Island Life

A one-shot thriller about a gang leader who refuses to confront the neighbour suddenly blasting music at six in the morning. (Watch the film)

Overview

Credits

Island Life was directed by Gavin Michael Booth, written by Andres Cabrera Rucks, and produced by Vincent Copti and Andres Cabrera Rucks.

It stars Ben Peters (Jack), Frédérique Dufort (Samantha), Tamara Sevunts (Erica), Lucas Di Tecco (Sal), Jonathan Vanderzon (Roger), Sam Beaton (Ralph) et Kitu Turcas (le voisin).

Cinematography by Ken Amlin, art direction by Calli Cohen, sound mixing by George Flores, music supervision by Alexandra Rimmington.

Making Of

Island Life was a short film four years in the making.

It had its unofficial beginnings in February 2020, when Andres Cabrera Rucks, then a producer at Television McGill, wrote the first version of the script. Though there were plans to produce it back then, the project was shelved indefinitely with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic a month later.

In January of 2022, Andres, who had briefly worked for PanArt Productions when it made commercials for budding NGOs, teamed up with its President, Vincent Copti, to finally and properly bring his vision to life.

Their first order of business was to hire a director with the necessary know-how to pull off a 20-minute long-take. A thorough search among indie film directors based in the East coast of Canada led them to Gavin Michael Booth, whose 20-year-long career and over 150 music video and 40 narrative directing credits included a handful of one-shot marvels (namely, Just 20 and Last Call). 

With Gavin on the team, the producers could now accurately assess what a project at the scale dictated by Andres’ script would cost. The answer: at least $36,000 dollars, significantly more than what their previous financing efforts and savings could afford them.

Undeterred, Vincent and Andres ran a month-long crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo that raised a little over their $16,000 goal from 160+ backers. The film was on!

In the following months, the trio scouted potential locations, recruited the rest of the crew, booked the necessary equipment, and auditioned over 150 Montreal-based union actors (bringing 15 of those together for an in-person chemistry read prior to selection).

The team shot Island Life on location in the town of Mount Royal from June 3rd to June 9th, 2023. The first three days consisted of rehearsals with and without camera; filming took place throughout the remaining four, during which time the crew captured a real one-shot, which may or may not make up the final film.

For a kinetic taste of what production looked like, watch our Behind the Scenes video on YouTube!

The film languished in post-production for about a year. An assembly cut revealed that one “scene” was not up to par, so the team reluctantly but relentlessly reshot it (all the way in Windsor, ON!). Issues with the on-set sound recording further complicated the editing and sound mixing, but after months of tireless fine-tuning and postponements, the film was finally complete in the summer of 2024.

Watch our Script-to-Screen video (finished product on the upper half, pre-production script below it) to see how Gavin and the actors brought the script to life!

To celebrate and to keep the promises they made to their Indiegogo backers, Vincent and Andres held an in-person, unofficial premiere for over 200 cast, crew, friends, and backers on September 8th, 2024.

Festivals and Release

The film would go on to have its official World Premiere at the Regard – Saguenay International Short Film Festival (Shoot No Matter What block), one of only a handful of Oscar-qualifying festivals in Canada.

Six more festivals would dare to showcase it on the big screen. Four of those were based in New England: Made Here Film Festival in Burlington, VT, the Long Island International Film Expo in Bellmore, NY, the Lonely Seal International Film Festival in Arlington, MA, and the Monadnock International Film Festival in Keene, NH.

Island Life would earn its first honors at the Terror in the Bay Film Festival in Thunder Bay, ON, where Andres received the Best Original Screenplay award and Ben Peters was crowned Best Actor.

Perhaps the highlight of the film’s festival run was its screening at the Fantasia International Film Festival, arguably the most exciting genre film festival in the world. It took place in Vincent and Andres’ hometown of Montreal, in the same exact theater (Cinéma du Musée) where the two producers had first held the unofficial premiere almost a year earlier!

The last of Island Life’s success came in the form of a Film Shortage selection. The YouTube channel with roughly 100,000 followers (at the time of writing) interviewed Gavin and Andres and listed the film among its 42 Featured Shorts of the year.

But their appreciation for the film did not stop there. To the filmmakers’ surprise, Film Shortage named Island Life the BEST SHORT OF 2025! Out of over 300 annual picks!

The shorts aggregator called Island Life a “masterclass in restraint, tension, and cinematic confidence” and a “nerve-shredding psychological standoff”.

Previous winners of the top spot include Oscar nominees from Québec Invincible and Fauve and Oscar winner The Windshield Wiper.

With this massive honor, the Island Life journey comes to a close, almost six years after it was first written. We, the filmmakers, hope it continues to thrill, entertain, and inspire viewers like you for years to come.