with a Disney Classic

For 20 years, BravoFACT has been funding aspiring Canadian filmmakers in all sorts of different ways. Earlier this month, at the 2015 Victoria Film Festival, the broadcaster offshoot parsed out more substantial support.
 
Mary Galloway, a young aboriginal writer-director in British Columbia mentored by actor Patrick Sabongui, won a Pitch Contest sponsored by BravoFACT that was held at the festival. Her cash prize: $35,000.

From a report in the Oceanside Star :

Galloway's story focuses on Arielle, a girl locked in her basement for 10 years by her drug-addicted mother, with only her The Little Mermaid DVD for entertainment. "It becomes her basis for what's going on outside in the real world," says Galloway, whose heroine gets to set foot in "the real world for the first time" when fate intervenes.

Arielle's world view comes alive through animated sequences. Her character regards a fork, for instance, as a "valuable treasure" used to comb her hair.

Galloway beat out four other finalists at the February 6th contest. Presiding judge Pat Ferns told the paper this year's pitches were the best he's heard in some three decades at the festival.

The newly flush filmmaker will move to Vancouver to work on her film, titled Ariel Unraveling. (That's how the character in The Little Mermaid spells her name, as opposed to Arielle.)