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Vivid Vision Artscene 41 · Friday, June 15, 2012 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.insideHALTON.com Secret Cross wins LA Movie Awards By Dominik Kurek OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Oakville filmmaker Anthony Tullo had a good feeling about his film, but he did not expect such a strong reception from the people in the industry. His feature-length film, A Secret Cross, picked up two international awards at the Los Angeles Movie Awards recently, one being an award of excellence. The second award was for best supporting actor for the work of Jeff Joslin. "I feel amazing," Tullo said of the awards. "I was feeling good about maybe an honourable mention because I feel good about the film." The news about the awards came in an email, which he said stunned him. "I was frozen to the computer. I was staring at it thinking, `is this real?' It's quite an honour." Tullo originally filmed the movie last summer in Paris, Ontario and Oakville as a short with a title of The Secret Cross. He screened the film already in Toronto. However, he wanted to take the film further and hoped to enter it into film festivals, especially to the Toronto International Film Festival, which looks for unscreened films. So he went and reworked the movie, turning it into a feature-length production after reshooting more footage and changed the name to A Secret Cross. "It was a big undertaking. It cost a bit of money to go back, but I was lucky because the key to this whole thing is a guy named Tom Schlesinger," he said. Schlesinger was a story consultant for the Academy Award-winning film Nowhere in Africa. Through a mutual acquaintance, Tullo met Schlesinger and through the advice of screenwriter, Tullo was able to turn the film into a feature production. "Tom sat with me and helped me reconstruct A Secret Cross. I went back, spent the money and did that. He's a master at what he does and we worked very well together," Tullo said. Tullo is the lead in the film, while Joslin plays the antagonist. Joslin is a retired mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter and Tullo's fighting instructor. "I'm very happy and proud of him. I spent a lot of time, hours and hours and days, training him because he had no previous acting experience," Tullo said. "He was somebody who respected that I was doing this, took my directions seriously, he wrote down notes. He just really ran with it." Tullo submitted the movie into several film festivals and hopes to premiere the full-length production at TIFF's Midnight Madness this summer. Tullo is also performing a leukemia and Alzheimer's benefit concert at the Queen Elizabeth Park Community and Cultural Centre on Wednesday, Aug. 29. He'll be performing along with country musician Paul Malysa, whose music is featured in A Secret Cross. The concert starts at 8 p.m. Tickets cost $20. For tickets, email Tullo at anthony.tullo@gmail.com. For more information, visit www.asecretcross.com. sydney sheridan / special to the beaver at blakelock: T.A. Blakelock student Matt Willows is pictured preparing for the school's Grade 12 student art show, titled Vivid Vision. The class art show will viewable on Wednesday (6:30-9:30 p.m.) and Thursday (8:30 a.m.-3 p.m.) of next week. Be among the first to hear St. Jude's new organ The people at St. Jude's Anglican Church recently installed a new digital organ and they want to show it off. The church is holding its inaugural organ recital tomorrow (Saturday). Although the new organ is digital, it is said to be indistinguishable from Simon Walker Andrei Streliaev a traditional pipe instrument. The The recital will be performed by the three-manual instrument was designed for St. Jude's church. It has 73 church's recently-appointed director of stops and 24 audio channels with more music, Simon Walker, and assistant than 80 speakers. It was built by the organist, Andrei Streliaev. Walker was educated in cathedral Phoenix Organ Company of choral music at the University of Peterborough. The new instrument replaces an Allen Edinburgh in Scotland. Streliaev graduorgan that has served the church since ated from the J. Vitols Latvian Academy of Music. 1967. They will perform music by such composers as Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Liszt, Charles Marie Widor and Edward Elgar among others. Part of the recital will also consist of a demonstrations of the organ's versatility, which, because it is a digital instrument, is capable of more than the usual church organ sounds. The recital begins at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free but an offering will be received. People will also have a chance to meet the musicians after the recital. The church is located at 160 William St. For more information, visit www.stjudeschurch.net. Art studio celebrates anniversary with exhibit The Oakville Art Studio is celebrating its fourth anniversary with an exhibition at Joshua Creek Heritage Art Centre. The exhibit runs from this Saturday to July 8. The students of Oakville artist Ixchel Suarez, aged from as young as toddlers and teenagers to those who are older, will showcase their work. The show features sketches and acrylic paintings of impressions, still life, marine life, wildlife, landscape and abstract. An opening tea party takes place on Sunday (June 17) from 2-5 p.m. The centre is located at 1086 Burnhamthorpe Rd. E. The gallery is open Tuesday to Sunday from 1-4 p.m.