Producer Amber Ridley and Writer/Director Kourtney Roy have teamed up to make their second feature film, Spiral.
We caught up with Kourtney and Amber in Cannes in May.
HNMAG: How has Cannes gone for you so far?
Kourtney Roy: Really well, it’s our last day. Yesterday we did our pitch for Frontiers Proof of Concept.
HNMAG: That was at the Palais Du Festival.
Amber Ridley: It was, Frontiers puts it on every year. They do seven pitches for proof of concept. Then they have a buyer showcase, which is films that are in post.
HNMAG: Were there a lot of people there?
Kourtney Roy: It was packed. We were standing in the back and people had to wait until others left to get back in.
HNMAG: Were all seven pitches Canadian?
Kourtney Roy: No, international.
Amber Ridley: There were two Canadian teams,
Kourtney Roy:Two Netherlands, I think.
Amber Ridley: Norway, Spanish, Jamaican.
HNMAG: Kourtney, before you moved to Paris, did you speak French?
Kourtney Roy: No, I learned it when I moved here twenty-two years ago.
HNMAG: Was that challenging?
Kourtney Roy: Yeah, definitely. We can do a whole interview about that.
HNMAG: You must have loved it, since you stayed.
Kourtney Roy: I mean it’s a great place. I’m a photographer by trade. I have done commercial photography for work, there is nowhere better.
HNMAG: Amber, you live in Vancouver. Were you from there originally?
Amber Ridley: I grew up in Alberta. Over twenty years ago, I moved to Vancouver.
HNMAG: Amber, you moved to Vancouver just after Kourtney left.
Amber Ridley: It was 2003-2004, we were like ships in the night.
HNMAG: What is happening with your feature film Kryptic?
Amber Ridley: It was released in 2025. It’s in over fifteen territories, including Canada and the US.
HNMAG: Amber, you also produced Exile.
Amber Ridley: Yes.
HNMAG: We had a conversation with the director Jason James in March of 2024. Kourtney, how did you meet Amber?
Kourtney Roy: It was quite serendipitous. I was working with Paul Bromley, the writer for Kryptic. I didn’t work in cinema before that. I had no contacts in the industry. I called a friend of mine who had a production company in Paris for commercials. I asked for his advice and he had a friend Maxime Jeune, a great director in Canada. We had a Skype call and he braced me to have patience. He knew a producer who does great work with independent film on low budgets. That was Josh Huculiak. I emailed my pitch and script to Josh. A week later, he wrote back to get on a call and we had three weeks to try for Telefilm and we got it.
Amber Ridley: Josh Huculiak and I have done previous films together. When he got the script, he told me to read it because he knew my tastes and knew I would love it. I did and looked at Kourtney’s photography as well, which is really amazing. We all liked each other on a call. Telefilm can often take a long time but in our case, they funded it.
Kourtney Roy: The first producer we show it to and she’s really good. Ok, we got really lucky.
HNMAG: Spiral is closer to your life experience. Kourtney, how did you develop this horror/comedy?
Kourtney Roy: I don’t think in terms of genre. There are more ideas that I want to develop. I spoek to Amber about how we label it. It’s kind of satirical, psychological horror.
HNMAG: American Psycho might be labeled the same way.
Kourtney Roy: That’s one of our references. It’s Substance meets American Psycho.
HNMAG: Does Spiral lean more into the Dark Comedy?
Kourtney Roy: Yes. It’s definitely satirical and dark. It pokes a bit of fun at the art world as well. The mass narcissism of being an artist. Doing what ever it takes to become famous as an artist.
HNMAG: Would a serial killer also be a narcissist?
Kourtney Roy: I think that would be one of the prerequisites.
HNMAG: Was Kryptic set in BC?
Kourtney Roy: Yes, it was set in Hope.
HNMAG: First Blood was shot in Hope but in your movie Hope gets to play Hope. We haven’t seen that before. Vancouver doesn’t get to play Vancouver as much as it should.
Amber Ridley: It’s such a big service town. Vancouver is usually doubling for bigger American cities.
HNMAG: It’s nice that trend is moving more to Canadian self-representation.
Kourtney Roy: There was a scene with money and it’s Canadian money because it’s a Canadian film, set in Canada. We don’t need to hide anything. We didn’t pull back the flag or change the mailboxes.
HNMAG: If it’s a good movie, audiences don’t get turned off by seeing anything Canadian.
Amber Ridley: I’ve been making Canadian movies for so long. Use the location as is. It’s also nice for the creative too. If you go too generic for a mass audience, you are losing something in your story. Specificity is really important.
Kourtney Roy: A sense of place and the spirit of a place is very important to my work.
HNMAG: Spiral will be set in Paris.
Kourtney Roy: Yes. It’s set in Paris but whether we shoot in Paris in another question.
HNMAG: Is it difficult to shoot in Paris?
Amber Ridley: That’s what we’re trying to find out but I assume it is. I’m sure it’s not cheap or simple but that’s what we’ll find out when we get partners on board.
HNMAG: Sometimes setting your movie in a specific place can act as selling point for that place like Midnight In Paris was for Paris many years ago.
Kourtney Roy: We definitely have an aura of Paris but it’s more of an anti-fairytale vision. There is a dark, seedy underside to it. That’s more of what I’m exploring.
HNMAG: When do you hope to go to camera?
Amber Ridley: We’re early stages right now. There are a few funding processes we need to go through. An educated guess would be later 2027.
HNMAG: Would you want to shoot in December in Paris?
Kourtney Roy: I’d be fine with it but I’m imagining a bit more Autumn or Spring. Paris isn’t horrible weather in winter.
HNMAG: It’s not Montreal.
Kourtney Roy: Yeah, it’s very adaptable. There is a lot happening then but it’s more indoors like art galleries and bars.
Amber Ridley: True, that would be a lot of interiors.
Kourtney Roy: We could adapt depending on what works for us with the practicals. In the summer, never shoot in August anyway. It’s tourist season.
HNMAG: Will your film be in English, French or both?
Kourtney Roy: It’s primarily English. The main character is Canadian. When she is interating with some colleagues, it will be in French. Many people in France who work in the arts, do speak English.
HNMAG: Is there something that is a really good takeaway from your pitch?
Kourtney Roy: Yes, I start with three questions. 1. Are you into seeing a grown woman copulate with a giant lobster? 2. Do you crave watching someone snort cocaine off their dead dad’s penis? 3. Do you dream of being erotically chocked to death by a giant octopus? If you answered yes, Spiral might be for you.
Here are three questions for you as a supporter of Canadian Film and TV.
- Do you want to see more movies set in Canada?
- Are you intrigued to see a dark comedy about a serial killer in Paris?
- Will you do what you can to lobby the powers that be to make that happen?
Kourtney Roy has a very clear vision that she has developed over the years working as a professional photographer. She has a unique experience as a Canadian working and living in Paris for over twenty years.
It’s amazing that she has connected with a wonderful producer in Amber Ridley who moved to the city where she grew up, are physically on the other side of the world now but work together. We have a feeling that Spiral will also be seen around the world and bring Canadian stories to the forefront for international audiences.