''Blue Skies'' is a Canadian short drama film, directed by

Ann Marie Fleming Ann Marie Fleming is an independent Canadian filmmaker, writer, and visual artist. She was born in Okinawa, USCAR (nowadays Japan), in 1962 and is of Chinese, Ryukyuan and Australian descent. Her film ''Window Horses'' was released in 2016. He ...

and released in 2002.Andrew McIntosh
"Blue Skies"
'' Canadian Film Encyclopedia''. Created as a personal response to the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...

and told without dialogue, the film stars

Alessandro Juliani Alessandro Juliani (born July 6) is a Canadian actor and singer. He is notable for playing the roles of Tactical Officer Lieutenant Felix Gaeta on the Sci-Fi Channel television program ''Battlestar Galactica'', Emil Hamilton in ''Smallville'', Ja ...

as a

Chinese opera Traditional Chinese opera (), or ''Xiqu'', is a form of musical theatre in China with roots going back to the early periods in China. It is an amalgamation of various art forms that existed in ancient China, and evolved gradually over more tha ...

performer who cannot stop crying in his dressing room, and

Stephanie Morgenstern Stephanie Morgenstern is a Canadian actress, filmmaker, and screenwriter for television and film. She has worked extensively on stage, film, and television in both English and French. Her most widely seen feature film credits have been '' The S ...

as a costume master who patiently dresses him and calms him down before his scheduled performance of

Irving Berlin Irving Berlin (born Israel Beilin; yi, ישראל ביילין; May 11, 1888 – September 22, 1989) was a Russian-American composer, songwriter and lyricist. His music forms a large part of the Great American Songbook. Born in Imperial Russi ...

's song " Blue Skies". The film premiered in August 2002 at the

Montreal World Film Festival The Montreal World Film Festival (WFF; french: le Festival des Films du Monde) was one of Canada's oldest international film festivals and the only competitive film festival in North America accredited by the FIAPF (although the Toronto Internat ...

. It was subsequently screened at the

2002 Toronto International Film Festival The 27th Toronto International Film Festival ran from September 5 to September 17 and screened 343 films from 50 countries. Of these 263 were feature films, of which 141 were in a language other than English. The ten-day festival opened with Atom ...

, where it was named the winner of the Best Canadian Short Film award. It was a

Genie Award The Genie Awards were given out annually by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to recognize the best of Canadian cinema from 1980–2012. They succeeded the Canadian Film Awards (1949–1978; also known as the "Etrog Awards," for scu ...

nominee for Best Live Action Short Drama at the

23rd Genie Awards The 23rd Genie Awards were held in 2003 to honour films released in 2002. The ceremony was hosted by Arsinée Khanjian and Peter Keleghan. Nominees and winners The Genie Award winner in each category is shown in bold text. References {{Cana ...

in 2003.Tamsen Tillson
"Genies grant ‘Ararat’ wish"
''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'', December 10, 2002.

References

External links

* 2002 films 2002 short films Canadian drama short films 2000s Canadian films Films about Asian Canadians Films directed by Ann Marie Fleming {{2000s-Canada-film-stub