An Undertaking

The idea for An Undertaking came out of filmmaker Brent Nurse‘s desire to tell a story about an interesting and dark point in Kingston’s history: the fact that we were the unofficial capital of grave robbing in the 1880’s. There was a growing demand at that time for cadavers for the various medical schools from Toronto to New York City. Kingston was a perfect distribution hub for the main medical schools in the area due to its location, large immigrant population and high death rate. Groups of men, called Resurrectionists, profited heavily from the fresh supply of specimens.
Cameron Tomsett came to also love the creepy history of Kingston and developed a strong passion for the project. He teamed up with Brent to help write and create the short film, which was filmed entirely in front of a green screen.  Cameron painstakingly painted in all of the backgrounds and added special techniques to each frame.  Just before this project, they had worked on an experimental short film called MILO with local musician Shaun Weima (Ianspotting, Hoppipolla).  They once again asked Shaun to join them by contributing the music that helps create the atmosphere of the short.
Cameron and Brent received an Ontario Arts Council grant for the project and after years of keeping it to themselves while applying to various festivals, the short film has been released to the public.  Take a few minutes, turn down the lights and have a look.