Halifax filmmaker gets shortlisted for Academy Award nomination

Ben Proudfoot has found himself among some elite company in Hollywood lately.

After all, with his documentary A Concerto is a Conversation, the Halifax-raised filmmaker has been named to the Oscar nomination shortlist for this year’s upcoming Academy Awards.

“It’s just been really busy so I don’t have a lot of time to sit and revel in the fun of it but it has sunk in a little bit,” says Proudfoot from Los Angeles about the recent announcement. 

“An honour that is so all-consuming such as this has just swiveled my head around because I’m just sort of obsessed with making short documentaries and an award or an honour like this is both thrilling but also kind of unexpected.”

One of only ten films to make the esteemed shortlist (whittled down from 114 qualified entrants), A Concerto is a Conversation is just one of many projects that Proudfoot’s company Breakwater Studios consistently produces each year.

In this case, the 13-minute film has struck a chord with audiences and the Academy voters by capturing an intimate connection between successful film composer Kris Bowers (who also co-directed and co-produced the film) and his 91-year-old grandfather.

“People are just responding to Horace Bowers’s story. And it’s an important story but it’s also a year when we feel thirsty to connect with our parents and grandparents because we haven’t been able to see them,” says Proudfoot of the emotional documentary that features Kris Bowers interviewing his grandfather about the struggles he endured to escape Jim Crow-era Florida to start a new life in Los Angeles.

Once in California, Horace Bowers proceeded to overcome several different types of racial obstacles to succeed in running a dry cleaning business and raise a family.

“The big comment that we get is that people want to pick up the phone and call their grandparents (and) that’s a pretty good call to action,” says Proudfoot. “If people can walk away from the film wanting to reconnect with their family or their mentors or what have you, that’s a beautiful thing — we need more that.”

The film’s shortlist nomination has particular resonance for Proudfoot as well. 

The Halifax native returned to the city last year for three months as he supported his father’s final fight against cancer. Having eventually lost the battle, A Concerto is a Conversation is a timely and potent reminder of the importance and inevitability of intergenerational ties and roots.

As for Proudfoot, he moved away from Halifax to attend school in California in 2008. Four years later, he would start up Breakwater Studios, a company aimed at producing distinctly humanist short-form brand filmmaking.

“It’s almost impossible to make money making short-form documentary and so you have to configure the perfect conditions to make it happen,” says Proudfoot, who fittingly describes the Breakwater Studios crew as “privateers” in the mainstream film world.

“We’re making it work but there aren’t many companies like us.”

While his headquarters are now fully set up in Tinseltown, Proudfoot ran an East Coast office out of Halifax that focused on more regional content — which included projects like George, a film produced in commemoration of the centennial of the Armistice to end World War I.  That film was showcased at the Halifax Citadel National Historic Site’s Army Museum in 2018.

Unfortunately, Proudfoot had to shut the doors on his Nova Scotia office in 2019 when “the L.A. business just outpaced the Halifax business.”

Still, Proudfoot remains true to his roots.  Even as the young filmmaker awaits for March 15 to find out if A Concerto is a Conversation is among the final five Oscar nominations, Proudfoot insists he will always remain a humble Haligonian through and through.

“Nova Scotia will always be my home,” says Proudfoot. “I might live in Los Angeles and have my company there but in my mind and in my heart, Nova Scotia is who I am.”

Watch A Concerto is a Conversation online at Breakwater Studios website.