The right timing

>> Mike Kronish and Robert Gervais let the cameras roll

by MATTHEW HAYS

Montreal film producers Mike Kronish and Robert Gervais describe their ambitions as "a delicate balancing act." On the one hand, Kronish says, they'd like to make films that have a broad appeal; on the other, they don't want to make films simply for the sake of a fast buck.

"The last thing we'd want to do is make some low-budget, straight-to-video movie with a B-movie star," says Kronish. "Our mandate has always been to remain autonomous. Not to do stuff just with commercial appeal, but to try to combine originality with success."

When Kronish and Gervais formed Rightime three years ago, Kronish, a philosophy grad from Concordia, says neither of them had much film experience. For their first two years, they championed off-kilter theatre productions, many of which turned out to be critical and commercial successes (including Steve Gallucio's Peter and Paul Get Mary'd and an experimental staging of Macbeth).

Now they are focusing on film work in the wake of their critically acclaimed doc Season of Change, about Jackie Robinson's breaking down of racial barriers in baseball. Currently in production is a documentary on Bran Van 3000; Kronish and Gervais have been following the band around on tours and through meetings with music execs.

"I was surprised at how little fun touring is," Kronish says of the experience of accompanying Bran Van on their European tour. "When I tell people I was actually working while in Europe people roll their eyes like, 'Yeah, right.' But the glamour really disappeared for me. It seemed more like a job than I was expecting it to."

Kronish and Gervais have also spent a great deal of time pouring over screenplay submissions for production consideration (an estimated 200 of them). They have optioned a screenplay by Paul Mason, an adaptation of his own play, The Discipline Committee. Set in an all-boys private school, the film opens with a scene depicting a young boy brutalized by older boys in an apparent ritual. The fallout from the act involves a committee set up to investigate the beating. Kronish and Gervais are currently in the process of choosing a director for the project, and hope to begin the shoot late this summer.

And local screenwriters, listen up: Rightime is always looking for new works to peruse. "We'll accept screenplays from anybody," says Kronish.