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A reunion on the big screen

Matt Cote has spent the last two and a half years completing a film about friendship and life.

Local film maker Matt Cote has spent the last two and a half years writing, filming, editing and creating a full-length independent film called A Date with Ed Reunion Tour, which  will be screened at Bacchus Books on Sunday Nov. 20.

Doors will open at 7 p.m. and film will start at 7:30 p.m. There will be a  question and answer session with the filmmaker after the show.

“It is a feature length documentary that started here in Golden. I finished it in August and have been trying to get it in festivals, market it and build a life for it,” Cote said.

A former student at film school, Cote had taken some time off before starting on any type of film project.

“The idea came from a previous failed idea. I went to film school years ago and afterwards moved to Golden. It was five years before I really felt the draw to try and work creatively again. At the time I was getting into writing and wanted to write a fictional narrative and get my two best friends from university together,” Cote said.

After not being able to bring together everyone for the first project Cote them moved on to another idea.

“I was interested in doing something. This is where the documentary starts out. I got a camera and started rolling. I went and sought these two guys out and in turn it became a reunion, coming of age, difficult passage movie.”

The name of the film comes from a band the friends were in, for one show, during their time together in school.

“It was kind of a joke band that was together for one afternoon but we made reference to it for years. It was sort of a metaphor for the friendship as a whole.”

After talking to his friends for months the plans finally worked out and the group met up in Ontario where they got a car and started the long road trip back west.

Cote says the movie itself looks at the crossroads he had reached in his own life. This point he felt was a place that many people come to but have troubles deciding what to do next.

“I really wanted to take a picture of that. The way I had intended to do that was not at all the way that it came out in the end...Shooting it took about six months and then it took two years to make sense of it. There were many times that I doubted that I had something,” Cote said.

He went on to speak of the failure that came from the original plan, and being open about this failure in the film was a difficult thing for him to do.

Cote is excited for the chance to have a showing locally at Bacchus Books.

“This is really home. This is nerve racking. People know me in a certain light here and the film is revealing. I think the film is not about me but it is filtered through me. Caleb Moss  has always been a huge supporter...Over the years as I have wanted to make creative pursuits a priority in my life. I was in the bookstore almost every day. He was really supportive.”