Issues

Broke and unemployed, Rachel is suddenly thrust into a world of fame and fashion when she begrudgingly agrees to take photos at a swanky celebrity event.

Her best friend takes Rachel’s seemingly innocent party pic and spins it salaciously, pinning Rachel as an overnight viral sensation and leaving her to ask: is there a future in celebrity photography or is it a recipe for a disastrous trip down the rabbit hole?

Produced with a grant awarded by bravoFACT (Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent), a division of Bell Media Inc.

Creative team

Writers: Kent Nolan, Jonathan Logan Director: Kent Nolan Co-producers: Katherine Barrell, Tommy Lioutas

Filmmaker’s statement

“In making Issues our team had a few major goals in mind: taking what we were typically seeing on Canadian television and branching out; breaking the mould by creating a short that was a little more slick and fast-paced; something that would resonate with a younger crowd while staying intelligent and witty enough for a mature audience; and shedding light on what we were experiencing being in our mid-twenties.

I recall telling my parents that at the heart of Issues is an extremely ambitious young woman suffering a quarter-life crisis. They asked me what that was. The more I discussed this idea with peers the more it occurred to me that many of those who hadn’t of heard of the concept of a Canadian star system also hadn’t heard of the concept of Generation Y’s ‘quarter life crisis.’ This lit a fire in me, and suddenly I didn’t just want to tell this story, I knew I had to.

Issues is our endeavour to dig into the ongoing moral struggle we face when realizing that the job we dreamed of may not be our dream job and that – like ourselves – Canada is on the precipice of a very big shift (depicted here in our entertainment industry). Also we like to make people laugh. So there is that too.”

About Kent Nolan

Born and raised in Regina Saskatchewan, Kent Nolan is an actor and filmmaker.

Kent began studying drama, dance and voice in theatre when he was just five years old, eventually moving into film by age 12.

At 16 Kent wrote and directed his first award-winning short film: a thriller entitled Presage which led to a love of filmmaking. After he graduated high school, Kent took a break from directing and moved to Toronto to train in classical acting at the prestigious George Brown Theatre School.

In 2013, Kent wrote, directed and co-produced the short film Issues for bravoFACT. He is currently hard at work directing his second bravoFACT film Mature Young Adults, a romantic coming-of-age story and developing his first feature film, Portent, a horrifically dark comedy.

Some of his career highlights include working with Terry Gilliam, John N. Smith and Jennifer and David Lynch, as well as starring in the feature Stage Fright by Sundance award winner, Jerome Sable.