from vk & associates

Synopis:

The Bend is a teen drama inspired by real life events, from award-winning short filmmaker Jennifer Kierans.

Seventeen-year-old Jason Campbell (Adam Butcher) thinks he’s losing his mind… and he could be right. One year to the day from when Mike (Ryan Kennedy), his brilliant but unbalanced brother, died mysteriously on prom night, Jason is faced with his grief and fear of the possible shared hereditary nature of his brother’s mental illness.

He can’t go to his parents for answers so with Mike’s girlfriend Kelly (Sophie Traub) and best friend Scott (Tommy Lioutas) home from college for the memorial service, Jason vows to find out what happened the night Mike died. He decides to recreate his brother’s final moments, intent to find out if he could fall prey to the same fate.

Jason will have to decide whether to live with the new painful truths he discovers, or follow in his brother’s footsteps.

Filmmaker Jennifer Kierans said,“Although THE BEND deals with issues of metal illness and teem suicide, it is really about the more universal theme of surviving loss. Like Jason, I grew up with a family member who suffered from mental illness, and like Jason I wondered whether I might share this genetic trait. More importantly, like almost every teenager, I experienced events that challenged my naïve assumption that life would unfold according to plan.”

The Bend stars Adam Butcher (Saint Ralph), Sophie Traub (Tenderness, Daltry Calhoun, The Interpreter), Tommy Lioutas (Whistler – TV, Degrassi: The Next Generation – TV) and Ryan Kennedy (The Invisible, Whistler – TV) in the lead roles as well as husband and wife team, Peter Keleghan (The Newsroom – TV, Rick Mercer’s Made in Canada – TV) and Leah Pinsent (Rick Mercer’s Made in Canada – TV, Little Kidnappers) as well as comedian Mike MacDonald in supporting roles. The film was produced by Debra Kouri and Jennifer Kierans.

About Filmmaker:

Prior to directing The Bend, Jennifer Kierans, now based in Montreal, produced and directed critically acclaimed shorts Soother in 2001 and The Rogers’ Cable in 1998.

The Bend was developed through the NSI’s Features First Program, the Women in the Director’s Chair Workshop, and the Telefilm Screenwriters Assistance Program. With funding from Telefilm Canada’s Canadian Feature Film Fund, THE BEND premiered at the 2009 Montreal World Film Festival.”

The Bend is being released in Canada by Filmoption International and KINOSMITH INC.