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TREEVENGE details the experiences and horrifying reality of the lives of Christmas trees. Clearly, for trees, Christmas isn’t the exciting “peace on earth” that is experienced by most. After being hacked down, and shipped away from their homes, they quickly become strung up, screwed into an upright position for all to see, exposed in a humiliation of garish decorations. But this Christmas will be different, this Christmas the trees have had enough, this Christmas the trees will fight back. TREEVENGE could be a short film about the end of days for Christmas trees, or perhaps, the end of humanity?
TREEVENGE is the follow up short film from Yer Dead Productions Inc. The creative team that produced & directed last years award winning, and notorious Grindhouse trailer, Hobo with a Shotgun. The film was conceived during the filming of Hobo by producer Rob Cotterill & director Jason Eisener who fielded the idea back and forth in their few moments of spare time. Put on the back burner while dealing with the successes of Hobo, Jason & Rob decided to start shooting this new short film while continuing to work on drafts of a Hobo feature with their writing partner John Davies. So as John continued to work on the feature, Rob & Jason wrote and began the planning of TREEVENGE. The shooting began in November and continued on weekends as cast & crew were available. The shoot took a total of ten days and ended in late February 2008. Post production started immediately and the film was completed in June 2008. The film stars Trailer Park Boys regulars Jonathan Torrens & Sarah Dunsworth, as well as Lexx creator/ writer - Lex Gigeroff. TREEVENGE is a film that looks way beyond its incredibly low budget; and couldn’t have been possible without the pool of Halifax industry professionals and businesses that gave their time, equipment and patience beyond the call of duty.
Rob Cotterill has been working in film since 1994, starting while going to Concordia University in Montreal. His first taste of working on a film set was on Karim Hussein’s “Subconscious Cruelty” and after he worked on several of Mitch Davis’ projects at Infliction Films. After completing school, Rob began working in the industry as an Assistant Director and still does. Through fate, on the set of Trailer Park Boys, Rob met Jason Eisener, whom he quickly forgot until a year later, when they met again, and began talking about making films. A partnership was born, beginning with the still in production documentary about Halifax’s Pink Velvet Burlesque Troop, and later with the collaboration on Hobo With A Shotgun. Recently, Eisener & Cotterill just finished production of a new short film, “Treevenge” about Christmas trees taking back their freedom on Christmas morning. So now with a strong creative team, including Jason & writer John Davies, the trio have a slew of projects in various stages of development and they plan to take Halifax over by force.
Ever since Jason Eisener can remember, movies have been a huge part of his life. Dartmouth, littered with pawnshops, served as a gold mine for a young horror/sci-fi obsessed fan & emerging filmmaker. Spending his time, & wetting his appetite on any genre movie he could find, it wasn’t long until he decided to buy a video camera. Jason soon began creating his own films with high school becoming his testing grounds; quickly, he realized that he wanted to entertain people through film for a living. Jason went on to enroll into the Screen Arts program at the Nova Scotia Community College where he learned every aspect of the film industry, which helped prepare him & the world for his 60-minute film “Fist of Death.” This zombie action thriller was played to a sold out audience at the Oxford Theater in 2003, and went on to play at numerous universities across Canada. With underground success Jason was inspired for his follow up film “The Teeth Beneath.” With a budget of $300, this 45 minute film, went on to exceed any of his expectations, selling out the premiere and his showing at The Atlantic Film Festival. The Coast Magazine recognized it as best local film, and it put Eisener on the Chronicle Herald’s 2005 honor roll for having such contribution to the art scene in Halifax. Continuing his successes, Jason, in collaboration with Angus Swantee, won an Award for Best Direction at the 2006 AFCOOP Awards. In 2007 Jason collaborated with Rob Cotterill and John Davies to make the fake trailer, “Hobo With a Shotgun” which went on to win the SXSW Robert Rodriguez Grindhouse Trailer Competition. With it’s huge following & support, Alliance Atlantis distributed the trailer theatrically, and was shown in 186 theatres across Canada, along with Robert Rodriquez and Quentin Tarantino’s film "Grindhouse".
