MEDIA RELEASE: February 22, 2010

CARRY ON SERGEANT! RETURNS TO THE GRAND THEATRE 82 YEARS LATER
Silent film shot in Kingston and Trenton part of 10th annual Kingston Canadian Film Festival

Kingston – The Kingston Canadian Film Festival is pleased to announce a gala reception and screening of CARRY ON SERGEANT! on Saturday March 6 at the Grand Theatre. The screening is part of the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the festival. An exhibit featuring photographs and documents about the production will be on display.

Filmed in the Trenton Studios and on location in the area, including Kingston, in between November 1927 to May 1928, CARRY ON SERGEANT! was made at the tail-end of the silent era, and will be presented with live piano accompaniment by renowned keyboardist William O’Meara. 

“CARRY ON SERGEANT! was imagined on an epic scale,” says Blaine Allan, professor in the Film and Media department at Queen’s University. “Trumpeted for its Canadian-ness, it turned out to be a highly creditable war picture, at some points spectacular.”

Peggy Dymond Leavey of Trenton, Ontario will be attending the screening and reception and selling copies of her book, ‘The Movie Years’, about Trenton’s years in the spotlight. “One wonders what life in Trenton, Ontario, might have been like today had predictions made in the early part of this century come true,” she says. 

To arrange an interview with Blaine Allan or Peggy Dymond Leavey, please feel free to contact me.

CARRY ON SERGEANT! facts:

- The film was originally budgeted to cost $200,000 CAD, but ended up costing about half a million dollars - $6 million in current dollars.
- The Trenton Studios, where SERGEANT! was made, earned Trenton, Ontario the nickname ‘Hollywood of the North’ in the 1920s. The facility closed in 1934.
- CARRY ON SERGEANT! bankrupted its production company over debts of $518.95 – less than $6,500 dollars today.
- Kingston filming locations included the Canadian Locomotive Company at Ontario and Gore Streets, the Plaza Hotel and other locations.
- Bruce Bairnsfather was a first-time director, who was known for his wartime cartoons about a cranky soldier named Old Bill. Bairnsfather had also developed a stage play about him.
- SERGEANT! played at the Grand Theatre on December 6, 7 and 8, 1928. Bairnsfather made a personal appearance.
- The film was released in November 1928 and had disappeared from theatres by Christmas the same year.

The Kingston Canadian Film Festival is presented by The Kingston Whig-Standard and Cogeco, operates in partnership with the Toronto International Film Festival Group, and receives funding from the Ontario Arts Council, The City of Kingston, the Kingston Arts Council, the George Taylor Richardson Memorial Fund and the Davies Charitable Foundation. The festival is supported by 98.3 FLY FM, 103.7 BOB FM and 98.9 The Drive. 

 The 2009 Kingston Canadian Film Festival will be held March 3 – 7, 2010. 

-30- 

For additional information, please contact: 
Stephanie Earp, Festival Manager
stephanie.earp@kingcanfilmfest.com 
613-777-0161 x1